Carlo Balzaretti is a prominent figure on the Italian and international piano scene. Pianist, composer, lecturer and Conservatoire Director, he began his concert career at a very young age, performing numerous piano and chamber recitals, appearing in RAI television broadcasts and pursuing an intense artistic, educational and promotional activity. He began his musical studies at the age of four with Franca Balzaretti, graduating in Piano and Composition at the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatoire in Milan under the guidance of Alberto Mozzati, Paolo Bordoni, Angelo Corradini, Danilo Lorenzini and Azio Corghi, alongside studies in Orchestral Conducting. He furthered his studies in Chamber Music with Riccardo Brengola (Accademia Chigiana di Siena), Corrado Romano (Conservatoire de Musique de Genève) and Franco Gulli. Winner of numerous first prizes in national and international competitions, including the prestigious "Maria Canals" International Competition in Barcelona (1982), in 1986 he was selected as the sole Italian representative at the Eurovision Young Musicians in Copenhagen. He also represented Italy in the European series "Concerti per l'Europa", organised by the European Economic Community and broadcast by RAI via satellite. His extensive concert activity has taken him across Europe, the United States and Asia, as a guest at major festivals and musical institutions, including the Bergamo and Brescia International Festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, the International Mozart Festival, the Liszt Festival in Bellagio, the International Piano Festival in Beijing, the Varna State Philharmonic Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali, the Serate Musicali di Milano, the Gioventù Musicale d'Italia and numerous other prestigious international concert seasons. On the occasion of his debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington in 1993, the Washington Post wrote: "Carlo Balzaretti proved to be an excellent soloist in Mozart's Concerto K.491. He seduced the audience with a solid Mozartian technique and an intelligent conception of the composition." Alongside his concert career, he has developed an extensive recording activity. He has recorded for CGD, Dynamic, Tactus, DDT Torino and numerous other labels, devoting particular attention to the promotion of Italian music. His recordings are now available on the major international streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Halidon. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses and advanced courses at prestigious international institutions, including the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the China Conservatory, the Graduate Institute of Performing Arts of the National Taiwan Normal University, Beihua University, Xinghai University, the East China Normal University in Shanghai, as well as numerous universities and conservatoires in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. He has been appointed Honorary Professor at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music and the Wuhan Conservatoire. From 2014 to 2018 he collaborated with the University of Milano-Bicocca as part of courses and seminars. For over twenty years he has collaborated with jazz pianist and composer Enrico Intra on the artistic project "Piani Diversi", dedicated to the dialogue between classical music and jazz. In March 2021, the Central Conservatory of Music Press in Beijing published a collection of his piano compositions, subsequently adopted as study repertoire in numerous Chinese universities. His works are also included in collections published by Ricordi, Warner Bros and Hachette, currently used in conservatoires and music schools. In 2024 he gave masterclasses at the Wuhan Conservatoire, the China Conservatory in Beijing, the Huazhong International Music Festival and the Hong Kong International Music Festival, events to which he was invited as pianist, teacher and jury member. He is frequently invited to serve on the juries of prestigious international piano competitions and has taught in major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Hong Kong, Dalian, Jilin and Shenyang, as well as in Taipei. In 2025 he was selected for the international PNRR project "T4T – The Four Turandot", as a piano teacher for the training of high-level young talents, carrying out teaching activities in Indonesia, Vietnam and Australia. In the same year he served as Jury President for the Piano Performance and Piano Interpretation sections of the inaugural edition of the Agnesi International Music Competition, contributing to the selection of young pianists from numerous countries around the world. In September 2025 he was appointed Visiting Professor at Shenzhen Technology University and Deputy Director of the Strategic Development Advisory Committee of the School of Music for the three-year period 2025–2028. He was also invited to give a masterclass at the prestigious Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the first Italian pianist to receive such an invitation. Since 2007 he has held directorial positions at several Italian conservatoires, including Brescia, Como and Gallarate, combining his artistic activity with a constant commitment to training the next generation of musicians.