Anghiari si racconta

I was born in Sansepolcro on the 15th of August 1997. When I was 4 or 5 years old I went to kindergarten, in San Leo, near our home, near Anghiari. Then I attended elementary school here in Anghiari for 5 years, and then I went to the scuola media ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ for 3 years … it’s near Piazza del Popolo, near the music school. Then, after I finished scuola media, I attended the liceo artistico ‘G. Giovagnoli’, in Sansepolcro, specialising in architecture. There is a bit of a story about this: towards the end of the last year in the scuola media, some representatives from high schools in the area came to advise us on choice of schools. Initially, I wanted to enrol at the liceo artistico in Anghiari (at the time called the Art Institute), because they had started a course in the manufacture and restoration of string instruments – violins, violas, cellos. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the classes hadn’t been organized, so I was moved to Sansepolcro to study architecture.

At the age of 18, I enrolled at the Conservatorium Luigi Cherubini in Florence, to study singing. The motivation to take up a musical career didn’t come directly from me. A singer, called Noemi Umani, who attended the Conservatorium had heard me singing, and suggested that I enrol there. After some reconsideration, I decided to embark on this career that has turned out to be one of the most wonderful choices of my life – I have found a passion….

I’m in my third year of CFP (corso di formazione per accademico), which is the first level, equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in a university. After the 3 years there are another 2 years and then one gains another laurea. It is a long process, but it forms the voice well, the character … it forms a person very well…. In September, I have to take an entrance exam for the Conservatorium of Perugia, as I hope to transfer there from Florence.

I’m a bass, and the composers we have worked on most have been Mozart and Rossini. We have studied some pieces from La cambiale di matrimonio by Rossini, a very beautiful opera, and by Mozart, we’ve done pieces from Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro. We have to learn an instrument as well, and mine is the piano.

In my spare time, when I listen… well, let’s say that I like all kinds of music… I like to vary, I go from 17th, 18th century operas to songs from the ’60s,’70s … I don’t have a preference, I like to listen to a bit of everything. I really like religious music. My first experience of this was with the Anghiari and Sansepolcro choirs, for Christmas concerts. We did pieces for 4 voices, soprano, contralto, tenor and bass and these were quite modern. Later, after I started at the Conservatorium, I began to expand my horizons and listen to, for example, one of the first religious works I listened to was the Mass in C major by Mozart, very beautiful. His Requiem is really beautiful too, and so is Faurè’s. Then I started to listen to earlier music… Gregorian chants, based more on pitch than on rhythm…. And, by chance, I discovered Orthodox sacred music, spectacular pieces, a cappella, just the voices, without musical instruments … they are really beautiful.

I sang in the Anghiari choir for one or two years, but I couldn’t keep it up when I started at the Conservatorium. … The trip to Florence is tiring and takes time off your studying, but I am well organized, so I can manage, and I like to read on the train.

I have a wonderful relationship with my parents … I adore my parents, they are special people. I’m very close to my sisters; we are a very close-knit family. In general, when there is something to do at home I never pull back, unless I have to study. I always give a hand to my parents, if there is something to do, inside the house or outside, I am always very happy to help them.

And, my bond with Anghiari is, let’s say … close. When I go out, when I walk around the streets, it is a place that makes me happy … well, how can I say it… it’s an interesting place – even if I know Anghiari, there is always something new to learn about the town. It is small, but it always has hidden secrets, you can never know it all. And there’s the sense of history here … history is one of my passions.

It is a very beautiful place. For example, the view from the city walls … it is a beautiful thing. It always affects me, at any time of the year. If I stand at the walls with my headphones and listen to a piece of classical or religious music, my mind goes elsewhere, my imagination is unleashed.

The view is obviously different in different seasons. In winter, for example, the landscape is bare, dead, because it is cold and all the trees are bare; it is a darker, gloomier view, and if there is fog at the horizon, it is very evocative. Summer is the exact opposite, everything is more lush, more, let’s say, it releases a more positive energy, because you can see life beyond the walls – trees are luxuriant, sometimes you can see animals, you can see things that you can’t see in winter. But, I prefer winter – it is the season that mirrors my state of mind: from the outside I might seem chatty and sure of myself, but, in general, I am reserved, introverted, like winter … it is one of my faults.

To be honest, here, in Anghiari, I don’t have many friends; I have many in Florence, at the Conservatorium. When I have finished my studies, if there’s the opportunity, I would like to move out of Anghiari, because the world is not only the Tiberina valley, the world is a very big place. The future is unpredictable, but, if I had the chance, I would like very much to work in other places in Italy.  It would be difficult to leave behind the bonds I have here, my family, the town … I would miss my family, but, in the end, … I can survive by myself ….

I have travelled a little. Last year I sang in a couple of concerts of medieval music in Germany, with a choir that comes here to Anghiari every 4-5 years. The conductor asked me if I would like to go to Germany and I accepted and we did these concerts, then they were repeated here in Anghiari, in August.

Anything else? …well, I am not engaged, just joking! Unfortunately, there is not a special girl. My mother says ‘sooner or later she will arrive’ and I answer ‘it is ok like this for me’.