An appreciated solo artist, he has been awarded prizes in a number of national and international contests and has played alongside renowned concert performers: Claudio Marcotulli, Guido Corti, Alessio Allegrini, Janos Balint, Mikhail Pethukov, Dimitri Ashkenazy, and many more.
He has performed for important music institutes and festivals in Italy (Gioventù Musicale Italiana, A.GI.MUS., Ente Filarmonico per il Mezzogiorno, Tecne Italiana Musica, Ass. Mozart Italia, Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, Soc. Filarmonica di Trento, Tremezzo - Villa Carlotta, Soc. Buzzolla - Adria, Alcamo, Matera, Ravello, Ischia, Capri, Firenze, Torino, Bergamo - Sala Piatti, Siena, Pistoia, Grosseto, Macerata, Ravenna, Ferrara, Parma-Teatro Cinghio, Venezia - Chiesa di Vivaldi, Perugia, Ass. Amici del Loggione del Teatro alla Scala - Milano, Roma - Cortile dei Musei Capitolini di Piazza del Campidoglio e Sala Paolina di Castel Sant’Angelo, Estate Teatrale Veronese, Rassegna Malipiero - Asolo Musica, I Suoni del Tempo - Cesena, Petilia Festival - Pitigliano, Primavera Musicale Volterrana, Benevento Classica, Piemonte Musica, Festival di Bellagio e del Lago di Como, Todi Festival, International Accordion Festival - Pordenone, Festival di Musica da Camera - Iglesias, Contrada Larga - Trento, Sadurano Serenade - Forlì, Brindisi Classica - Associazione Nino Rota) as well as in Austria (Salzburg), Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, the Balearic Islands (Festival de Palma de Mallorca), Portugal (Palacio Real de Lisboa and Coimbra University), Sweden (Vivaldi Festival), Norway, Denmark, Finland (first ever Italian musician to perform north of the Arctic Circle), Romania (Sala Enescu - Bucharest and International Week of Italian Music - Craiova), Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland (Szymanowski Music Days - Krakow), Russia, Croatia, Albania, Kosovo (ReMusica Festival - Pristina), Canada, United States, Mexico.
Ciccarese has gained abundant recognition both from the public and from reviewers, but it is mainly in most recent years that he has reached his most prestigious objectives: after his appearance at the Carnegie Hall in New York, in 2012, he has played as a soloist accompanied by the Russian Chamber Orchestra (Kursk Festival) and has performed J.S. Bach’s Musical Offering in its entirety accompanied by first-rate Russian musicians at the White Hall of the “Tschaikowsky” Conservatory in Moscow.
His activity as a concert artist stands beside his activity as teacher: he has been teaching flute since 1990; furthermore, he regularly runs courses, music workshops and appraised master classes in Italy, Mexico and in the Balkan Area.