From multiple myeloma to the stage — the story of a rebirth told through the notes of a piano.
April 2026
It was June 2022 when, on stage at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Giovanni Allevi felt an excruciating pain. He did not stop the concert: he continued to play, sustained by his sheer willpower and the warmth of the audience. In the days that followed, back pain left him immobilised. Tests revealed a devastating diagnosis: advanced-stage multiple myeloma. A crushing blow for an artist who had made the piano his entire life.
The diagnosis and the long ordeal
From that June, a course of treatment began that lasted almost two years. On 7 February 2024, Allevi moved Italy once more on the Sanremo stage with ‘Tomorrow’, a previously unreleased track composed during his hospital stay. A few days later, the preview performance of his Piano Solo Tour at the Teatro Guglielmi in Massa marked his official return to the stage. On 27 December 2025, the Piano Solo Tour 2025/26 kicked off in Rome.
‘I’m tentatively resuming the tour. I already know it will be very tiring because of the suffering my body is going through. Yet I feel I’m approaching the piano with a completely new feeling: pure love.’
A creative universe born of illness
His return to the stage is accompanied by a rich creative journey. The documentary film Allevi – Back to Life, presented at the 2025 Rome Film Festival, documents the fragility of the body without filters but celebrates the strength of the mind: it is a visual diary showing how the Maestro had to relearn how to live with his instrument, accepting the limitations imposed by his illness. At the same time, the book *I nove doni – Sulla via della felicità* (The Nine Gifts – On the Path to Happiness), written during his treatment, offers a profound reflection on fragility as a possible path towards a more authentic happiness.
For Allevi, the piano is no longer just an instrument: it has become a comrade-in-arms. During the long months of therapy, music continued to resonate in his mind, transforming into a logical framework to cling to when his body gave way.
The Piano Solo Tour 2026: music as a manifesto of rebirth
The 2026 tour marks the continuation of his return to the stage. The concerts are characterised by a powerful emotional charge: music becomes not only an artistic expression, but a true manifesto of resilience. The concert in Pavia was no exception.
Held at the Teatro Fraschini, a Lombard architectural gem dating back to the early 1770s, with its characteristic horseshoe-shaped layout designed for perfect acoustics thanks to the skilful use of wood and marble, the venue was able to bring out every nuance of the Maestro’s notes.
On stage, Allevi and his piano create an intimate, almost suspended atmosphere. Between pieces, the Maestro engages with the audience, sharing philosophical reflections on life, pain and the beauty of small things, transforming the concert into an autobiographical narrative set to music. He does not hide his tremors or physical difficulties — he speaks openly of his ‘terrifying back pain’ — and integrates them into the performance, making the concert a moment of genuine human connection.
The repertoire combines great hits such as ‘Aria’ and ‘Come sei veramente’ with compositions born during his darkest period, including ‘Tomorrow’.
There is one detail that strikes a deep chord: Vienna features among the stops on the Piano Solo Tour. On 14 February 2026, Allevi performed at the Ehrbarsaal in the very city where everything had come to a halt. Returning to play there is not merely a professional engagement: it is the closing of a circle, the triumph of life over illness.
Back in June 2022, many feared he would never touch the keys of a piano again. Seeing him today gracing the stages of Europe does full justice to his extraordinary determination.
Upcoming dates:
Giovanni Allevi European Piano Solo Tour 2026
- 13 April – Verona – Teatro Filarmonico
- 18 April – Florence – Teatro del Maggio
- 19 April – Trento – Teatro Auditorium Santa Chiara
- 21 April – Turin – Teatro Colosseo
- 3 May – Lugano – Palazzo dei Congressi
- 4 May – Parma – Teatro Regio
- 5 May – Bergamo – Teatro Donizzetti
- 8 May – Genoa – Politeama Genovese
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