UGO CIVIDINO – Artistic Biography
Born in Udine in 1947, Ugo Cividino graduated with honours in piano from Udine’s Istituto Musicale Pareggiato “J. Tomadini”, as it was then known, and went to Vienna to attend the Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst which later became Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. During the ten years spent in the Austrian capital he attended courses to perfect his piano skills with Professor Walter Panhofer, a famous member of the Vienna Octet, as well as courses on chamber music, electronic music and sound techniques in addition to several semesters of orchestra direction with Hans Swarowsky.
He has been giving solo performances since 1967 in Austria, Germany and Italy, which he has progressively chosen to focus on chamber music. The most intense period in this new phase of his artistic development began in 1972 with his predilection for trios, quartets and in particular quintets involving string instruments, enabling him to collaborate with musicians in various countries including Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden, Poland, Iran and Japan.
In 1980 he began concentrating on piano duos (with two pianos) with his wife, Franca Bertoli. In this context he was a guest artist at numerous international festivals, concerts and cultural organisations throughout Europe including: the piano festival “la Roque d’Anthéron” in Wimbledon (London), Conservatoire Superieure de Musique in in Lyon, the Zagabria Music Festival, the Music Academy in Oslo, the Salamanca Conservatory, the Hoschschulen in Graz, Salzburg and Vienna, ORF (Radio Austria) in a live concert for two pianos, Radio TV Croatia (two concerts retransmitted in their entirety at a distance of a few hours as well as a concert on TV).
Also as a piano duo he has made a CD in Hannover of selections by Martinu, Brahms and J Françaix and is in the course of preparing a new CD for two pianos with music by Saint-Saėns, Grieg and Brahms. He is actively involved in teaching and coaching chamber music students in Austria, France, Spain, Croatia, Portugal and Italy. In recent years, together with Franca Bertoli, he had the opportunity to teach a masterclass and play concerts at the University of Houston in Texas, both in piano duo and in piano quintet.
In addition to the Udine Conservatory where he has been teaching since 1969, in 1976 he founded and remains the director of the “Centro Ricerca Divulgazione Musicale” in Udine, which is a non profit group created, according to its statutes, to further the artistic skills of young musicians by giving them opportunities for exchanges and to attend seminars given by world famous teachers.
Since 1989 he has been responsible for the expansion and safeguarding of the principles of the Willems® method of musical education in Italy, an international mandate he received from the Willems® International Federation, of which he is the Vice President.
Since 1989 entrusted by the Federation Internationale Willems®, Ugo Cividino and his wife Franca are in charge of the preparation of new teachers towards the Willems® Pedagogic Diploma and of the Willems® Certificate both in Italy as well as in Austria and Slovenija.
He gives courses on psychoeducation and the propaedeutics of the teaching of music at various foreign universities and conservatries in Italy. As a teacher, is also responsible for many courses on teaching music and advanced piano skills at the Eisenstadt Conservatory (Austria) and the Glasbena Sola in Lubiana (SLO).
In 2004 as a result of a project to educate young school children in the language of music, he received a silver medal from the President of the Italian Republic, C A Ciampi.
Ugo maintains close artistic contacts with many artists and professors at European institutes including the Madrid and Oslo Music Academies, Hoschshule in Hannover, Aachen, Karlsruhe, Salzburg, Graz, Linz, Vienna, the Conservatories of Salamanca, Versailles, Paris, Lyon, Prague, Lubiana and Zabreg and the College of Music in London, Houston University Texas. He has been a speaker at many international conferences on the teaching of music held at various universities (Bicocca – Milan).
Since 1988 he has been a member of ISME of London (International Society of Music Education) and took part in the foundation of the Austrian and Norwegian sections of the EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association) with his own artistic contributions. In Oslo he presented Gradus ad Panassum by M.Clementi playing wholly and in part 34 pieces.)
Making use of his linguistic skills, he has translated numerous treatises and articles about music from French and German. He edits the works of the Swiss publisher Pro Musica for Italy. He has composed several pieces of chamber music and has published technical papers on musical research.
Ugo has been a member of Lions Club International since 1982.
At the Conservatorio di Udine, he was the Lecturer for Principal Piano and responsible for the special course on Piano Duos (2 pianos and piano for 4 hands) as well as the special chair for “Techniques of Audio Recording, Reproduction and Post Production”.
Summary
Nationality: Italian
Foreign languages: French, German
Specialised Piano Repertory: neoclassical Viennese, pre-romanticism and romanticism
Chamber music focusing on the Piano
Piano duos (two pianos and four hands)
Psychology of education and propaedeutics in the context of the teaching of music
Musical Education
Preparation of Teachers of Musical Education
Publication of Music
Graphics in the Publication of Music
Translations from French and German
Sound Technician