
Thomas Pandolfi is the piano soloist for Celebrations, the Manassas
Symphony's Season-Opening Concert on October 22, 2022. He is playing Franz Liszt's Piano
Concerto No. 2 in A major on Liszt's 211th birthday.
Thomas Pandolfi is one of the leading pianists of our time, hailed a “phenomenon.” He began his
career early on while at The Juilliard School (BM & MM) where the young prodigy caught the influential
ear of Vladimir Horowitz, who would become his mentor, and legendary composer, Morton Gould. Since then he
has been an audience favorite, selling out the world’s most prestigious stages, including Lincoln
Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Strathmore, The Kennedy Center, Kiev Opera House, Bucharest’s
Romanian Athenaeum, London’s Cadogan Hall, and many others.
DC Metro Arts calls him, “exhilarating… a rare mix of technical accuracy and cool confidence.”
“His artistry and technique were simply astonishing,” said the Metropolitan Arts Reviews. The
Washington Post boasted he is a “master of both the grand gesture and the sensual line…
Pandolfi's large-scale pianism seemed under tight control yet in no way muted the passion of his
performance… projected with an exquisite sense of lyrical gesture.” “A standout among
today's young pianists… His virtuosity and strength… might have had some believing that Liszt
himself had taken over the keyboard,” said the Asheville Citizen-Times. “The mastery of the
scores, the precision of the playing, and the finesse of the expression were all simply spectacular. It was
a truly bravura performance, both in the virtuosic and in the reflective pieces, yet one completely without
gratuitous exaggerated display,” acclaimed The Boston Musical Intelligencer.
In addition to being recognized as one of the greatest interpreters of the Polish masters such as Chopin,
Paderewski, and Godowsky, this versatile pianist has received accolades from everything from Bach to
Gershwin, with Morton Gould saying, “It’s the finest performance of Gershwin I have heard since
the composer himself.” His original and virtuosic transcriptions of popular works, such as West Side
Story and Phantom of the Opera, are one-of-kind, jaw-dropping, and dramatic encores that keep audiences of
all ages returning to his performances again and again.
Mr. Pandolfi is a Steinway Artist and will begin recording for Steinway Spirio later this year. Mr. Pandolfi’s
performances have been broadcast by PBS, WETA (Washington, DC), WQXR (NYC), WRCJ (Detroit), DCN TV (China),
The Sound (DC), and many others worldwide. During his 2019-2020 season, he will complete a 20-state tour of
the USA, his fourth tour in China, third tour of the UK, and seventh tour of Romania and Moldova.
Born in Washington, DC into a musical family, Pandolfi began his studies with his father and continued on
with principle teachers Sasha Gorodnitzki , Adele Marcus, Gyorgy Sandor. He holds a BM and MM from The
Juilliard School. Maestro Pandolfi is available for recitals, concertos, and masterclasses.