Emmanuele Verona

1940 - 2008

Emmanuele Verona was an acclaimed pianist and composer who concertized widely throughout Europe and in the United States. He taught in leading conservatories in Europe and in SDA colleges there and in the U.S.

Emmanuelle was born in Ferma, Italy, on February 1, 1940, one of two sons of Pastor Dino and Vera Romanelli Verona. His father was an ordained SDA minister who pastored churches in Milan, Palermo, Florence, Italy, and oversaw the work in Sicily.

He started lessons on piano in Palermo with Vincenzo Mannino and Turi Belfiore for five years and then studied in Florence, before moving to Salzburg, Austria, where he studied with Rio Nardi, student of Vincenzo Ferruccio Busoni.  He also studied with Alfred Vaucher, Roberto Longhi, and Luigi Dallapiccola, leading musicians of that time.

At the recommendation of Dallapiccola, a noted composer and pianist, he received a scholarship for study at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow for two years with Heinrich G. Neuhaus, who praised his interpretation of Chopin'’s works.

Verona concertized extensively in Europe until 1962 and served as chair of music in the SDA college in Collonges, France. Following a 1966 series of recitals in the U.S. and Canada commemorating the centennial of the birth of Ferruccio Busoni, famed German-Italian composer and pianist, he taught a masterclass at Redlands University and then taught as an artist in residence at Loma Linda and Andrews universities. During his stay in Loma Linda, he married Lynd M. Foster on October 23, 1965. They divorced in Michigan in July 1968.  Emmanuelle's father, Dino, had died a year earlier on May 3, 1967, during a visit with his son in Berrien Springs, Michigan. 

On his return to Italy, he became chair of the piano department at the music conservatories in Rivago (1970-1978) and Bologna (1979-1981). He joined the music faculty at Newbold College in England, where he taught from 1981 to 1984.   

Verona subsequently taught at music conservatories in Campobasso, Adria, Fermo, Venice, and Ferrara, Italy, until 2003, while continuing to give masterclasses in Europe. In 1990, he was chosen by Société Paderewski di Morge to oversee an international course of piano instruction and serve as president of a related competition to celebrate the anticipated return of Paderewski’s remains in 1992 from the U.S., where he had been interred temporarily at the time of his death in 1941 with a State Funeral at Arlington National Cemetery by order of President Franklin Roosevelt.

Verona was living in Pistoia, Italy, when he died on July 1, 2008, at age 68.

ds/2019

Sources: J.C. Thompson, "Good Results in Sicily," Review and Herald, November 11, 1954, 14; SDA Yearbooks, 1963, 246 (Dino); 1978, 350 (Emanuele); Lake Union Herald, December 27, 1966, 16 (Dino); "Concert Pianist joins Music Faculty," Lake Union Herald, August 23, 1966, 16; Sakae Kubo, "New Staff appointments at Newbold College," Messenger, April 3, 1981; Wikipedia (Verona and Paderewski biographies); Google.com; Geni World Tree, myheritage.com.