Gidon Kremer: “Ottavia is a musician with an uncommon and distinctive personality. She is constantly striving for her personal voice and for always-new ways of challenging the audience with her interpretations. When nowadays many young musicians are only concentrating on becoming famous, it is particularly heartening that Ottavia makes a serious and profound study of the Art her top priority.”
Ottavia Maria Maceratini was born in 1986 in Recanati, Italy and took her first piano lessons with Maestro Ermanno Beccacece at the age of five at the ‘Civica Scuola di Musica Beniamino Gigli’ in Recanati and from the start she showed an outstanding musicality and an extraordinary predisposition for the instrument.
She graduated from the Italian Conservatory “Istituto Musicale Pareggiato G.B.Pergolesi” in Ancona, with the Maestro Lorenzo Di Bella, with the highest grade and commendation.
She then gained admission to the Hochschule Für Musik und Theater in Munich where she studied until 2010 under the guidance of Prof. Elisso Virsaladze to whom she owes her refinement as a pianist and, in the same year, she obtained her Meisterklassen Diplom (postgraduate Master Class degree)
She also furthered her studies with Christopher Schlüren, a disciple of the orchestra director Sergiu Celibidache, whom she gained new methods and a new understanding of musical structures from.
She has received numerous prizes in Italian piano competitions, among which the first prizes in the national contests in Pisa, Cesenatico, Pistoia, Camerino. She also got special mention of the jury and the “J.S.Bach” prize in the “Giovani Solisti dell’Adriatico” competition, in the “Città di Terzo, Piemonte, a competition which awarded her the “A.Tavella” special prize and in the”Nuovi Orizzonti” competition in Arezzo.
In November 2003 she was the absolute winner for the piano section of the “Primo Premio Nazionale delle Arti”, organized by the Ministry of Public Education among all the Conservatories and legally recognised Music Schools in Italy and, on this occasion, she performed in the Santa Cecilia Auditorium in Rome.
In 2011 she published her first album “One Cut”, so called as this recording of pieces of music from diverse styles and periods, ranging from the Baroque to the twentieth century, was made in a single cut without any corrective additions.
The CD has been highly praised in the top specialised magazines and newspapers such as “Crescendo”, “Fono Forum”, Klassik Heute, Klassic.com, the ”Frankfurther Allgemeine Zeitung”, and in various other radio channels such as the “Bayrischer Rundfunk” and the Austrian broadcaster “Orf”.
Her second album, “Untitled”, mainly dedicated to Schumann works and published in 2012 and where she contrasts three of Robert Schumann’s main works with two French bird miniatures by Rameau and Ravel, received the “Die Rose der Woche” prize by the “Münchener TZ” and was entered in the list of the 2012 Best Albums by the critics of the professional music journal NMZ and also nominated for the ICMA (International Classical Music Award) prize.
In 2012 Ottavia was invited to the prestigious Academy of Kronberg, for the “Chamber Music Connects the World” festival where she performed with Gidon Kremer and Steven Isserlis.
In July of the same year, following an invitation by Natalia Gutman, she made her debut in the “Oleg Kagan” festival in Kreuth with the Münchner Kammerorchester.
In the summer of 2013 Ottavia was invited to perform as a soloist at the “Baltais Fligeli” festival in Lettonia and at the “Schleswig-Holstein” in Germany accompanied by the Kremerata Baltica.
In February 2013 she was invited to perform in occasion of a State reception in Berlin organized by the German Federal Presidents Joachim Gauck for the Italian President of State Giorgio Napolitano.
In the autumn of 2013 she made new debuts: a solo recital in the “Gasteig hall in Munich as well as concerts with the Deutsche Kammerakademie and the Salzburg Chamber Soloists.
In January 2014 Ottavia performed with the Nowosibirsk Symphony Orchestra in Siberia where she played Ravel’s piano concert for the left hand.
Her numerous important dates in 2015 include her debut with the DSO-Orchestra in the Berlin Philharmoniker Big Hall and the Opening Concert at the “Bonner Schumannfest” .
In April 2016 she had her debut at the Tonhalle Zurich with a solo recital.
Along with playing music, Ottavia Maria Maceratini practices Tenshinsho Jigen Ryu and Bujinkan Japanese martial arts with great passion. In this last style she has got the black belt and today she is second dan.