Scionti, Silvio, 1882-1973

Silvio Vittore Alberto Scionti was born on November 20, 1882, in Acireale, Sicily, in Italy. In his early years, he studied piano with his uncle, and later studied with Beniamino Cesi at the Palermo Conservatory, and with Florestano Rossomandi at the Royal Conservatory of Naples. Scionti moved to Chicago on the invitation of Rossomandi's friend Enrico Sansoni, a violinist who wanted to start a music school. Another mutual friend of Rossomandi, Eugen d'Albert, recommended Scionti to John James Hattstaedt of the American Conservatory, and Scionti joined their faculty in 1906. Scionti became a well known concert pianist and teacher, and recorded several piano rolls. He married Isabel Laughlin, a former student who graduated from Baylor University, and moved to Chicago to study with him, and they became a renowned piano duo, performing at Carnegie Hall in 1938 and 1939. The Sciontis relocated to Denton in the early 1940s, as Silvio Scionti joined the music faculty of what is now the University of North Texas. Silvio Scionti died in Rome on May 22, 1973.