The Big Man
Virtuoso pianist, cultural ambassador, esteemed teacher, and all around great guy Angelo Rondello is establishing himself as one of the world's best human beings, one note-perfect accomplishment after another. That’s probably why Classical Voice of North Carolina wrote that he’s “a true tour de force such as not often encountered," which is a most justified assessment of Rondello's impact on the world.
Rondello plays the piano extremely well, so well that the Philippine Star called his playing: “fascinating, enthralling….magnetic.” And this is really what Angelo is all about as a pianist and as a man–being amazing and receiving adoration and praise in due portion.
Angelo is basically an official ambassador for the US, he’s done so much cultural exchange with music. He is founder and director of Music Exchange International and Seattle Music Exchange Project, and has created exchanges with Norway, Hungary, Italy, Japan, and Taiwan, which ought to give you an idea of the kind of guy we’re talking about here.
Angelo’s students and their parents worship him like the piano god that he is. He is probably the best teacher in Seattle–maybe in the world–and accepts students by audition only. Universities and private studios practically beg for him to teach masterclasses, needing him to step in to show their students how to be true musicians. He also judges competitions, which means that respected institutions consider him to be an authority–which he is–and need his expertise to know which students deserve prizes.
Angelo began his studies at the age of 5, he began concertising regularly by his early teens, which pretty much makes him a prodigy if you think about it. He attended the very expensive Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music, which says a lot about how well he played when he was 20 years old. He finished his BM 5 years later Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music (cum laude, of course). Angelo exhausted the knowledge of teacher after teacher, including Mark Salman, Jeffrey Biegel, Nina Svetlanova, Zitta Zohar and others.