Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli began music lessons at the age of 3, initially with the violin, but quickly switched to the piano. At the age of four he began studying at the Istituto Musicale Venturi under the direction of Paolo Chimeri. At 10 he entered the Milan Conservatory, where he studied piano and composition under Giovanni Anfossi as well as violin with Renzo Francesconi.
He obtained his soloist’s diploma at the age of 14. At the insistence of his father he studied medicine for a brief period of time. In 1938, at age 18, he began his international career by entering the Ysaÿe International Festival in Brussels, where he placed seventh.
A year later, in 1939, he earned first prize in the prestigious Geneva International Competition, whose jury was headed by Ignaz Paderewski.
Here he is, playing the amazingly beautiful Piano Concerto by Maurice Ravel:
