Jovanni-Rey Verceles de Pedro
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“Jovanni painted a large canvas with virtuosity and brilliant colours.” - Yvonne Minton

“Powerful and poetic playing…”
- John Heley

A “performer of musical depth and exciting virtuosity…”
- Robert Ward


Filipino-American pianist Jovanni-Rey V. de Pedro has been heard in churches and concert venues throughout the United States, Canada, England, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the Philippines - recently performing Brahms's First Piano Concerto with the UST Symhony in Manila, Mozart’s Concerto K. 466 with the Vienna Residenz Orchester and Brahms's Second Piano Concerto with the Santa Monica Symphony.

Born into a family of musicians, Jovanni began piano lessons at the age of three with his father, and later attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts where he studied piano and conducting. He served briefly as conductor of the Artistic Journeys Youth Orchestra, and his choirs have won several competitions in the United States. Jovanni was recently invited to give a choral workshop with the Cebu Chamber Singers, who went on to win the Asian Choral Games in Jakarta last fall.

As a pianist, Jovanni has received scholarships from many distinguished organizations such as the Young Musicians Foundation in Los Angeles and the American Women’s Association in Vienna, and has won all the major prizes at the Vienna Conservatory of Music such as the 2003 Boesendorfer Stipendium, the overall prize of the Fidelio Competition given by the City of Vienna’s Cultural Affairs Department, and the 2007 Rotary Club Graben Stipendium. Jovanni has been a prizewinner in numerous national and international competitions; First place - 2000 United States Open Music Competition, First Place - 2002 International Pacific Piano Competition in Canada, Second Place - 2003 Ibiza International Piano Competition in Spain and Second Place in the 2007 Beethoven Society of Europe’s Intercollegiate Piano Competition in England. His interest in collaborative arts has led him to form the Vercelles Trio with Portuguese clarinetist Sergio Neves and Irish cellist Tara-Lee Byrne.

Jovanni continues to receive invaluable guidance from his mentor, Robert Ward of Los Angeles. He has also worked with eminent artists including Igor Kipnis, Robert Lehrbaumer, John Perry, Aries Caces, Pierre Laurent-Aimard, Rudolf Buchbinder, Ronan O'Hora, Martino Tirimo, Bryce Morrison, Boris Berman, Gerhard Geretschlaeger and Menahem Pressler.

With a scholarship from the ASCAP/Leiber and Stoller Foundations, Jovanni studied six years in Vienna, completing his Artists Diploma in 2007 with high distinction. He was awarded the 2008 Isabelle Bond Gold Medal for Performance Excellence upon completion of his Masters from Trinity College of Music where he studied with Yonty Solomon, Deniz Arman Gelenbe and Mikhail Kazakevich. Jovanni is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Michigan with Louis Nagel.
 

 

Maintained by Jonathan Hawkins
Photography by Michael Anthony Hermogeno and Joel Crelencia