Vincenzo Scalera was born into an Italian-American family in New Jersey and began playing the piano at the age of 5. He was educated at the Manhattan School of Music and worked as an assistant conductor at the New Jersey State Opera. He continued his studies in Italy and was appointed as a coach and pianist at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Gianandrea Gavazzeni and Carlos Kleiber.
Scalera has played at many major festivals including Edinburgh, Martina Franca, Jerusalem, Istanbul and Les Chorégies d’Orange, as well as the Carinthian Summer Music Festival, the Salzburg Festival and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. He has accompanied many renowned singers such as Carlo Bergonzi, Andrea Bocelli, Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Juan Diego Flórez, Leyla Gencer, Vittorio Grigolo, Sumi Jo, Raina Kabaivanska, Katia Ricciarelli, Renata Scotto, Cesare Siepi and Lucia Valentini Terrani; he has performed in all the world’s prominent musical centers.
His discography includes recordings with Sumi Jo (“La Promessa”), Renata Scotto (“Complete Songs of Verdi”), Carlo Bergonzi (“Canzone: The Art of Bel Canto” and “Carlo Bergonzi in Concert”) and José Carreras (“Comeback Concerts”), as well as a recently released recital with Anita Rachvelishvili for Sony Classical.
Scalera has also recorded three televised recitals with José Carreras (“In Vienna,” “In Concert” and “Comeback Concert in Spain”). His close collaboration with Carlo Bergonzi can be seen on “Bergonzi Celebrates Gigli,” a performance that met with rapturous applause at Carnegie Hall in 1985. Recently, he appeared in a live-streamed concert for the Metropolitan Opera with Sondra Radvanovsky and Piotr Beczała.
He can also be heard playing the harpsichord on the soundtrack to the film of “La Cenerentola,” as well as on the first-ever recording of Il viaggio a Reims, both under Claudio Abbado.
Scalera is a Steinway artist and is currently on the staff of the Academy for the Performing Arts at La Scala.
