Vincenzo Scalera was born in New Jersey, USA, of Italian-American parents and began piano studies at the age of five. He graduated from Manhattan School of Music and worked as assistant conductor with the New Jersey State Opera. He continued his studies in Italy and in 1980, joined the musical staff of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala as coach and pianist, assisting conductor’s Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Giannandrea Gavazzeni and Carlos Kleiber, among others. Mr. Scalera has participated in many important music festivals, including Edinburgh, Martina Franca, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Les Choregies d’Orange, Carinthischer Sommer Ossiach, Salzburger Festspiele, and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Accompanying such celebrated singers as Carlo Bergonzi, Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Leyla Gencer, Sumi Jo, Raina Kabaivanska, Katia Ricciarelli, Juan Diego Florez, Maria Guleghina, Renata Scotto, Cesare Siepi, Lucia Valentini Terrani, Leontina Vaduva, etc., he has been heard in all the major music centers of the world. Mr. Scalera has just finished a recital tour of Germany with Andrea Bocelli. He will accompany Mr. Bocelli in a recital at the Metropolitan Opera, NY. next month. His discography includes these recitals: Sumi Jo “La Promessa”, Renata Scotto in the “Complete Songs of Verdi”, “Carlo Bergonzi in Concerto”, Carlo Bergonzi in the “Art of Bel Canto-Canzone”, “The Comeback Concerts of José Carreras”. Mr Scalera has three recitals on Video with José Carreras, “In Vienna”, “In Concert”, and “Comeback Concert in Spain”. Documenting his extensive collaboration with Carlo Bergonzi is a video concert entitled “Bergonzi Celebrates Gigli”, the program they performed together in a highly acclaimed 1985 Carnegie Hall recital. As harpsichordist, he recorded the soundtrack of the video of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” under the direction of Claudio Abbado, and the world premiere recording of Rossini’s “Il Viaggio a Reims”, also with Abbado. Mr. Scalera has been on the staff of the Renato Scotto Opera Academy in Savona, Italy, teaching classes in accompanying for pianists, and operatic literature for singers and is presently on the staff of the Accademia d’Arti e Mestieri of Teatro alla Scala, Milan. Among his most recent engagements has been a recital tour with tenor Andrea Bocelli including one the the Metropolitan Opera, NYC.