Diego Cannizzaro – Professor of Organ

Diego Cannizzaro obtained the Degree in Modern Literature with a musicology address with honours at the University of Palermo with a dissertation on ancient Sicilian organ-making art, along with the Piano Diploma with honours at the Conservatory of Palermo and the Diploma of Organ and Organ Composition also with honours at the Conservatory of Perugia under the guidance of Wijnand Van de Pol.
He studied organ and harpsichord with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Harald Vogel and Montserrat Torrent-Serra at the Academy of Italian Organ Music in Pistoia, the Norddeutche Orgelakademie in Bunde (Hamburg) and the University of Santiago de Compostela. He studied composition with Ivan Fedele at the Strasbourg Conservatory.
Winner of a scholarship, he obtained his PhD in “History and analysis of musical cultures” at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” with a dissertation on organ and harpsichord music in the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries published in Italian at the PADIS archive of the University of Rome “La Sapienza.
As an organist, pianist and harpsichordist, he has been invited to several international music festivals in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France, Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Russia. He has also been invited several times to the U.S.A. He carries out musicological and publishing research activities.
He is an honorary inspector for the historical organs of the Bb Department. CC.AA. of the Sicilian Region and titular organist at the Cathedral of Cefalù. He has several collaborations with Italian and foreign specialist journals, where he has published several essays.
He performed in world premieres; an unpublished sonata by Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) played on a fortepiano an original collard &collard 1992 at Amici della Musica Palermo; in 1995, he performed the complete organ works of Antonino Fortunato, a living Sicilian composer.
He recorded the complete organ sonatas by Filippo Capocci in double for the Bottega Discantica; he made 15 other recordings for other labels, including Bongiovanni, Tactus and Elegy. He carries out teaching and research activities in several Conservative Universities and has been invited to participate in research projects on organ music and European organ-making art.
He was also invited professor of organ and harpsichord at the Rimski-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg and held master-classes for the Enghien and Ath Aas (Belgium).
He is president of the AUDITORIUM PACIS organ studies centre. He is the artistic director of the IN TEMPORE ORGANI exhibition that takes place throughout the territory of the Sicily Region.
He is an honorary inspector for the historical organs of the Bb Department. CC.AA. of the Sicilian Region and titular organist at the Cathedral of Cefalù.