Sponsored by the UCLA Emeriti Association and the UCLA Retirees Association
Alessio Cantolini Raggi
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026: 1:30 – 3:00 p.m., University Club, Morrison Room
The Emeriti and Retirees Associations invite you to our popular annual musical program featuring piano recitals by two extremely gifted students in The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, who were selected by their UCLA piano professors. Performing will be Alessio Santolini Raggi, who is studying under Inna Faliks, Professor and Head of the School’s Piano Department; and Hongbo Cai, a student from the studio of David Kaplan, an associate professor who holds the Inaugural Shapiro Family Chair in Piano at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. This program is free to attend.
Alessio Santolini Raggi, 23, is a multi-award-winning artist based in Los Angeles, working at the intersection of experimental electronic pop and contemporary classical music. He learned piano at age 5, violin at 9, composition at 11, and digital audio production at 15. By 22, he had earned a master’s degree in piano, a bachelor’s in composition, a second-level master’s in piano, and a master’s in film and media composition — all with honors — and is currently pursuing an additional master’s in piano with Professor Faliks at UCLA. Alessio has studied at institutions in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and California, and is fluent in five languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French, and German — in addition to classical studies in Latin and Ancient Greek. From New York to Hong Kong, he has participated in a diverse range of events, including solo, chamber and orchestral concerts, discographic recordings, radio and television projects, artistic curations, movie productions, conferences, and film festivals. Alessio has won first prize in a wide variety of national and international music competitions. He released his piano album “Interplay” for Bösendorfer this year, and is currently working on two other electroacoustic albums at Funkhaus, Berlin, planned for release next year.
Hongbo Cai is an interdisciplinary musician, writer, filmmaker, and researcher whose work bridges creative performance practice with critical inquiry into media. A graduate in piano performance from The Juilliard School, he made his Carnegie Hall debut at 21 and, at 22, joined New York University’s piano faculty as an adjunct professor. The following year, he appeared with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. He has performed with orchestras including the Shanghai Opera House, Shanghai Philharmonic, Pazardzhik State Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria), Mikhail Jora Philharmonic (Romania), Florence Philharmonic, New York Youth Orchestra, West New York Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra do Algarve (Portugal), and members of the New York Philharmonic. As a writer-director, his works have been selected by the Venice Biennale College Blend, the Beijing International Short Film Festival, the Toronto International Independent Short Film Festival, and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and were presented at New York University’s Music Department Colloquium Series. His theater works have been chosen for the Juilliard Risk Lab Residency and the 2025 Community Impact Residency Program for U.S. Emerging Artists.
Both Alessio and Hongbo will perform piano concerts on the University Club’s Steinway B piano, located in the Morrison Room, and each will have a short conversation with Stuart Wolpert, director of UCLA Conversations.
We will be joined by Michael Beckerman, the new Dean of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
The UCLA Emeriti Association and the UCLA Retirees Association (UCLARA) are both all-volunteer organizations that represent the interests of UCLA's retired faculty/staff and plan programs for their members. Support their advocacy efforts by joining or renewing your membership. Membership forms will be available at the program.
