James Tocco

01 / The Detroit story

The Detroit story

Tocco was born in Detroit in 1943, the youngest of thirteen children of Sicilian immigrants Vincenzo and Rose Tocco, and fell in love with music, especially opera, as a small child. He began piano at six and made his orchestral debut at twelve in Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto. Scholarships took him to the Salzburg Mozarteum and to Paris, where he studied with Magda Tagliaferro from 1964 to 1969, and he completed his training with Claudio Arrau in New York. First prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich launched his career, and he has since appeared with the Berlin and London philharmonics and the Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit orchestras, among others. He is known for American music, recording Bernstein's complete solo piano works and The Age of Anxiety with Leonard Slatkin. Back home he co-founded the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Bloomfield Hills and served as its first artistic director.

Highlights

1. Youngest of thirteen children of Sicilian immigrants in Detroit
2. First prize, ARD International Music Competition in Munich
3. Recorded Bernstein's complete solo piano music
4. Co-founder and first artistic director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival