Anthony di Bonaventura

Early life

Anthony di Bonaventura was born on November 12, 1929 in Follansbee, West Virginia. He was the son of Fred di Bonaventura, a barber, and Rosaria "Rose" (née Santomo) di Bonaventura.

Anthony began piano studies at the age of three years and gave the first professional concert at the age of four years. Then he won a scholarship to New York's Music School Settlement at six. At thirteen, he appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. At sixteen, he became the pupil of the celebrated Russian teacher Madame Isabelle Vengerova and later entered the Curtis Institute of Music, where he graduated with highest honors. While at Curtis, he was a student of Isabelle Vengerova.

Career

Enthusiastic acclaim by critics and audiences came early in his career. After his Washington debut, Paul Hume of the Washington Post wrote: "He can stand with the great players of Mozart's keyboard music." His brilliant performances in an early European tour led to his selection by the great conductor Otto Klemperer to perform the complete Beethoven Concerti at the London Beethoven Festival.

Di Bonaventura gave performances in 28 countries, including appearances with the London Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the Vienna Symphony. He has given solo recitals at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Concertgebouw, and Musikverein, as well as performances at festivals of Spoleto, Ann Arbor, Saratoga, Bergen, Lucca, Zagreb, and Donaueschingen. World premieres of specially written works by Berio, Kelemen, Persichetti, and Ginastera. Recordings for Columbia, RCA Connoisseur Society, and Sine Qua Non.

Many distinguished composers such as György Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Alberto Ginastera, Milko Kelemen and Vincent Persichetti wrote works especially for him. He premiered Ligeti's Piano Concerto (1986), Ginastera's Piano Sonata No. 2 (1992), Berio's Points on the Curve to Find (1975), Persichetti's Piano Concerto (1968), and other works. Anthony served as the Director of the Summer Piano Institute, Colby College and later West Chester University.

In 1991, he performed the Netherlands premiere of Witold Lutosławski's Piano Concerto with the composer conducting, followed by performances also conducted by Lutoslawski with the Boston Symphony, Polish National Radio Symphony and San Francisco Symphony in 1993, on the occasion of the composer's 80th birthday.

Legacy

He made a number of recordings. His recording of Claude Debussy's Études has been described by the Boston Globe as "one of the wonders of the world". Other recordings include 14 of Scarlatti's Keyboard Sonatas, and Rachmaninoff's Preludes. Op. 32.

Among his notable pupils were Fabio Parrini, Horia Mihail, Aidas Puodziukas and his protégé Konstantinos Papadakis.

Personal life

In 1953, he married to Sara Roosevelt Whitney (b. 1932), daughter of Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney and James Roosevelt II (1907–1991), the eldest son of President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. Before their divorce in 1972, they had five children together:

Bonaventura died on November 12, 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 83.