Sergio Gallo

A Steinway artist, Sergio Gallo specializes in the repertoire of the Romantic period, especially Liszt and his contemporaries, including Schumann, Henselt, Brahms, and Chopin. He has also championed the work of composers in Brazil, the nation of his birth.

Gallo has recorded several acclaimed CD’s for the Eroica label, with forthcoming projects on the Naxos, Grand Piano and Quartz labels. Sergio Gallo’s recent release of Liszt’s transcriptions of operas by Meyerbeer received a four star rating from BBC Magazine. His recent recording of music by Villa-Lobos garnered high praise from Gramophone magazine: “splendid playing of a lively programme . . . [a] nuanced performance . . . played with exceptional artistry”) and Bradley Bolen wrote in American Record Guide: “It is hard to imagine a pianist leaving me with a more intense feeling of nobility.” In 2011, Gallo won the Global Music Award of Excellence for his album Mostly Villa-Lobos: 20th Century Piano Music from the Americas.

Gallo has performed with orchestras throughout the Americas and worldwide. In the last decade, he has performed in Turkey, Brazil, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Serbia, Portugal, Korea, Taiwan, Canada and China, as well as in recitals given across the United States. Since his Brazilian national radio debut in 1986 on Radio Cultura, São Paulo and his European radio debut in 1988 on Radio France, Paris, Gallo’s performances have been regularly played on classical music radio outlets around the world. His performances of Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasy L.123, Schumann’s Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Minor, Op. 23 were highlighted in 2011 Atlanta symphonic performances.

Sergio Gallo is the winner of concerto competitions of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and of the University Symphony in Santa Barbara. He has received a grant from the Henry Cowell Incentive Funds at the American Music Center in New York to record works by Cowell, and this recording has been featured in the program “Piano Matters” with David Dubal. Gallo twice received a Challenge America Fast-Track Grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Gallo earned the Diplôme d’Excellence at the Conservatoire Européen de Musique de Paris, a Post-Graduate Certificate at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, an M.M. and Artist Diploma at the University of Cincinnati; and the Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1998. Gallo took part in the Daniel Barenboim Workshop for Pianists and Conductors at Carnegie Hall in 2000, and participated in the Orchestra Stabile Summer Festival in Bergamo, Italy, the Sergei Rachmaninoff International Courses in Piano Performance in Tambov, Russia and the Seminaire Jean Fassina in Paris. He is Professor of Piano Performance at Georgia State University in Atlanta, and is an affiliated artist of the Rocky Ridge Music Academy in Estes Park, Colorado.