29-year-old Italian-born pianist Rodolfo Leone, whose career is supported by the Amron-Sutherland Fund for Young Pianists at the Colburn School, was the first-prize winner of the 2017 International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna. Leone has performed extensively throughout Europe, North America, and China; he released his debut album in 2018 and a second album in 2022.

Leone’s recent seasons include a collaboration with LA Opera and debuts with the San Diego Symphony (Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1), Pasadena Symphony (Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21), and Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra (Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”). As a 2018/19 Performance Today Young Artist in Residence, Leone’s live recordings were broadcast nationally throughout the United States.

A native of Turin, Italy, Leone made his orchestral debut in 2013 performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento (Italy). He toured Italy with that orchestra the following year performing Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1. He made his North American debut in 2014 performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Toronto Concert Orchestra.

Leone was awarded top prizes at the 2014 Toronto International Piano Competition and the 2013 Busoni International Piano Competition. Pianist magazine described his concerto performance during the 2017 International Beethoven Piano Competition as a “communion with the orchestra” that “was raptly convincing… robust and joyful.”

Leone is currently based in Los Angeles where he previously studied at the Colburn Conservatory of Music. He holds both a master’s degree and an Artist Diploma from Colburn, where he studied with Fabio Bidini. He previously studied at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, Germany and at the State Music Conservatory G. Rossini in Pesaro, Italy.