Award-winning Brazilian pianist Ronaldo Rolim has been praised for his interpretive power, brilliant virtuosity and rich sonorous palette.Born in 1986, he began his musical studies with his mother at the age of four, and was later admitted as a full scholarship student at the Magda Tagliaferro School in São Paulo, where he was guided by professors Zilda Candida dos Santos and Armando Fava Filho. After winning both the Nelson Freire Competition (Rio de Janeiro) and the Magda Tagliaferro Piano Competition (São Paulo) in 2004, he was invited by pianist Flavio Varani to study at Oakland University (Michigan) for one year. While studying in Michigan, he was awarded Outstanding Student in Piano Performance by Oakland University and by the Detroit Mu Phi Epsilon Association. Besides giving several recitals he performed the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3 with the Pontiac Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Greg Cunningham. In 2007, Ronaldo was accepted into the prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore as a student of Benjamin Pasternack. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance in 2010. Due to his outstanding achievements within the conservatory, Ronaldo received the Pauline Favin Memorial Award in Piano.
Since his admission at Peabody, he has participated in many performances including master classes with Richard Goode, Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler and Vladimir Feltsman. In December 2008, Ronaldo won the first prize at the Harrison Winter Piano Concerto Competition in Baltimore by unanimous decision of the jury, which gave him the opportunity of performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in 2009 under Hajime Teri Murai. In April 2009, he took part in the Peabody Camerata performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, conducted by Gene Young.
Ronaldo is active as a solo and chamber musician in his native Brazil and abroad, having performed in such venues as Steinway Hall (London), Théâtre de Vevey (Vevey, Switzerland), Mesa Arts Center (Mesa, Arizona), Friedberg Hall (Baltimore, Maryland) and in the most important Brazilian concert halls. As a soloist, he has performed in Brazil with several orchestras, including the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Radio Orchestra, São Paulo University Orchestra, Piracicaba Symphony Orchestra, Sorocaba Symphony Orchestra and Campinas Symphony Orchestra, having worked with conductors Aylton Escobar, Yeruham Scharovsky, Ernst Mahle, Jonicler Real, Lutero Rodrigues and Ronaldo Bologna. In 2010, he performed twice at the Rio de Janeiro edition of the Folle Journée Festival (which is held every year in Nantes, France, and also in cities like Tokyo, Warsaw and Bilbao), which paid tribute to the anniversary of 200 years of Chopin’s birth. Ronaldo took part in important projects such as the TV program Brasil Piano Solo, presented by TV Cultura in 2000 and 2001, and the recording of the CD Furnas Geração Musical in 2005, both projects dedicated exclusively to the diffusion of Brazilian music. In 2004 he made a musical participation in the documentary Magda Tagliaferro: The World Inside a Piano, by Norma Bengell.
Ronaldo is a prizewinner of more than 20 competitions held around the globe. He has received several special prizes for his performances of works by Bach, Chopin, Schumann, Scriabin and Szymanowski. Among his latest achievements, the 3rd prize at the James Mottram International Piano Competition (2010) in Manchester, UK (what resulted in a performance of Grieg Piano Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes), and, in 2011, the 1st prize at the Bösendorfer International Piano Competition in Tempe, Arizona. Ronaldo concludes his Master of Music degree in Piano Performance in 2011 at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he is a recipient of the Douglas and Hilda Goodwin Scholarship for Chamber Music.
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