Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999 and embarked on a multifaceted career that continues to extend across five continents. A top prize winner at the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition of Paris, France, Antonio Pompa-Baldi also won a silver medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
With a concerto repertoire including more than 60 works, Mr. Pompa-Baldi performed cycles of all the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos, the five Beethoven Piano Concertos, and both Brahms Concertos with various orchestras. He has played recitals in most major venues over the world.
Pompa-Baldi studied with the great Italian pedagogue Annamaria Pennella, whom he credits as his biggest musical influence. He also studied with another great exponent of the Neapolitan school, legendary pianist Aldo Ciccolini. Among other important mentors and musical influences, Pompa-Baldi names Paul Badura-Skoda and Jörg Demus.
Mr.Pompa-Baldi appears at the world’s major concert venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Milan’s Sala Verdi, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Shanghai’s Grand Theatre, and Paris’ Salle Pleyel, to name a few.
He has collaborated with leading conductors including Hans Graf, Krzysztof Urbánski, James Conlon, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Theodore Kuchar, Benjamin Zander, Louis Lane, and Keith Lockhart. He has performed with ensembles and colleagues such as Takacs String Quartet, trumpeter Alison Balsom, cellist Sharon Robinson, violinists Ivan Zenaty and Ilya Kaler, and principals of the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Juilliard Quartet, among others.
Pompa-Baldi is a regular guest at the Lang Lang Festivals in Shenzhen and Hangzhou, China. Recent appearances also include Vienna (Austria), London (UK), Paris (France), New York (USA), Auckland (New Zealand), Jerusalem (Israel), Cape Town (South Africa), China (Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou), as well as Poland, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Spain, and many other places around the globe.
Mr. Pompa-Baldi has recorded 35 CDs to date, for various labels including Centaur Records, Harmonia Mundi, Steinway, TwoPianists, Azica, and Brilliant Classics. Among them, the complete piano and chamber music works of Grieg, the Josef Rheinberger Piano Sonatas, the complete Hummel Piano Sonatas, and CDs dedicated to Brahms, Schumann, Liszt, Respighi, and Rachmaninoff. For the Steinway label, Pompa-Baldi recorded songs by Francis Poulenc and Edith Piaf, arranged for solo piano, as well as a CD titled “Napoli”, which features new piano versions of famous Neapolitan songs, elaborated by Roberto Piana.
Among his latest releases are his transcription for solo piano of the Respighi B minor Violin Sonata, and Suites by Debussy, Luca Moscardi and Barber for piano duo. Recorded with his wife, pianist Emanuela Friscioni, this latest album was published with the title“Suite Nothings” by the Steinway label.
Antonio Pompa-Baldi is a Steinway Artist. He is also a Steinway Recording Artist, as well as one of the most prominently featured artists in the Spirio recording catalogue. Pompa-Baldi is Distinguished Professor of Piano and Artist-in-Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he also serves as head of the Keyboard and Guitar Performance Department. His students have been prizewinners in important competitions such as Marguerite Long, Hilton Head, Isang Yun, and Gina Bachauer. He is regularly invited by the most prestigious competitions as jury member, and is in high demand as a masterclass professor the world over.
In 2015, Pompa-Baldi founded the Todi International Music Masters Festival, where he serves as faculty and Artistic Director. Pompa-Baldi is Vice Director for Education at the Lang Lang Art World institution in Hangzhou, China, and is on the advisory board of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation of New York.
In addition to honorary professorships at the Beijing China Conservatory, Shenyang Conservatory, and various other institutions, in 2025 he was appointed to the “International Chair in Piano” at the “F.A. Bonporti’ Conservatory of Music in Riva del Garda, Italy.
