A native of Milan, Italy, violinist Roberto Cani's solo career was launched with solo performances at the Gaveau Hall in Paris and the Verdi Hall at the Milan Conservatory at the age of sixteen. Since 1986, Mr. Cani has received numerous prizes and awards including the Minetti Prize in Italy, the top prize at the Paganini International Competition in Genova, the Gingold Prize, and the First Prize from the Courcillon International Competition, as well as an honorary diploma at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He also received a special award for the best performance of a contemporary work while in the process of winning the top prize at the Jeneusses Musicales International Competition in Belgrade.
With an international solo career that has already taken him all over the world, Roberto Cani performs frequently in the United States, in Europe (Italy, Germany, Belgium and France), South Africa, Russia, Croatia, Poland, Serbia, Taiwan and Japan. Many of his concerts have been broadcast live on television and radio, including appearances with the Moscow Philharmonic, the RAI Symphony, and widely acclaimed performances in Italy of the First Concerto by Paganini and the Szymanowski Concerto. Other appearances have included solo performances with the American Youth Symphony, the Burbank, Glendale and West Los Angeles Symphonies in Los Angeles (where he makes his home) as well as with the Oregon Symphony, the Missouri Symphony, the Belgrade and Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Haydn Symphony in Bolzano, Italy where he also premiered a piece for violin and piano by Polish composer, Gorecki.
Roberto Cani has studied with such world-renowned violinists as Miroslav Roussin, Viktor Tretiakov, Abrahm Shtern, Pavel Vernikov, and Alice Schoenfeld. A graduate of the Milan Conservatory, the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, and the University of Southern California, he spends his summers as head of the faculty and professor of violin at the Positano Music Festival in Italy.
Solo recordings have included Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", sonatas for violin and piano by Respighi and Busoni with pianist Jeffrey Swann, and solo sonatas by Bartok, Ysäye, Bloch and Prokofiev on the Arkadia and Agora labels. He has recorded the Tchaikovski Violin Concerto in D-major and is scheduled to record concertos by Paganini and Wieniawski with the Moscow Philharmonic.