FEATURED ARTIST
Paolo Gualdi, piano
Saturday, October 2, 2021
7:30 PM • Wilson Center
Tickets starting at $25.
7:30 PM • Wilson Center
Tickets starting at $25.
Steven Errante, conductor
We are thrilled and delighted to have one of our own, world-renowned pianist, Paolo Gualdi, kick off the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Season! Serving as UNCW’s Visiting Artist in Music, Paolo has dazzled audiences around the world. Paolo will perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Come and see why Charleston’s Post and Courier reported, “He had his audience under his complete control. You really almost have to sit on your hands to keep from applauding until the end.”
Also featured on the concert is Georges Bizet's Symphony in C, written when Bizet was a 17-year-old student and rediscovered in 1933 becoming one of his most popular works due to its precocious invention and charm.
CLICK HERE to read the Conductor's Notes.
Also featured on the concert is Georges Bizet's Symphony in C, written when Bizet was a 17-year-old student and rediscovered in 1933 becoming one of his most popular works due to its precocious invention and charm.
CLICK HERE to read the Conductor's Notes.

PAOLO ANDRÉ GUALDI
Italian pianist Paolo André Gualdi has performed in the US and abroad for music organizations such as Accademia Amadeus (Italy); Cadogan Hall (UK); Musée Würth (France); Xinghai Hall and University of Shanghai (China); Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil); Fundación Pablo Atchugarry and SODRE (Uruguay); International Piano Series of Charleston, American Liszt Society and Piatigorsky Foundation (U.S.A.). He has also appeared with many orchestras including the Georgia Philharmonic, Atlanta Philharmonic, and the Universidade de Caxias do Sul Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded for Mark Records and IFO Classics, and his performances have been broadcasted by radios such as BBC, NPR, Clásica 650 and Radio Vaticana.
Gualdi began studying piano with his father at the age of five, and continued at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy, with Carmela Pistillo. He earned his Piano Diploma with highest honors at the Conservatory Arrigo Boito in Parma under the guidance of Roberto Cappello. While in the U.S., he earned a Master Degree at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Georgia. Gualdi worked extensively with Carlo Maria Dominici, Enrique Graf, and Evgeny Rivkin, and took part in master classes with György Sandor, Earl Wild, Sergio Perticaroli and Menahem Pressler among others.
He has won the top prize in numerous piano competitions, including the European Competition of Ostuni, the Altruda National Competition of Vasto and the Françoise Grimaldi National Competition of San Polo. Winning the “De Martino Award” at the Ibla International Piano Competition enabled him to study at Elon University with Victoria Fischer. During this period, he won the First Prize in the 15th Bartók-Kabalevsky International Competition.
Gualdi regularly gives master classes and lectures nationally and internationally at universities, conservatories and other music institutes, including the New World School of the Arts and College of Charleston (U.S.A.); the federal universities of Porto Alegre, Santa Maria and Pelotas (Brazil); Cittadella della Musica (Italy), and others. He has served on the faculties of Elon University, Emmanuel College and Oxford College of Emory University. He is the founder and artistic director of the South Carolina Chamber Music Festival and is currently Associate Professor of Music at Francis Marion University and on the music faculty at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Italian pianist Paolo André Gualdi has performed in the US and abroad for music organizations such as Accademia Amadeus (Italy); Cadogan Hall (UK); Musée Würth (France); Xinghai Hall and University of Shanghai (China); Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil); Fundación Pablo Atchugarry and SODRE (Uruguay); International Piano Series of Charleston, American Liszt Society and Piatigorsky Foundation (U.S.A.). He has also appeared with many orchestras including the Georgia Philharmonic, Atlanta Philharmonic, and the Universidade de Caxias do Sul Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded for Mark Records and IFO Classics, and his performances have been broadcasted by radios such as BBC, NPR, Clásica 650 and Radio Vaticana.
Gualdi began studying piano with his father at the age of five, and continued at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy, with Carmela Pistillo. He earned his Piano Diploma with highest honors at the Conservatory Arrigo Boito in Parma under the guidance of Roberto Cappello. While in the U.S., he earned a Master Degree at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Georgia. Gualdi worked extensively with Carlo Maria Dominici, Enrique Graf, and Evgeny Rivkin, and took part in master classes with György Sandor, Earl Wild, Sergio Perticaroli and Menahem Pressler among others.
He has won the top prize in numerous piano competitions, including the European Competition of Ostuni, the Altruda National Competition of Vasto and the Françoise Grimaldi National Competition of San Polo. Winning the “De Martino Award” at the Ibla International Piano Competition enabled him to study at Elon University with Victoria Fischer. During this period, he won the First Prize in the 15th Bartók-Kabalevsky International Competition.
Gualdi regularly gives master classes and lectures nationally and internationally at universities, conservatories and other music institutes, including the New World School of the Arts and College of Charleston (U.S.A.); the federal universities of Porto Alegre, Santa Maria and Pelotas (Brazil); Cittadella della Musica (Italy), and others. He has served on the faculties of Elon University, Emmanuel College and Oxford College of Emory University. He is the founder and artistic director of the South Carolina Chamber Music Festival and is currently Associate Professor of Music at Francis Marion University and on the music faculty at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
CLICK HERE to review our COVID-19 policy.