Aldo Ciccolini (born August 15, 1925), is a French pianist of Italian origin. He was born in Naples where he began his career playing at the Theater San Carlo at the age of 16. In 1949, he won the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud competition in Paris. He became a French citizen in 1969 and taught at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1970 to 1988 (His students are Akiko Ebi, Géry Moutier, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Artur Pizzaro, Nicholas Angelich). Ciccolini is a celebrated interpreter and advocate of the piano music of the French composers Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Erik Satie as well as that of less prominent composers such as Déodat de Séverac, Jules Massenet, Charles-Valentin Alkan, and Alexis de Castillon.