Biography

Deva Rossi finished her Master of Music in Solo Performance at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp in July 2023, as a student of Professor Sergei Edelmann. She is currently furthering her musical education as a Postgraduate student at the same institution.

During her master degree, Deva dedicated more and more time to her passion for the art of playing for ballet.

It all began in 2021 with the invitation of Carlos Acosta, director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, to observe the daily work of his company. His support was the start of an ongoing collaboration with Birmingham Royal Ballet. Deva’s regular visits included coaching from the pianists and the dancers and working on all the skills required for this art form.

These regular visits and the recommondation of Carlos Acosta prompted her to be a guest pianist at the associated Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham.

At the same time, Deva started working as well in her home base Antwerp, Belgium. Since 3 years, she plays for the Junior Ballet Antwerp, the bachelor programm at KCA, the Koninklijke Balletschool Antwerpen, the Prins Dries Ballet school and the dansstudio Arabesque.

The most recent highlights are the invitation of Cathy Marston, director of the Ballet Zurich, where she played for a couple of classes of the company in December 2023. A second visit followed in April 2024 during which she could observe a whole week of creation of a new ballet set to premiere soon.

To further master her profession as a ballet pianist, Deva continues participating in intensive courses. She was mentored by various ballet pianists such as Kim Helweg, Royal Danish Ballet, Laurent Choukroun, Ballet School of the Paris Opera and Nicki Williamson from London.

The Swiss pianist was born in 1996 in Zürich. Her musical education began at the age of 7 when she entered the “Scuola di Musica ed Arti Classiche” with Antonia Onofrio in her hometown Riva San Vitale (Southern Switzerland). At the age of 12, she participated at the Swiss Piano Competition for Young Musicians and won third prize in her category. Deva attended the Musical High School in Como, Italy from September 2011 to June 2016, obtaining her European Baccalaureate. Meanwhile her musical studies continued at the Conservatoire in Lugano, Switzerland, with Nora Doallo.

Deva regularly performed as a soloist in Southern Switzerland and Italy.

In 2013 and 2014 she attended an international Masterclass in Vienna, Austria, with Susanna Spaemann. During this Masterclass, she met Japanese pianists Masahi Katayama and Mami Morimoto who invited her to Tokyo for an intensive Masterclass in September 2014. In the following years, 2015 and 2016, Deva participated in the Encore Music Projects International Summer School in Wells with John Byrne and Katya Apekisheva, also taking intensive private lessons with Olena Shvetsova and Richard May.

Deva joined the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) in September 2016, where she has studied keyboard with Richard Ormrod and is currently a student of Michael Young. Highlights include performances in the Dora Stoutzker Hall in November 2017 as part of a piano duo and in October 2018 as part of the Concordia Piano Trio. Deva has performed in Masterclasses with Cédric Tiberghien and Llyr Williams. She has also has received coaching from various notable pianists such as James Kirby, Simon Philippo and Richard Uttley.

Deva has acquired various skills since being a student at RWCMD: she learned to play the harpsichord and the fortepiano as part of her studies and performed in a Baroque ensemble. Other key performances include playing the celeste with the Royal Welsh Symphony Orchestra in St. David’s Hall in Cardiff and also playing the piano in a recent live concert series of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” in the Dora Stoutzker Hall, working with Stuart Hancock. She also had lessons on improvisation with Jazz pianist Huw Warren.

During her many years of learning and performing, Deva has explored a wide range of repertoire, discovering that her strong, passionate and sensitive personality creates a unique atmosphere particularly with music by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofiev.

As a student at RWCMD Deva has enjoyed chamber music with the “Concordia Piano Trio” which she founded in her second year and they won the Bridgewood and Neizert Chamber Music Prize in June 2018. The Trio was finalist in the McGrenery Chamber Music Prize, a competition for outstanding chamber ensembles. With her Trio she also participated in masterclasses given by the Gould Piano Trio, the Albion Quartet and the Iszimiz Trio.

In July 2020 Deva graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and in September she started a Master of Arts in Music Performance at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp in Belgium, studying with Professor Edelmann. In her first year of Master she enjoyed chamber music and collaborating with singers. With her current ensemble, “Madere Trio”, she performed in the KCA Live Sessions in Antwerp and most recently at the Klarafestival BOX in Brussels. The trio had weekly lessons with Eliane Rodrigues and also received masterclasses from Justus Grimm, Guido De Neve and Razvan Popovici.

Deva also frequently collaborated with singers both in Lied classes and collaboration workshops. She has received coaching from Jeanne-Minette Cilliers and Aäron Wajnberg.

Other highlights of her first year in Antwerp are the “Piano Marathon” concert, in which she performed the Vision Fugitives by Prokofiev and a silent film project, in which she performed her own version of the soundtrack of Buster Keaton’s “One Week”.