Sergio Calligaris

Topics: Argentine composers

Sergio Calligaris is a pianist, composer and piano teacher born in Rosario on January 22, 1941. After living and tutoring in the United States, where he gained his doctorate in music, Calligaris established his residence in Italy in 1974.

Calligaris career as a performer started at the age of thirteen. He pursued his studies under the guidance of such masters as Jorge Fanelli, Arthur Loesser, Adele Marcus, Nikita Magaloff, and Guido Agosti.

Calligaris technique is characterised by the sheer brilliance and powerful touch typical of the Leschetizky school; Theodor Leschetitzky : great Austrian pianist and famous pedagogue. Leschetitzky settled in Vienna in 1878, where he developed his own school of piano. His fame grew, and pupils flocked from all over the world to his studio. His most celebrated pupil was Paderewski: other pupils were Gabrilowitsch, Schnabel, Hambourg, Leginska and Bloomfield-Zeisler. His method of playing with the "Kugelhand" (arched hand) was to secure fullness of tone and finger dexterity, with the flexible wrist reserved for octave playing and chord passages (Slonimsky 1984).