Celebrate “A Night of Christmas” with Cardella

MARINETTE AND MENOMINEE – Hailing from Marinette County, Tony Cardella has traveled the world as a concert pianist — performing classical and original pieces in halls across Europe. For the holiday season Cardella is coming back home to play Christmas classics on Dec. 20 in the town where his journey began.

Even before Cardella became a performing artist, his own musical inspiration was drawn from live performances.

“When I was three or four my mom took me to see a concert pianist. She brought toys — thinking I would need to be distracted — but I was completely fixated the entire concert. Afterwards, she asked me what I thought, and I replied ‘That’s what I’m going to do when I grow up!’” Cardella said.

Determined to play, his parents bought him a keyboard and Cardella began learning Mozart by ear.

“I auditioned for lessons and started when I was five. I then won my first piano competition after just three months of lessons,” he recounted.

From there, Cardella credited his success to his teacher Barbara Hay of Peshtigo and his experience at Lawrence University in Appleton. He has since gone on to move to Los Angeles, Calif., where he is an assistant professor of music at Occidental College and completing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the USC Thornton School of Music.

“I would say that getting out of Wisconsin, living in Los Angeles and traveling the world has helped me grow as an artist immeasurably with more diverse opportunities and so much inspiration from other artists, mentors and this wonderful world that I’ve had the opportunity to explore,” Cardella said.
Over the past two years, he has performed not only around America but in Italy, France, Spain, Serbia, Hungary and Turkey.

Cardella shared one of his favorite memories from his travels, which included “competing in an international piano competition in Serbia, after which I road tripped through the Balkans and got to perform in the Franz Liszt Concert Hall in Budapest. Liszt is one of my favorite composers, so to play his music in his own concert hall, tour his historic home, etc., was incredible.”

In addition to performing pieces by his own self-composed piano sonata — inspired by the abstract paintings of Shane Guffogg — at the Venice Biennale exhibition.

These experiences and talents are just some of what Cardella will be bringing back to Marinette to shape his upcoming performances as a part of his 2025 winter concert tour.

Cardella discussed his anticipated homecoming from his hotel room in Paris following a show at an opera house, “It’s exciting to share all of my travel stories with friends and family and to play for the people who have heard me at every stage of my life as an artist — most people I play for around the world have never heard my playing from when I was five-years-old, most don’t have my very first Christmas CD lying around or heard me play every week at church like the folks in Wisconsin have — so there is a special bit of sentimentality to performing here.”

These shows are a result of years of work behind the scenes as well as working through a recent injury he suffered.

In March, Cardella was in a serious accident that shattered the bones in his wrists. Following a surgery where titanium plated and screws were installed, he was told he would not be able to perform for a year.

In what Cardella called a “miraculous recovery,” he was thankfully back to performing internationally after just five months. Now, he said he is celebrating this achievement “ridiculously hard program of repertoire to celebrate.”

He said that his performance will include, “so many virtuoso classical pieces and some Christmas pieces worked in — it should be a really exciting concert, and I think a great one to experience for people who don’t know much about classical music.”

On Dec. 20 Tony Cardella will be hosting a meet and greet and performing at 1:30 p.m. at First Street Art Gallery in Menominee, Mich., before playing “A Night of Christmas” at 7 p.m. at Bayshore Arts Center in Marinette.

Cardella said that families are invited to come celebrate, especially those with children that have an interest in music. He provided some advice for young performers ahead of his show, “We can learn so much from playing for others, gain so much inspiration, make so many connections, etc., so it’s a shame if you practice all year just to play one recital in the spring. Go play at a nursing home, play an impromptu concert with friends at someone’s home, reach out to a church and set up a recital. The more concerts you set up for yourself, the more goals you’ll have and the harder you’ll have to work.”

For more information on Tony Cardella, follow anthonycardellapiano on Instagram and YouTube.