Graduated in the Conservatory very young with full marks, Francesco Nicolosi left his Catania to Naples at the age of seventeen. There he met Vincenzo Vitale, one of the best teachers of the Italian piano tradition. He soon became one of his best students, so that nowadays he is considered as one of the greatest exponents of the Neapolitan piano school.

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The 1980 was an important year with two Awards that would have marked his artistic destiny: the one at the International Piano Competition of Santander and - above all - the victory at the Concours international d’exécution musicale in Geneva which gave rise to an international career that established Francesco Nicolosi as one of the most interesting pianists of his generation.

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He performed in the most important concert halls of the world, e.g. the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Radio Nacional in Madrid, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Teatro alla Scala and the Verdi Hall in Milan, the Opera House and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the Herkulessaal in Monaco, the Brahmssaal in Vienna, the Megaron in Athens, etc.

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As well as touring throughout Europe, he toured in Iceland, Russia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Singapore, Japan and China and he played concerts for the most exclusive festivals, such as: Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto, Rossini Opera Festival, Ravenna Festival, Ravello Festival, Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo, Sorrentina Summer Music, Taormina Teatro Musica, Stresa Music Weeks, September Music of Turin, Mittelfest, Weimar Kunstfest, Budapest Liszt Festival, Emilia Romagna Festival, Festival Ljubjana, Vilnius Piano Festival and many more.

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Since 1990 he has been recording for the labels Nuova Era, Naxos and Marco Polo. 

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His CDs have been enthusiastically reviewed by the most popular European, American and Asian music magazines, and they are regularly broadcast on classical radio channels all around the world. About his recording for Naxos label of two rare piano concerts by Giovanni Paisiello, the well-known critic and musicologist Paolo Isotta wrote: (...) it must be recognized that nowadays no one can be compared to Francesco Nicolosi for the brightness of the sound and the ability to sing at the piano and play legato (...) he must be considered one of the best living pianists (...) the great Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli performed music of the Eighteenth century inspired by the same criteria adopted by Nicolosi but perhaps not with as much lucidity and consistency. Nicolosi brings to completion what Benedetti Michelangeli announces.

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He has been awarded with prestigious national and international prizes: the Golden Bellini (Catania, 1994), the Japan Chubu University Award (Tokyo, 1996 and 2001), the Ara Prize of Jupiter (Sicily, 2004), the Aci Castello Riviera dei Ciclopi Prize (Sicily, 2008), the Prize Note nell’Olimpo (Bari, 2012), the Domenico Danzuso Career Award (Catania, 2012), the Cosimo Fanzago Prize (Naples, 2013), the Sergei Rachmaninov International Award (Moscow, 2017) and Pietro Golia Prize (Naples, 2021).

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As a University professor, he held the chair of “Piano practice and repertoire” at the Conservatory of Music San Pietro a Majella in Naples. He regularly holds masterclasses and conferences in Italy and abroad as well as being President and jury member of remarkable piano and singing competitions. 

For many years his concert activity has been accompanied by an intense artistic direction and management of important institutions and musical events both national and international. 

 

Francesco Nicolosi is the President and artistic director of the Sigismund Thalberg International Study Centre in Naples. The Study Centre has been carrying out for more than thirty years research and study activities focused on the figure of the great Austrian pianist Sigismund Thalberg, first founder of the Neapolitan piano school. 

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He is also the artistic director of the Sigismund Thalberg International Piano Competition, which takes place every two years in Naples since 1998 and is considered by now one of the most prestigious international piano prizes in the world. 

He was also the artistic director of the festival Concerti d’Estate a Villa Guariglia in the Amalfi coast, of Jeux d'Art - Festival Internazionale Villa d'Este that was held in the UNESCO World Heritage site in Tivoli, and of the festival Roccaraso in Musica in the Abruzzo region. 

From 2015 to 2019 he was the artistic director of the opera house E.A.R. Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini in Catania. 

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Currently Francesco Nicolosi is the Chairman of the Music Advisory Committee of the Italian Ministry of Culture.