Training
My musical education began when I was 9 at the Istituto Musicale Comunale “Antonio Tonelli” in Carpi, at first with M° Erio Silvestri, already about to retire, and afterwards with Giorgio Tosi -a very young piano teacher at that time and a renowned composer nowadays.
Afterwards I attended the Conservatory of Music “Arrigo Boito” in Parma where I have studied with Mario Borciani to obtain the diploma in 1983 with the maximum score and mention
After my piano diploma, I have followed several perfecting courses: the Piano Academy in Imola with Lazar Berman and Franco Scala for the solo repertoire, the “Trio di Trieste” courses at the International School in Duino for the instrumental chamber music and I was lucky enough to be able to study vocal chamber music with Erik Werba and Dalton Baldwin.
But academic studies represented only a part of my education; equally important were the parallel experiences, friendships, encounters with other musical personalities, the frequent visits to the Teatro Regio in Parma and other concert halls, and the passionate and lengthy discussions, often at night, in which the music was always present if not the main topic.
Piero Guarino director of the Conservatory of Parma from 1977 to 1988 was one of those people capable of inspiring with their presence only. Charisma. Outstanding pianist, pupil of Cortot and Casella and friend of Poulenc, when he played all disappeared, even the piano, leaving only the music, the atmosphere, the magic. His Debussy was unforgettable as his memorable figure walking in the cloister of the Conservatory with his Siamese cat on his shoulder. In the months before graduation, he had given me permission to stay to study at night, alone, when the Conservatory was already closed. It was a secret deal and gave me a great pride. With less pleasure, though, I remember how three days before my graduation he broke in the classroom where I was studying, shouting angrily at me because, anxious as I was, instead of studying slowly and methodically, I would keep on repeating the pieces from the beginning to the end and always fast.
With Stefano Pagliani, leader of the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, I played in a duo from the early years of study up to graduation. Before his graduation, often we went to Milan to follow the lessons of his teacher, Paolo Borciani, first violin of the historic “Quartetto Italiano”. He inspired a particular awe, which lingered even when you went to his house, because then there was his wife Elisa Pergreffi, second violinist of the Quartetto Italiano. With those lessons, often at four hands, in 1982 at the Vittorio Veneto National Competition Stefano Pagliani and myself won the Special Award for Duo.
My first public concert -I was still a student- was with the violinist Fabio Biondi, later founder of Europa Galante, then fellow student and already avid researcher and student of Vivaldi's works. In the programme there was the third sonata by Brahms.