Amalia Castoldi is a multidisciplinary artist. Trained as a pianist, she specializes in contemporary music. Her work explores liminal, surreal, and horror-inflected emotional landscapes, creating both figurative paintings and integrated multimedia compositions that unite visual art, video, and music. She does not give her artworks traditional titles but classifies them with opus numbers, as one does with musical compositions.
Born in Milan, Italy.
Resides and works in Milan, Italy.
Biography
Born in Milan, she began studying piano relatively late, at the age of seventeen. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the Claudio Abbado Civic School of Music in 2023 and later completed her master’s studies at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Como in 2024. Since 2019, she has been attending the advanced program at the Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo with Giovanni Doria Miglietta. In 2023, she began focusing more deeply on contemporary music under the guidance of Emanuele Arciuli, and since October 2025 she has been enrolled in the Advanced Specialization Program in Instrumental Music (Contemporary Solo Piano, 3rd level) in Pinerolo, studying with Emanuele Arciuli, Nicolas Hodges, Ralph van Raat, and Maki Namekawa, while also pursuing chamber music with the Trio di Parma and the Trio Debussy.
In 2023 and 2024, she served as the pianist of the “Laboratorio ’900” contemporary ensemble at the Conservatory of Como. In 2025, she took part in the masterclass and concert series of the Time of Music Festival in Finland, collaborating with Mark Knoop and Matthew Shlomowitz and giving the world premiere of Bach Studies (2025) written for her by Ido Akov. She has also performed Italian and European premieres of works by I. Stölzel, J. Kleider, S. Wu, and B. Wolff. She was selected for the precept.concept.percept XIV artistic residency (Amsterdam–Ljubljana, November 2025 – June 2026), which will conclude at the 6th Bled Contemporary Music Week in Slovenia.
She has taken part in masterclasses with Clive Britton—including his annual “Arrau Piano Surgery”—as well as Roberto Prosseda, Carlo Balzaretti, Roberto Plano, Paolo Gilardi, Giovanni Bellucci, Maria Grazia Bellocchio, Joonas Ahonen, Francesco Prode, and Andrea Lucchesini. She has also attended chamber music masterclasses with Trio Kanon, Tommaso Lonquich, and Marion Reinhard.
She has received awards in both national and international competitions. In 2024, she won First Prize (99/100) in Chamber Music and Second Prize (96/100) in Piano at the 8th IMC “Città di Alessandria.” In 2025, she earned First Prize (96/100) at the 13th “Città di Bardolino” Competition, placed third in the finals of the 23rd IMC “Maria Giubilei” (contemporary music category), and won First Prize (97/100) in the Piano Category E at the 25th IMC Premio Lams Matera.
She has performed as a soloist at numerous festivals in Italy and abroad, including Piano City Milano, Piano City Trieste, “Flying Notes” (Fazioli), Piano Days Trieste, the “Summer Music Festival” (Suoni d’Autore), “Musica d’Estate” at the Accademia di Pinerolo, “Piano Estense” in Ferrara, the “Tucogiò Piano Festival” in Treviso, the Time of Music Festival in Finland, Piano Lab in Puglia, Piano City Lecce, and “Entropia” in Bergamo. She has given solo and chamber recitals at Casa Boschi di Stefano and Casa della Memoria in Milan, at the RAI regional headquarters of Friuli Venezia Giulia, at the Teatro del Mutuo Soccorso in Imperia, and for the “diCHIARAzione” series in Milan. She was selected for a 2025 Piano Link recital in Milan dedicated to Béla Bartók.
In 2022, she recorded a commercial for DHL and FIAT, performing the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata K.331.
Her work has been showcased in numerous group exhibitions, including Ti racconto, vuoi? (San Giuliano Milanese, 2021), Croma (Rome, 2022), London Calling (London, 2022), Arte e moda (Milan, 2022), the live painting event Art Battle (Turin, 2023), In Conversation With… (Washington DC, 2024), OPEN ABOUT IDENTITY (Watchet, UK, 2024), and the International Art and Design Exhibition (Belgium, 2024), as well as the Mostra-concorso Alfio Paris (Bergamo, 2025). She has also presented three solo exhibitions accompanying her concert-performances: Resonant Paintings at the Giovani Talenti Festival in Imperia (2023), a new edition of Resonant Paintings at RAI Friuli Venezia Giulia in Trieste (2024), and Play: audio.image.exe at Teatro Sant’Andrea in Bergamo (2025).
Her work has been featured across several literary and art publications. In March 2024, Creo Literary Journal published an article about her, featuring her painting Op. 5 No. 24 (oil on wood panel, 30 × 24 cm, 2024) on the cover, which was awarded First Prize for Best Painting (article by Ashley Gantz, PhD; Creo Arts). The same artwork appeared on the cover of Art Magazineium, Issue 39 (May 2024), which included a selection of her paintings. Also in May 2024, Issue Twenty of Grim & Gilded featured a short biography and one of her works. Her painting was published alongside a short story in Cool Beans Lit, Summer 2024, Vol. I Issue 4 (edited by Lauren Avedis; art editor J.L. Stagner). She was further featured in the Visual Artists section of Passengers Journal, Volume V Issue 3 (2024), with both a published artwork and biography (editor-in-chief Anna Genevieve Winham; visual arts editor Lauren Viar). In July 2024, her work appeared on LMNL SPCS, published online together with Kendyl Harmeling’s poem Oh, Mama, Mama, curated by Ellis Cavalier and Kate William.
In 2024, she was interviewed by RDE Radio in Trieste. In 2025, she was featured in an interview for Story Time, a podcast produced by Radio Canale Italia.
Artist statement
Castoldi’s artistic research unfolds within an aesthetic framework combining liminal spaces with cinematic horror, contemporary surrealism, imaginary spaces, and the unsettling emptiness of backrooms. Her influences also include the literary worlds of Kafka and Lovecraft.
Her practice develops along two interconnected paths: figurative oil paintings depicting atmospheres of abandonment, suspension, and perceptual distortion, and integrated multimedia compositions combining video, painting, and music (composed for piano and electronics). These intermedial works emerge from a collaborative process with a composer, in which visual and sonic elements are conceived together from the earliest stages.
Castoldi investigates physical and psychological distress, including body image disturbances, self-harm, depression, anxiety, and social isolation. Her work is deliberately pessimistic, unsettling, and agitated, yet often conveys fragility and delicacy. She aims to represent these states at the deepest, most material and unconscious level.
Her intent is to create immersive experiences that allow viewers to inhabit the emotional landscapes of her work, fostering empathy, provoking visceral reactions, and simultaneously communicating sensations of eternal calm and suspension from reality. Positioned within intermediality, post-surrealist painting, and emotionally-driven performative sound art, she employs oil on canvas or wooden panels, sometimes with nails or threads, and graphite or ink.
Her output includes collections of autonomous paintings and intermedial works, typically presented as 40-60 minute performances for piano and live electronics (video and tape) accompanied by an exhibition of paintings. She does not assign traditional titles to her works, instead cataloguing them with opus numbers, as one would for musical compositions.
Education/training:
2025 – ongoing
Post-graduate Specialist Courses in Music Performance – Solo Contemporary Piano
Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo – Pinerolo, Italy
Teachers: Emanuele Arciuli, Nicolas Hodges, Ralph van Raat, Maki Namekawa
2023 – 2025
Advanced Contemporary Piano Course
Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo – Pinerolo, Italy
Teacher: Emanuele Arciuli
2018 – 2025
Advanced Piano Course
Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo – Pinerolo, Italy
Teacher: Giovanni Doria Miglietta
2022 – 2024
Master’s Degree in Piano Performance (Second-cycle academic diploma)
Conservatorio di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi” – Como, Italy
Degree awarded on: 4 March 2025
2019 – 2022
Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance (First-cycle academic diploma)
Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado – Milan, Italy
Degree awarded on: 28 October 2022
Selected exhibitions:
18 February – 4 March 2021: “Ti racconto, vuoi?” (group exhibition of finalist works from the themed contest “Radici”), Exhibition Hall, San Giuliano Milanese Cultural Centre, San Giuliano Milanese, Italy. Curated by La corte degli artisti.
6 – 15 May 2022: Croma (group exhibition), Centro Polivalente San Giovanni, Incarico, Rome, Italy. Curated by Irene Carlevale.
June 2022: London Calling (group exhibition), Badiani Art Space, London, United Kingdom. Curated by Art a porter.
September – October 2022: Arte e moda (group exhibition), Arcadia Art Gallery, Milan, Italy.
26 February 2023: Resonant Paintings (solo performance for piano and paintings), Giovani Talenti Festival, Teatro del Mutuo Soccorso, Imperia, Italy.
8 June 2023: Live painting “Art Battle”, Gianca Murazzi, Turin, Italy. Curated by Art a porter.
1 – 31 March 2024: In Conversation With… (group exhibition), The Gallery by Mui, Washington DC (online), USA. Curated by Maria Ilochi.
25 May – 2 September 2024: OPEN ABOUT IDENTITY (group exhibition), East Quai, Watchet, United Kingdom.
June 2024: International Art and Design Exhibition (group exhibition), V-Art Union, Belgium (online). Curated by Jean Janssens.
20 September 2024: Resonant Paintings (solo performance for piano, paintings, and lights), RAI Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Headquarters, Trieste, Italy.
Residencies:
November 2025 – June 2026 – precept.concept.percept XIV, organized by [infra.norma.meta] (Amsterdam) in collaboration with the .abeceda Institute (Ljubljana). The residency will conclude at the 6th Bled Contemporary Music Week (Bled, Slovenia).
Selected press & interviews:
Creo Literary Journal, March 2024
Article about me with the publication of my painting Op. 5 no. 24 (oil on wood panel, 30 x 24 cm, 2024) on the cover.
1st Prize for Best Painting.
Publisher: Creo Arts
Author: Ashley Gantz, PhD
Art Magazineium, Issue 39, May 2024
Catalog featuring some of my paintings, with Op. 5 no. 24 (oil on wood panel, 30 x 24 cm, 2024) on the cover.
Curated by: Artmagazineium.com
Issue Twenty, Grim & Gilded, May 2024
Short biography and publication of a painting.
Curated by: Carter Brighton
Cool Beans Lit, Summer 2024, Vol. I Issue 4
Publication of a painting accompanying a short story.
Editor: Lauren Avedis
Art Editor: J.L. Stagner
https://www.coolbeanslit.com/issue4
Passengers Journal, Volume V Issue 3, 2024
Publication of a painting and biography in the Visual Artists section.
Editor-in-chief: Anna Genevieve Winham
Visual Arts Editor: Lauren Viar
https://www.passengersjournal.com/volume-5-issue-3
LMNL SPCS, July 2024
Publication on the website alongside the poem Oh, Mama, Mama by Kendyl Harmeling.
Curated by Ellis Cavalier and Kate William
http://liminalspacesmagazine.com/oh-mama-mama/
Radio Interviews:
14 November 2024
Interview by RDE Radio TV broadcasting, Trieste, Italy
28 July 2025
Interview with the editorial team of Story Time, podcast of Radio Canale Italia, Pero (MI), Italy