Marcel Zidani studied Piano, under the direction of Royal Academy Vice-Principal Mark Racz and more recently under the guidance of Professor Philip Martin studying both piano and composition.

 

The famous pianist Leslie Howard nominated Marcel’s composition ‘Butterflies’ for the British Composer Awards 2015 describing the piano music from his Life Cycle CD as, ‘an excellent piece, beautifully written for the piano’. ‘Butterflies’ is also recommended in the top 10 educational resources by Melanie Spanswick author of ‘So you want to play the piano’,

 

Marcel’s CD ‘Life Cycle’ has been described by Gold Dust Music as ‘Virtuosic’ and ‘from the heart’ and has already received numerous radio broadcasts.

His CD “Piano in the Small Hours”, featured on BBC Radio 3, is the result of improvised sessions.  Radio 3 described Marcels’ CD as a ‘Musical Gem’ and likened his compositional style to that of Chopin, Liszt and Satie.

 

Marcel performed at the Hay Festival in June 2018. Andrew Marston of BBC Introducing in Hereford and Worcester described the filming of Marcel's live performance at the Hay Festival as 'Outstanding, complex and beautiful – simply put, the most incredible piano player I’ve ever seen'.

The concert was also recorded live for radio Hereford and Worcester.

​

Marcel has given masterclasses, adjudicated for music competitions, most recently at the Birmingham Conservatoire, performed at music festivals in the UK and abroad and is a devoted piano teacher.  Many of Marcel’s students have won Young Musician competitions and other prizes.

Marcel has performed many of the major piano concertos including the Liszt Hungarian Fantasy at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre, the Litolff Scherzo and Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini with the Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra and Rhapsody in Blue with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Cheltenham Philharmonic Orchestra.

Marcel appears regularly at Cheltenham Town Hall and Cheltenham's Pitville Pump Room.

Marcel received glowing reviews in the international press, and ‘The Sunday Times’ described the performance of compositions from his CD titled  ‘A New Renaissance’ as ‘an explosion of expressive tonal colours’.  His performance of Beethoven Sonata ‘The Tempest’ and Liszt’s ‘Un Sospiro’ received equal critical acclaim.

You can listen to Marcel’s recordings, read reviews and view performances on his website and on Youtube.