(piano)

Spada was born in Rome in 1935 from a family of great musical traditions. He studied piano and composition in the Rome and Milan Conservatories under Tito Aprea and Vito Carnevali (one of Sgambati's last students) and Giorgio Federico Ghedini.

From 1958 on, he started concertizing in Europe appearing with renowned Orchestras such La Scala, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National du Belgique, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Radio Simphonie Orchester Berlin etc. He was introduced in England by the late Sir John Barbirolli who presented him in London at the Royal Festival Hall conducting him also on tour in Switzerland with the Hallé Orchestra. He also appearedwith the Scottish National, London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic often cooperating with British conductors such as Sir Alexander Gibson, Sir John Pritchard, Anatole Fistoulari and well known conductors such as Vittorio Gui, Carlo Zecchi, Nino Sonzogno, Lovro von Matacic, Jascha Horenstein, Charles Bruck, Eduard Van Remoortel, etc.

In the 60s and 70s, he had 16 LPs issued by RCA. In the late sixties, he was guest Professor in the USAat Florida State University, Cincinnaty University Conservatory and Indiana University and he won a grant for research on Muzio Clementi at Indiana while appearing with Werner Torkanowsky and New Orleans Philharmonic. In the 70s, he started his editing activities publishing the Complete Symphonic works by Muzio Clementi (Suvini Zerboni, Milan), later on he founded the Boccaccini & Spada Editori Company which is today well known worldwide and represented by some of the major firms in the area (Durand Bmg, Universal Edition, Schott Mainz, Theodore Presser, etc.), while he reduced concertizing but not recording in cooperation with ASV and Philharmonia Orchestra and Arts Music from Munich, for whom he issued the Complete Solo Sonatas by Clementi on 19 CDs, the Complete Works by John Field (6 CDs), the Complete Chamber Music by Donizetti, the Complete Paisiello's Concertos, and the complete Sgambati's piano works. He did not appear in public for about 15 years but he continued to record several CDs, still unpublished (2 Mozart, 1 Beethoven, 4 Schumann,1 Brahms, 1 Chopin, 1 Liszt, 1 Mendelssohn, 1 Italian Recital with many unknown works, and the "History of the Polonaise" on 4 CDs). The amount of his first editions, to which he devoted the most of his energies is enormous and he very frequently collaborated with world renowned conductors such as Claudio and Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly and Riccardo Muti.

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