Enrico Elisi

A laureate of the Porto International Competition (Portugal) and the Premio Venezia (Italy), Enrico Elisi has garnered international acclaim, performing across four continents. Critics have praised his "mastery of elegance, refinement, and fantasy" (La Nueva España) and "remarkable sensitivity, imagination, and polish" (The Baltimore Sun). Leon Fleisher hailed him as "a highly gifted, serious, and accomplished musician [whose] playing is characterized by a keen awareness of the elements of music that set the great artist apart from the pedestrian performer," and Lazar Berman noted, "Elisi's playing reveals a refined sense of style and a noble personality."

In Italy, he has appeared at La Fenice (Venice), Palazzo Vecchio (Florence), the Pavarotti-Freni Opera House (Modena), the Bibiena Theatre (Mantua), and other key venues across Padua, Crema, Bologna, and Naples. Elsewhere in Europe, Elisi has performed at the Bemberg Museum in Toulouse, Centro del Carmen in Valencia, the Dante Society in Bonn, Wolfsburg Castle, the Bach-Saal at Kiel Universität, and the Cyril and Methodius Foundation in Piestany. His engagements across Asia include recitals in Japan, South Korea (IBK Hall, Seoul), China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Singapore. In the Americas, he has performed at the Centro Cultural de España in Lima, the Banff Centre, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Toronto. In the United States, highlights include the National Gallery of Art, the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Chopin Society in San Francisco, the New York Public Library, Morgan Library, and featured appearances at state conferences of the Florida, Missouri, and Oklahoma Music Teachers Associations.

Elisi has performed with the China Conservatory Symphony, Jakarta Sinfonietta, Orchestra Classica de Porto, Florence Symphony, Bay Atlantic Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, Williamsport Symphony, Pennsylvania Chamber, and the TCU and Round Rock Symphony Orchestras, collaborating with conductors including M. Nawri, J. Gaylin, G. Edelstein, I. Sudarno, and G. Gutiérrez. Recent concerto highlights include works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and two-piano concertos by Poulenc, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, performed with Mengyang Pan, John Owings, and Anton Nel. His recent recital programs have encompassed chamber music by Debussy, as well as duo concerts in Switzerland, the USA, the UK, Indonesia, South Korea, and China.

An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with the New Orford String Quartet, principal players from the Baltimore, Chicago, and American Symphony Orchestras, as well as We Soloists in Seoul. Elisi has performed with violinists Joan Kwuon, Charles Castleman, Lorenz Gamma, Qian Zhou, and Federico Agostini, leader of I Musici; violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez of the Fine Arts Quartet; and cellists Ben Hong and Sung-Won Yang. His performances have aired on Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (Portugal), WPSU (USA), UNC (USA), KCNV Nevada Public Radio (USA), KGCS (USA), WCLV Cleveland (USA), Radio Montebeni (Italy), and Via Classica Radio (Germany).

Active in new music, Elisi has premiered works by Jorge Grossmann, Kye Ryung Park, and Paul Chihara (who also dedicated a composition to him and whose premiere of Two Images is available on Albany Records), and performed works by Berio, Sciarrino, and Fedele at the University of Toronto's New Music Festival.

A frequent guest at international festivals, he teaches and performs at PianoTexas, Art of the Piano, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Bay PianoFest, RPPF, Texas State, and the Chautauqua Institution (USA); the Vancouver Piano Sessions (Canada); VIPA Valencia (Spain); Todi Music Masters, Conero, Amalfi Coast, and Brancaleoni Festivals (Italy); Borromeo (Switzerland); The Thinking Pianist (UK); and the Ameri-China Foundation and Sichuan International Piano Festival (China).

An experienced adjudicator, Elisi has served on juries for major competitions in the United States (Murdock, PianoTexas, Peabody Yale Gordon, Weatherford, Iowa, SMU Concerto, Dallas International), Canada (Stepping Stone, Glenn Gould School Concerto), and the Pacific Rim (Australia, New Zealand), as well as in Italy (Nuova Coppa Pianisti, Palma d'Oro — both as jury chair).

He holds the Harold D. and Imogene Herndon Endowed Professorship in Piano at Texas Christian University. He has previously served on the faculties of the University of Toronto (award-winning teacher), Eastman School, Penn State University, and UNLV. Elisi was a visiting professor at Hanyang University and a Leading Scholar at Ewha Womans University (Korea) and has taught masterclasses worldwide, including the United States, Canada, Peru, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and Korea. His students have won prizes, received grants, and hold teaching positions internationally.

Dr. Elisi has led interactive workshops, including Effective Memorization Strategies for Pianists (Mental Practice), at Pinerolo Accademia di Musica and Piacenza Conservatory (Italy); Trinity Laban, Royal College of Music, and Royal Northern College of Music (UK); Universitas Pelita Harapan (Indonesia); and Missouri State, Southern Methodist, and Texas Woman's Universities (USA). As Yellow Barn Festival Artist-in-Residence, he presented a recital of J.S. Bach works and offered insights on Baroque ornamentation and articulation.

In 2023, Elisi co-founded the Elisi-Pan Duo with Mengyang Pan, performing two-piano and four-hand repertoire while holding residencies and offering educational projects worldwide. In 2025, they taught masterclasses in Surabaya and Jakarta (Indonesia) and toured Texas, performing and teaching at Baylor University, Southern Methodist University, Weatherford College, and TCU. Their past performances include Xinghai and Harbin Conservatories (China), Steinway Hall in Shun Yi, Cavendish Concert Hall (China), Spring x Tsing Hua Arts Festival at National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan), Cheltenham Ladies' College (UK), Conero International Piano Festival (Italy), Clayes Performing Arts Center (CSU Fullerton), Texas State University, Steinway Gallery in Austin (USA), and Goethehaus (Jakarta, Indonesia).

Enrico Elisi studied at the Conservatories of Bologna and Florence, the International Piano Academy of Imola, and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. His teachers included Giuseppe Fricelli, Lazar Berman, Boris Petrushansky, Alexander Lonquich, and Leon Fleisher, whom he served as an assistant. Boris Slutsky provided pivotal mentorship, and Robert McDonald, Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, and Claude Frank guided his chamber music training at the Taos and Ravinia Festivals.

Elisi became a citizen of the United States of America in 2012 and is a Steinway Artist.