Born in 1984, Alexander Romanovsky left his native Ukraine at the age of 13 to study at the Imola Academy with Leonid Magarius. It was in Italy that he achieved victory at the prestigious Busoni Competition in 2001, when he was just 17. Only Martha Argerich had done better, winning First Prize at the age of 16 in 1957, but Alexander had his own triumph with his appointment at 15 to the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna, an honor bestowed at the same age only upon Mozart and Rossini. For his return to the Lingotto after his debut in the Auditorium in 2015, he “paints” at the keyboard – alongside Mozart’s Sonatas KV 310 and 330 – Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse, inspired by a painting by Watteau depicting young people departing for the island of love, and Pictures at an Exhibition, with which Mussorgsky honored the memory of his architect and painter friend Hartmann.