“A pianist rare in his generation. He does not hold back in his use of the expression pedal, shining above all in the art of singing on the keyboard with an inventiveness of phrasing that demonstrates his exquisite musical intelligence”: Carlo Vitali, Amadeus.
After graduating from the “G. Martucci” Salerno State Conservatoire with top marks and cum laude under the guidance of Luigi D’Ascoli, Costantino Catena continued and completed his piano studies with Konstantin Bogino, Bruno Mezzena and Boris Bechterev. Encounters with Aldo Ciccolini, Michele Campanella and Joaquin Achucarro have also been important landmarks in his musical education.
He has performed in Europe, Australia, U.S.A., Russia and Japan at the invitation of important musical and cultural associations and institutes, including the Philharmonia “D. D. Šostakovič” of St Petersburg, the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, the Kennedy Center and Georgetown University of Washington, Amici del Teatro Regio of Torino, Amici della Musica of Trapani, the Gasteig of Munich, the Auditorium Parco della Musica of Rome, the Teatro dell’Arte della Triennale of Milano, the Società dei Concerti of Milano, the Ravello International Festival, the Filarmonica De Stat Transilvania of Cluj-Napoca, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Kusatsu International Festival, the Ohrid Summer Festival.
Costantino Catena has an intense recording activity: he has recorded for Brilliant Classics, Phoenix Classics, Nuova Era International, Da Vinci Classics and Aulicus Classics labels too: his recordings were often broadcasted in Italy and abroad (RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, NHK Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, RSI Radio della Svizzera Italiana, MR Magyar Rádió) and received excellent reviews from leading magazines and important music critics. For Camerata Tokyo he has recorded works by R. Strauss and Schumann which he performed with Quartetto Savinio, Franz Liszt’s complete works for violin and piano, as well as all of his piano works dedicated to Venezia and Napoli and Saint Francis, and also the Piano Trios and the Sonata in B minor, together with Schumann’s Fantasie.
Active in the field of chamber music, Costantino Catena has collaborated with leading artists such as Alessandro Carbonare, Michele Lomuto, Franco Maggio Ormezowski, Gabriele Geminiani, Saschko Gawriloff, Sabrina-Vivian Höpker, Giovanni Punzi, Davide Alogna, Claudio Casadei, Massimo Quarta, Lynne Dawson, Maja Bogdanovich, Claudio Brizi, Quartetto Savinio.
Alongside his performing activities he graduated in Philosophy at the Salerno University and in Psychology at Naples University, with a particular focus on issues concerning the management of psychological and physiological aspects during musical performance.
Costantino Catena teaches piano at Salerno State Conservatoire and he is official Yamaha Artist. |
