Leonardo Colafelice was born in 1995 in Altamura, in southern Italy. He began to study piano at the age of eight. Currently he is a fourth year High School student at the Niccolò Piccinni Conservatory of Music in Bari, where he is a pupil of Pasquale Iannone.
In 2012, Leonardo won the Gold Medal at the Gina Bachauer Young Artists International Piano Competition, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Subsequently, he also earned First Prize at the Thomas & Evon Cooper International Competition held in Oberlin, Ohio, and the Gold Medal at the Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition in Rochester, NY. He is also the First Prize winner of numerous other international piano competitions, including the Young Pianist of the North International Piano Competition in Newcastle (UK), the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Young Artists in Szafarnia (POL), the Concours Musical de France in Paris, the International Tournament of Music (TIM) in Verona (ITA), and the Premio Città di Padova in Padova (ITA). Leonardo has also attended piano master classes and courses with Aldo Ciccolini and Marisa Somma.
Leonardo Colafelice has been a solo artist with numerous orchestras in Italy as well as in the United States, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra della Provincia di Bari, Balkan Festival Orchestra, Collegium Musicum, Orchestra del Conservatorio “N. Piccinni” di Bari, Eurorchestra, and Orchestra “S. Mercadante”. He has performed under the baton of conductors including Jahja Ling, Neil Varon, Michele Marvulli, Ovidiu Balan, Rino Marrone, Massimo Mazza and Rino Campanale.
