Dr. Bottazzi is a compelling speaker, presenting both her life and performance as inspiration.
She has overcome circumstances that would have halted others in their tracks.
At age 23, she had returned from her first around-the-world concert tour, was scheduled for a New York debut, and seemed destined for a stellar performing career when tragedy struck.
A near-fatal car accident left her with major head injuries. Extensive surgery saved her life, but her physical coordination was so impaired that she could hardly walk or lift a cup, let alone play the piano, and her memory was completely unreliable. Doctors told her that she would never be able to perform again. Ms. Bottazzi returned to Argentina and, refusing to believe the doctors’ prognosis, began to slowly build her ability to play the piano. This would eventually take 13 years.
Her many performances include 17 solo recitals at Carnegie Hall. In 1992 she was honored to perform at the White House for President and Mrs. Bush and in 1993 she gave a recital at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II.
Ms. Bottazzi has earned three masters degrees and two doctoral degrees: a PhD in music from universities in Argentina and the U.S. She received a second doctorate from The Juilliard School, becoming the first Latin American to earn a doctorate from that prestigious institution. She has received many awards, among them Outstanding Woman of the Year, given by the All Nations Women's League in 1982, the United Nations Outstanding People From Central and South America award in 1984, and the Outstanding Hispanic Women Achievers Award, presented to her in 1993 by New York Governor Mario Cuomo.
Ms. Bottazzi has been associated with the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and with New York University. She founded, together with her husband Bruno, the Germaine Pinault School of Music in Manhasset, New York, one of New York's finest private music schools, and she has been its director for the past 37 years.
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