Full biography
Pianist/keyboardist, piano teacher and musicologist Riccardo Scivales is one of the most internationally appreciated authors of music books and transcribers of stride, jazz, and Latin piano solos.
His books Jazz Piano: The Left Hand and the miscellaneous collection Jazz Piano: Pieces To Grow On – have been released as part of the prestigious Steinway Library of Piano Music line published by Ekay Music/Steinway & Sons. (More details in MUSIC BOOKS) He has also translated and edited all the thirty-four Italian volumes of the Bastien pedagogical piano series (Neil A. Kjos Music Company/Italian distribution Rugginenti Editore).
Some of Riccardo’s “Classic Latin” originals have been often performed in concert programs along with works by Piazzolla, Ginastera, de Falla, Rodrigo, Ponce, Gardel, Ellington, Gershwin, J.S. Bach, Schubert, etc.
He is keyboardist and composer of his own progressive rock band Quanah Parker, first active in 1982-1985 and re-formed in 2006.
With this band, he performs his own originals and covers by Yes, Rick Wakeman, and Jethro Tull (More details and DOWNLOADS at www.quanahparker.it).
Quanah Parker has released the CD Quanah!
Riccardo was born in Venezia (Italy) and currently resides in the nearby town of Musile di Piave.
He studied classical piano, percussion and music theory with Giuseppe Marotta, then classical piano with Giovanni Ferrari and jazz piano with Marcello Tonolo, also attending the courses on analysis of jazz music held by Marcello Piras at the “Seminari Senesi di Musica Jazz”.
He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Venezia with a degree in Music History discussing a thesis on the Harlem Stride Piano style.
He is the author of several jazz, Latin and Progressive Rock piano transcriptions, studies, arrangements and original pieces published in the prestigious US music magazines Piano Today, Sheet Music Magazine, Keyboard Classics, and The Piano Stylist & Jazz Workshop.
Many of his stride piano transcriptions have been recorded and/or performed in concert programs by such specialists as Marco Fumo, Alan Feinberg, Meral Guneyman, Donna Coleman, Massimiliano Damerini, Sue Keller, Giannantonio Mutto, Cesare Poggi, Carlo Magni, and John Roache.
As arranged by tango pianist and arranger Giannantonio Mutto, many of Riccardo’s Latin compositions are performed by the classical chamber ensembles.
Riccardo is the author of many music books published previously in US and now also in Italy with the label Scivales Music.
Riccardo taught the “Laboratorio di Improvvisazione e Composizione” of the Corso Biennale di Specializzazione in Letteratura Pianistica Afroamericana directed by Marco Fumo at the Conservatorio “A. Steffani” of Castelfranco Veneto (Italy).
He also teaches Modern Piano and Keyboards at some music schools, like the Scuola Comunale di Musica “Monteverdi” of Musile di Piave (Venezia) and the Istituto Musicale “Celleghin” of Chiarano (Treviso). He has given lectures and master classes in various conservatories and music schools – among them the CDpM-Centro Didattico produzione Musica directed by Claudio Angeleri in Bergamo – within didactical cycles taught by well-known musicians and musicologists such as Franco D’Andrea, Enrico Pieranunzi, Claudio Angeleri, Marco Fumo, Hugo Aisemberg, Luis Agudo, Marcello Piras, Stefano Zenni, Angelo Zaniol, Maurizio Franco, and Luca Bragalini.
He was pianist/keyboardist and composer of his above-mentioned progressive rock band Quanah Parker (formerly active in 1982-1985) and of his own Mi Ritmo Afro-Cuban band (active in 1995-2004). With both these bands he has played several live performances and recorded many of his own compositions.
He was pianist at the Gran Caffè Chioggia in Venezia’s St. Mark’s Square for many years.
With a Latin quintet including singer Elena Camerin and percussionist Antonio Marotta, he recorded four of his own originals for the miscellaneous tape Beach Volley Glamour & Show, conceived by the noted speaker Andrea Piovan for the purpose of the Beach Volley Italian championship.
He contributed to the orchestration of the Italian premiere of George Gershwin’s musical, Lady, Be Good! (as revised by K. Cazan, K. Farrell and D. Sturrock, Venezia, PalaFenice, 2000).
As a pianist and composer, he has worked for various stage productions.
Over the years, he has collaborated with various musicians of the Venetian scene,
Riccardo teaches the history of jazz and Latin Music at TARS (formerly DUTARS) of the University of Venezia.
He has written about three hundreds of radio programs on jazz for RadioTre of RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana.
Several of his essays, articles, and reviews on jazz and Afro-Cuban music have been published in important music magazines such as Musica Jazz, Ring Shout, Musica Oggi, Jazz, Blu Jazz, Rassegna Veneta di Studi Musicali, Venezia Arti, Il Sismografo, and Il Giornale della Musica.
