Italian pianist Paolo André Gualdi has played recitals in Italy, France, Brazil and the United States for music organizations such as A.Gi.Mus., Accademia Ori, and Accademia Amadeus (Italy); Universidade Federal do Rio Grande so Sul and Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Brazil); Musée Würth (France); International Piano Series of Charleston, American Liszt Society, Cincinnati Conservatory, and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival (U.S.A.). He has also appeared with many orchestras including the Georgia Philharmonic, Wilmington Symphony, Atlanta Philharmonic, Florence Symphony, DeKalb Symphony, and the Universidade de Caxias do Sul Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded for Mark Records and IFO Classics, and his performances have been broadcasted by radios such as NPR and Radio Vaticana.

Gualdi began studying piano with his father at the age of five, and continued at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy. He earned his Piano Diploma with highest honours at the Conservatory Arrigo Boito in Parma with Roberto Cappello. While in the U.S., he earned a Masters Degree in Piano Performance at Carnegie Mellon University under the tutelage of Enrique Graf, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in piano performance at the University of Georgia with Evgeny Rivkin. He has also studied with world-renown pianists György Sandor, Earl Wild, Menahem Pressler, Sergio Perticaroli, and has worked extensively with Carlo Maria Dominici (a pupil of Michelangeli and Rosina Lhévinne).

He has won the top prize in numerous piano competitions, including the European Competition of Ostuni, the Altruda National Competition of Vasto and the Françoise Grimaldi National Competition of San Polo. Winning the “De Martino Award” at the Ibla International Piano Competition enabled him to study at Elon University in North Carolina. During this period he won the First Prize in the 15th Bartók-Kabalevsky International Competition in Virginia.

Gualdi regularly gives master classes and lectures nationally and internationally at universities, conservatories and other music institutes, including New Mexico State University and College of Charleston (U.S.A.); the universities of Porto Alegre, Santa Maria and Campinas (Brazil); Cittadella della Musica (Italy), and others. Having previously served on the faculties of Elon University, Emmanuel College and Oxford College of Emory University, he is currently Associate Professor of Music at Francis Marion University and founder and artistic director of the South Carolina Chamber Music Festival.