Roberto Poli’s activity as an author began with the publication of his critically acclaimed first book, “The Secret Life of Musical Notation: defying interpretive traditions” (Amadeus Press, 2010). Based on years of research and performance, and presenting original groundbreaking insights, it features discoveries based on the analysis of Chopin’s manuscripts and early editions, and provides a new vision of his works that is both scholarly and practical. Additionally, the book features the multi-media interaction of text and audio-clips, which illustrate each example in the author’s interpretation. A second book, titled “It’s about Time,” is forthcoming, and discusses the concepts of time, rhythm, and pulse through the eyes of both the musician of the past and the modern man, and how we can relate to the past to find a musical language for the future.

Roberto Poli is the Artistic Director of The Chopin Symposium, an event that gathers world-renowned performers, pedagogues and lecturers. At the 2010 Symposium, he reenacted Chopin’s last concert in Paris, performing on an 1845 Pleyel piano on loan from the Frederick Collection; at subsequent symposia, he reenacted Chopin’s legendary 1832, 1841, and 1842 concerts at the Pleyel Salons, and impersonated Sigismond Thalberg in a reenactment of the 1837 duel between Liszt and Thalberg at the salon of Cristina di Belgiojoso.

After Roberto Poli’s American debut was saluted by the press as “pure magic”, similar assessments have been expressed around the world in cities such as New York, Dublin, Rome, Boston, Tokyo, Zurich, Brussels, Calgary, Vilnius, Paris, Seoul, and wherever he travels. Acclaimed as a soloist on both piano and harpsichord, and as a chamber musician and conductor, Roberto Poli has appeared with the Monet Ensemble, the Trio di Venezia, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, soprano Elizabeth Keusch, mezzo-soprano Colleen Palmer, clarinetist Jonathan Cohler, violinist Markus Placci, and cellists Sarah Carter, Ronald Lowry, Micky Katz, and Leo Eguchi. In recent years, he has appeared in extensive and critically acclaimed tours of South Korea and the United States with cellist Daniel Lee. In April 2015, he appeared as a conductor and soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of El Salvador in a program devoted to Mozart and Chopin.

Roberto Poli is an enthusiastic sought-after teacher and lecturer. From 1999 to 2015, he was on the faculty at The Rivers School Conservatory in Weston, Massachusetts, where he was the Artist-in-Residence and Chair of the Piano Department. He has been on the faculty of New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School and Adult Education since 2003. Many of his students went on to studying at prestigious institutions, such as The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Indiana University, and Carnegie Mellon University. In the fall of 2017, Roberto Poli joined the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he teaches four courses on piano literature. For the past seven years, he has taught four private classes on performance and interpretation for advanced adult pianists, called “From Symbols to Sounds.” He also enjoys a busy schedule of master classes, and has been a guest lecturer and keynote speaker at institutions such as Cornell University, University of Virginia, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, New England Conservatory of Music, and University of Pennsylvania.