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Concert pianist Dominic Cheli tells tales of lust and loss

By Sue Wade for Florida Weekly

Well-to-do, narcissistic ladies’ man seduces innocent girl on the eve of her wedding to good-hearted, humdrum fiancé.

Naïve young soldier, seduced by fiery young dancer, leaves his childhood sweetheart and deserts the military, only to learn that his new lover loves another. He stabs her to death in a fit of jealous rage.

If you’re guessing this is the latest lineup of Netflix top picks, guess again. It’s the latest presentation of Naples’ Grand Piano Series.

These steamy tales of lust and loss are stories that dynamic pianist Dominic Cheli will tell you mid-concert in Naples and Punta Gorda. Based on operas from Mozart’s Don Giovanni to Bizet’s Carmen, the piano pieces in his program grow even richer with the storytelling.

“I do my best to invite everyone into classical music and show them that it’s not some elitist, scary thing,” he said.

In his nonprofit initiatives Project: Music Heals Us and Street Symphony, he presents interactive classical music experiences to audiences from homeless shelters, prisons and rehab facilities.

“These are places of tension, but music has a way of breaking down barriers. Soon, everyone’s chatting and asking questions. At a concert, people relax while I’m the host and they’re my guests.”

He’s converted Skid Row homeless and prison inmates into classical music lovers, and he intends no less for the audiences of Naples and Punta Gorda on March 25 and 26, respectively.

“Multifaceted” hardly does the guy justice.

This young whirlwind is also a composer, arranger, audio editor, videographer, director, educator, Ironman triathlete and grill-master who loves feeding his friends as much as thrilling an audience.

“It’s in my DNA to have a revolving door of ‘What’s on tap today?’” he said.

His mom a librarian, his dad a jazz saxophone player, Cheli was drawn to myriad art forms and experiences from childhood. And everything he does — whether the discipline of the triathlon or the focused energy of performance — seems to synergize with everything else.

As a kid reading books like Harry Potter, he visualized everything in his head but soon learned that music, too, could paint pictures, tell stories and create moods. An early fascination with Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”— a piano suite inspired by an art exhibit — would lead Cheli to produce his own multimedia events like “The Sound of Paintings,” pairing music and paintings in immersive synesthetic experiences.

As live director of Tonebase Piano, Cheli hosts and presents numerous virtual events to the platform’s more than 4,000 subscribers.

“More than ever, people want to feel enveloped in art, which is what I want to do with my concerts and events,” Cheli said. “Similarly, the Grand Piano Series-sponsored Opera Naples and Punta Gorda programs combine the storytelling of opera with music. These composers—Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and more — wrote virtuosic piano music based on lyrics that tell the story of the opera. I’m going to play their music, but beforehand I’ll tell the audience the story of what’s happening.”

He’ll put us on the opera stage and show us that, just like Netflix, music can tell timeless stories and dish juicy gossip. There’s a reason why he can play with such intensity at everything he does — from performance to sport.

“Athletics and music are basically the same,” he said. “Being physically fit is as important for musicians, who are fine-motor athletes, as for triathletes.”

On the faculty of the Colburn Community Music School, Cheli strives for his students to be imaginative, knowledgeable and reach their personal goals: to enjoy the piano, challenge themselves and get better.

While in Naples, he’ll spend a residency at Title 1 elementary schools and Seacrest School, doing much the same: conducting sessions for non-musicians, which include not only Beethoven and Mozart, but also John Williams and video game music.