The producer
Besides his concert activity, Roberto Prosseda frequently serves as artistic advisor, creating innovative cultural projects.
He is one of the most active musicians in the promotion of new music. In 2006 he commissioned several composers to write new piano compositions based on unpublished fragments by Mendelssohn, including Carlo Boccadoro, Nicola Campogrande, Paolo Castaldi, Aldo Clementi, Luca Lombardi, Marcello Panni, Alessandro Solbiati, Gabrio Taglietti, and Roberta Vacca. He also commissioned the reconstructions of some unfinished works by Mendelssohn, like the Piano Concerto No. 3, completed in 2006 by Marcello Bufalini and performed more than 50 times with several top orchestras (London Philharmonic, Gewandhaus, Residentie Orkest, Santa Cecilia).
Besides his concert activity, Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda frequently serves as artistic advisor, creating innovative cultural projects.
Since 1997, Roberto Prosseda has collaborated with the Festival Pontino in Sermometa as artistic advisor, also conceiving new formats, like the Concerti d'Inverno in 2006 and 2007, the Mendelssohniana project within the Festival Pontino 2009 and the round tables and concerts about "Musical Restoration" in 2010.
In 2006 Prosseda planned and realized the "Mendelssohn Discovery Tour", a cycle of recitals in important European concert halls (including the Berlin Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus and London Wigmore Hall), presenting more than 20 World Premieres of unpublished works by Felix Mendelssohn.
In 2008 he was the co-founder, with Maurizio Cantore, of "Donatori di Musica", a series of particular concert seasons in Italian hospitals, based on an idea by Gian Andrea Lodovici. Donatori di Musica is currently active in many Italian hospitals. The history of this project is narrated in the book "Donatori di Musica" (Curci editore, 2015).
In 2009 Roberto Prosseda founded the Associazione Mendelssohn (www.associazionemendelssohn.it), of which he is currently president and artistic director. The Associazione Mendelssohn realized seven CD productions for Decca dedicated to Mendelssohn's music and co-produced the documentary "Mendelssohn Unknown", in collaboration with Rai Educational, now released on DVD by Euroarts.
In 2012 he conceived the innovative format "Robot Pianist Vs. Human Pianist", with the robot pianist TeoTronico, to help the audience to acquire a more conscious and perceptive listening. More than 100 shows have been staged, also at the Berlin Philharmonie, at the Ankara Festival and in many sold-out concerts at the Beijing Concert Hall, at Symphony Hall in Shanghai and at the Xinghai Symphony Hall in Guangzhou.
In 2014 Prosseda conceived the "Ghost Concert", presented as the opening event of the Pianocity Festival in Naples. In this multimedia show, Sergej Rachmaninoff appears on stage as a ghost, giving a piano recital, based on his own piano rolls, played "live" on a Yamaha Disklavier piano, synchronized with Rachmaninoff's moving image.
In 2016 Prosseda founded the International Competition for Composer “Michele Novaro”, where Krszysztof Penderecki and Ennio Morricone served as jury presidents. The competition is currently directed by Roberto Prosseda, and the upcoming 2018 next edition will take place at Italian President’s house (Quirinale) in Rome, in collaboration with Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Italian National Radio.
Prosseda also conceived and produced "iMendelssohn", realized by Ubyweb&Multimedia. It is the first app for iPhone and Android dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn, providing the full list of his works, a wide bibliography and discography, several letters and original manuscripts and a comprehensive media section.
Since 2014 Roberto Prosseda has been artistic advisor at Cremona Musica International Exhibitions & Festival, where in 2018 he has been appointed “artistic coordinator”. Cremona Musica is a very innovative event that attracts in Cremona almost 20.000 visitors in three days. Among the great artists that were invited at Cremona Musica by Roberto Prosseda, there are Krszysztof Penderecki, Shlomo Mintz, Maxim Vengerov, Bruno Monsaingeon, Valentina Lisitsa.
In 2018 Prosseda created and realized the “Italian Piano Experience” in Beijing, which took place at Beijing World Art Center in May 2018. This new format included 6 piano recitals, 3 lectures and an exhibition of Italian historical keyboard instruments, from 16th to 21st Century, brought for the first time in China.
