The international press and personalities from across the international musical spectrum have referred to him as: “a musician of great artistic versatility,” “a pianist who can truly make the piano sing,” “a pianist of supreme technique and profound temperament that never descends into the vulgar or pretentious” .
Liev Naumov said “Musically and emotionally he understands everything!”
Joaquín Achúcarro called him “a great musical intelligence,”
Boris Petrushansky labeled him “A genius.”
Raffaele Mani was born in Florence, Italy and took his first piano lesson with Marisa Nencioni Nobili at the age of 13. He graduated from the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory of Florence under the guidance of Lucia Passaglia. From 1991 to 1993 he studied with Liev Naumov at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow, in a program of advanced studies open only to a selected number of students.
In 1994 Raffaele was awarded the “Joel Estes Tate” scholarship and moved to Dallas, Texas in the United States, where he was admitted to the Artist Certificate program of Southern Methodist University and studied with Joaquín Achúcarro. He attended the great Spanish pianist’s Master Classes at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, receiving the “Diploma di Merito” and a scholarship.
In 1996 he was awarded the “Geo Oeldridge Scholarship,” which enabled him to continue his piano and academic studies at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts. In 1998 he received a Master’s degree in Piano Performance and was inducted into the Pi Kappa Lambda music honour society. In the same year in Florence, he was awarded the “Lapi-Hiscott” scholarship.
Raffaele participated in benefit concerts of Amnesty International and the Italian Red Cross and played to raise funds for one of the Comboni Missions in Africa as well as for other youth educational institutions in Germany. In recent years he has been performing for important international concert organisations, in chamber ensembles, in solo recitals and as a soloist with orchestras. Beyond the classical repertory, he has played the complete piano works of Arnold Schoenberg (including the Pierrot Lunaire) and Luigi Dallapiccola (including the Piccolo Concerto per Muriel Couvreux and Inni for three pianos) as well as works by many other twentieth-century composers.
Since 2003, he has lived in Germany and teaches at the Bad Nauheim Music School . In 2007 he recorded world premier in the U.S. of “The Complete Works for Piano and Piano and Orchestra” of Luigi Dallapiccola (META records) with the “Meadows Symphony Orchestra” conducted by Paul Phillips. Critics wrote “Raffaele Mani plays with the highest sensibility” (West Allgemeine Zeitung). The work was one of the best reviewed recordings of the year by the Rondo Music Magazine which said “nomen (est) omen,” or “Dallapiccola’s music lies in the best hands.”
Raffaele’s career now combines performing and teaching. In the past years he has developed a performance method that blends classical concepts of the Russian and Italian Piano Schools with the revolutionary ideas of the unique and outstanding School of Joaquín Achúcarro. His students have been awarded many prizes in German piano and chamber music competitions, including several first prizes in State and Federal final rounds of “Jugend Musiziert.” Several of his pupils now study in some of the most prestigious German and American Universities. His pupil Kevin Burg was a student of Joaquín Achúcarro and his now one of the pianists of Achúcarro’s Legacy of pianists.
In 2008, he assumed the role of Artistic Director and piano teacher of the International Music Seminars “Appassionato.” In 2009 his composition “Preludio d’Autunno” was chosen as soundtrack of a documentary about the life and the works of the Italian painter Antonio Ligabue. He has given Masterclasses in Germany, Austria and Italy.In 2016 Raffaele recorded the Thomas Hanelt’s choral version of 12 songs of Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise” with the Motettenchor Frankfurt.
