Duo Leonardi-Pluzhko

Guitar & Piano

Wednesday
February 24, 2021
6:00 pm EST

Emiliano Leonardi was born in Arpino, Italy (FR) in 1979 and began studying classical guitar at the age of 18. In 2004 he graduated from “Santa Cecilia” Conservatory of Rome under the tutelage of M° Giuliano Balestra.

Since 2000, he regularly gives concerts as a soloist, chamber music in various ensembles, and with orchestras, in many countries, including Spain, France, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Russia. He is a winner of several national competitions, including “National Competition for Instrumental Execution”, Naples, “European music Competition”, Atri (TE), “Competition of musical performance Teramo Est”, Giulianova (TE), “International Competition of Ortona”, Ortona (CH), National competition “Città di Bacoli”, Naples. He was one of the finalists in the “Concorso Humaniter” that was organized for all students of Italian conservatories in 2003. He studied in masterclasses with David Russell, Emanuele Segre, Bruno Battisti D’Amario, Massimo Delle Cese, Eugenio Becherucci and Alfonso Borghese.

In 2007, he received a music pedagogy diploma from the “Licino Refice” Conservatory of Frosinone and in 2011 he graduated with an instrumental music pedagogy degre at the “Luigi Cherubini” Conservatory of Florence. In 2015 he attended the two-year specialist course at the Musical Institute of “Giulio Briccialdi”, Terni.

Since 2008, he has been the artistic Director of the Festival “Suoni dal Legno”,Todi (PG), and hosted also many pop-rock musicians, such as “Jethro Tull”, “Dream Teather”, Steve Hackett (ex Genesis), Tuck ‘n Patty, Gino Paoli, Michele Zarrillo, Franco Cerri. He was the artistic Director of the “Todi Festival” during the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

Since 2016, he has played in duo “LL” with the guitarist Sandro Lazzeri. Together with pianist lelyzaveta Pluzhko, they formed a Guitar- Piano DUO in n 2018 and performed in the “Thailand International Guitar Festival”. Emiliano currently teaches guitar at the “I.Calvino” Music College.

After completing her studies at the Musical College (2003-2007), pianist Ielyzaveta Pluzhko graduated in 2012 from the “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky” National Music Academy in Kiev under the tutelage of Tatiana Roshtchina. After receiving the President of the State scholarship as one of the best students, from 2012 to 2015 she collaborated with the “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky” National Music Academy as an assistant in the piano faculty and was awarded a post-graduate diploma.

She won several national and international competitions (“M.Yudina”International Competition of chamber music (2009 St. Petersburg); “A.Skriabin” International Piano Competition (2009 Paris); “D.Bortnyansky” National Competition of chamber music, Kiev. She participated in numerous Master classes and Festivals, including the “Hvide-Sande Master class” in Denmark (2009-2010), the “Conservatoire Russe A. Skriabine” in France (2010), the “Tel-Hai International Piano Master Classes in memory of M. Bondarenko” in Israel (2011), the “International Festival Music of Mendigorria” in Spain (2012), “Cittadella International Music Festival” in Italy (2016), “Thailand International Guitar Festival” in Bangkok (2017), International Festival “Suoni dal Legno” in Deruta and Todi, Italy (2017-2019) studying with Aquiles Delle Vigne, Jose Ribera, Oxana Yablonskaya, Tatiana Zelikman, Pietro De Maria, Jerome Rose and others.

She also played concerts in the Ukraine regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in various instrumental ensembles. From 2012 to 2015, she collaborated with “C. BECHSTEIN” piano-salon in Kiev. In 2016-2017, she participated in such projects as “Open-Zone” (Vicenza) and “TEDx” (Castelfranco V.).

Following her studies at the Conservatory of Music “Agostino Steffani” in Castelfranco Veneto under the tutelage of Massimiliano Ferrati, she received her piano diploma with honorable mention in 2018.