Sara Giusti graduated from the Nino Rota Conservatoire in Monopoli (Italy), where she studied with the pianist Benedetto Lupo. She also obtained a Master’s degree in Musical Arts and a Doctorate in Musical Arts in piano performance under Professor Christopher Taylor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA).
She has won numerous first prizes in piano and chamber music competitions from a young age, both in Italy and abroad, including the overall first prize at the Igor Stravinsky Competition (Bari, Italy, 2003), the Beethoven Piano Competition and the Irving Shain Woodwind-Piano Duo Competition (Madison, WI, 2013).
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she was awarded scholarships as a teaching assistant and a project assistant, which enabled her to work as a piano teacher in the music department and as a pianist with the university orchestra under the baton of Maestro James Smith.
Sara also teaches piano and creates theatrical performances and lecture-recitals based on her academic research, which focuses in particular on the music of the Italian composer Nino Rota; in 2020 she published an essay on the affinities between Rota’s film and non-film music, published by Florestano Edizioni (Bari, Italy): Il protagonista tra le righe: Analisi teorica sulla musica di Nino Rota da concerto e per film.
An eclectic artist, Sara collaborates in Barcelona with the renowned actor Lluís Marco on poetry and piano recitals, and as a guest pianist for galas at the Palau de la Música Catalana under the direction of Berta Vallribera i Mir (Studio Isadora, dance school). She also co-organises charity chamber music concerts alongside the mezzo-soprano Guisela Zannerini Neri (Choir of the Gran Teatre del Liceu) in aid of the Barcelona-based NGO Jatakendeya, which carries out projects in various African countries.