Since his victory at the 1997 Naumburg International Piano Competition in New York City,
Anthony Molinaro's stunning performances and unique versatility have captivated audiences and
critics alike. Acclaimed for his "edge-of-the-seat brilliance" and "musically imaginative mind," Mr.
Molinaro's performances have taken him to major music centers throughout the country including
Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, and New York's Alice
Tully Hall and Chicago's Symphony Center. He has been featured on Ravinia's Rising Stars
Series, The Young Artist Series at the Kravis Center, The Santa Fe Jazz Festival, The Toronto
Jazz Festival, The Charles Vanda Master Series in Las Vegas, The Grand Teton Music Festival
and Eastern Music Festival among many others. He has appeared as guest soloist with over fifty
symphony orchestras including the Arkansas, Boise, Lake Forest, Louisville, Napa Valley, Naples,
Richmond, and Syracuse Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed with the Canton, Cape
Cod, Eugene, Flint, Savannah and Catskill Symphonies as well as with the Chicago Sinfonietta,
Chicago Jazz Orchestra and Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra. Outside the U.S. Anthony has
recently concertized in France, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland,
Austria and Canada.
In addition to his traditional concert repertoire, Mr. Molinaro is also a gifted composer and jazz
artist, giving him a musical dimension uncommon to artists of his generation. He often plays his
own cadenzas in Mozart and Beethoven concerti, and his "free-wheeling" and "unconventional"
rendition of Rhapsody in Blue features improvised cadenzas. In November 2004 he premiered
his first Piano Concerto with the Catskill Symphony and later that year debuted his band
arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue with The Chicago Jazz Orchestra.
Mr. Molinaro records exclusively for Nineteen-Eight Records, a label he founded in 2001 to
support creative music of all genres. His debut CD, The Bach Sessions features The Goldberg
Variations and the F Minor and A Major Concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Chamber Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton. His wildly popular follow-up recording, New
Blue, is a Gershwin album featuring his own solo version of Rhapsody in Blue as well as
arrangements and improvisations on the Gershwin classics Summertime, Someone To Watch
Over Me, Embraceable You, and I Got Rhythm. His collaboration with the harmonica virtuoso
Howard Levy was highlighted by a live recording from the famed Green Mill Jazz Club in Chicago
and his latest recording, Canto Per Mio Padre, features music of Schubert / Liszt, Brahms,
Rachmaninoff, Debussy.
Mr. Molinaro has performed on PBS, WTTW's Chicago Tonight and on the popular Italian
program Il Senso della Vita. He has been featured in numerous publications including the
Chicago Tribune, New York Times and Downbeat magazine and was recently profiled in the book,
The New Face of Jazz (2010).
Mr. Molinaro lives in his native Chicago where he is an Assistant Professor of Music at Loyola
University. He studied at the University of North Texas and Northwestern University and has won
several awards in addition to the Naumburg Prize, most notably the William C. Byrd International
Piano Competition and the 1995 National Piano Fellowship from the American Pianist
Association. When not concertizing, Anthony devotes considerable time to music education and
for three summers coordinated a music program for physically challenged children in South
Hampton, New York. He is also an avid runner and triathlete.
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