These concerts are the North Carolina Symphony debut for Marie-Ange Nguci.
Among the highlights of her 2024/25 season, Marie-Ange Nguci has debuted performing Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Stéphane Denève and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Alan Gilbert. She has also returned for performances with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and Marc Albrecht, and will make her debut with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Marie Jacquot performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
The French magazine Classica wrote that “Each facet of her talent belies her age: the pianist Marie-Ange Nguci offers a jewel where virtuosity rhymes with musicality and inventiveness. Much more than a promising talent: an accomplished artist.” She has performed with orchestras such as NHK Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. She was named Artist in Residence of the Basel Symphony Orchestra for the 2023/24 season, and collaborated as Associate Artist with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma.
Nguci won her first competition, with First Prize at the Lagny-sur-Marne International Piano Competition, in 2011. In 2015 she was awarded the Dorothy MacKenzie Award by the International Keyboard Institute and Festival. She has received grants from, among others, the Foundation L’Or du Rhin, French American Piano Society, International Academy of Music in the Principality of Liechtenstein, and Yamaha Music Foundation. She received the Charles Oulmont 2016 Award for Music.
Growing up in Albania, Nguci was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 13. She studied orchestra conducting at Vienna’s Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, and was admitted at the age of 18 for a doctoral degree at the City University of New York. She also holds a master’s degree in cultural management.
