Dismamusica Magazine, Year VII - Nr. 17
(Italian Society Manufacturers and Importers
of Music Instruments and Editions)
February 2005 (page 16):

The personage
With the force of enthusiasm
by Cristiano Cameroni

SERGIO CALLIGARIS IS THE ARGENTINIAN PIANIST AND COMPOSER AWARDED LAST NOVEMBER WITH THE NOMINATION AS INTERNATIONAL MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR 2004. WE HAVE MET HIM TO TALK ON HIS PROJECTS, AND TO ASK HIM WHAT HE THINKS ON THE STATE OF MUSIC IN OUR COUNTRY...

Simply glancing over his curriculum, you start to shadder all over, because you immediately have the certainty to have to do with a fine interpreter and an extraordinary composer. Surprisingly, Sergio Calligaris welcomes you with simplicity and bonhomie, underlining many times how is entirely useless that a famous artist set himself on a superior plan, detached from the people that surround him.
"You see", Calligaris mischievously suggests me, "I was born in the New World. Over there, we have the maximum respect for your Europe, that we recognize as cultural country. But the history of our nations is definitely briefer in comparison to yours; hence we prefer to live without the ceremonies and to unsheathe what is perhaps our greatest quality, i.e. an inexhaustible practical sense. And it is really from this perspective that I ask you: which advantage would I have if I set me on a pedestal? Am I not a person that, as many others and you, is trying to do his own job in the best possible way? "

Musician of the year 2004

And Sergio Calligaris seems to have done his job very well, if the international jury in the Cambridge Biographic International Centre has attributed him, last November (Calligaris did not suspected it in advance), the title of Musician of the Year 2004. The award has been attributed him, following the words of the official declaration, "for the remarkable contribution given to the art of piano playing and to the composition at an international level". A contribution that has been given by the Maestro Calligaris for the intense concert activity as piano player, from the beginning of 50s to '70s, as soloist in solo piano recitals or accompanied by that the most prestigious orchestras in the world, and for teaching and composing thereafter. Teacher of principal Piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the California State University of Los Angeles, in 1974 Sergio Calligaris moved to Italy, where he has kept his teaching activity on at the Conservatories of Naples, L'Aquila and Pescara starting regularly to compose. His works are performed in the most important theatres around the world and they are often broadcasted by Radio and TV channels.

The matter of music in Italy

Made this premise, the interview with Sergio Calligaris forebodes to be interesting, expecially after the polemic on teaching music in Italy, that has rightly qualified in our days as "important" by the headlines of the most important newspapers.
I decide to touch immediately this important point: "From the high of your international experience as musician and teacher, what do you think on the present status of music in Italy?"
The answer, as I foresaw, is sanguine and comes quickly up: "It saddens and surprises me. The music is a beautiful thing, is one of the most beautiful things of life! The music must be lived with enthusiasm and with joy, not through the gloomy rules of academies! Today, here in Italy, it is necessary to bring the music to young people, because they do not know it. It is not true, as someone could think, that the young people do not love music: they simply do not know it. I will make you an example that I have been able to verify personally: when I have settled in Italy, at the end of the seventies, art museums were already quite a lot, but most of them were just empty. Today the situation is different, in any day of the week, you find them full of people, of boys, the schools organize visits… in short an artistic culture has quickly grown up and has brought people to art museums. We are all happy for this change: otherwise, tell me the sense of marvellous pictures and sculptures that nobody sees. Similarly, the music needs to be listened. It is necessary to bring music to play inside the schools: this is the only way to develop a culture that otherwise, just within one generation, it risks to go lost. And it doesn't take a lot to understand that, developing a musical culture, all sectors related to music will develop as well: from the CD merchandising to concerts and the book and music instruments industry… all voices that have a notable weight in the Italian cultural identity."
The voice of Sergio Calligaris is lighted. Metaphorically speaking, I have probably touched the right key and try to hazard a new question: "You are known as composer all over the world, but you have also taught in a lot of schools from one side to the other of the ocean. Have you ever thought to write a work for school children?"
The answer came promptly out, before I finished my question : "If you have questioned me on this topic a couple of years ago, I would have been forced to answer negatively; but now the answer can be different… " Almost like an intriguer I said: "Really? What happened recently?".

A music for children

Sergio Calligaris does not stand on ceremony, and enthusiastically continues the story: "You see, I have always thought that the young people are not deserved a foolish or mawkish music. I have always thought - and for this reason someone looks suspiciously at me - that music for children has to be of high-level, like the one for the adults. Take for instance Bach's Anna Magdalena Notebook. It is music that can be played by a first year pupil, nevertheless it is not a second-class Bach. Other examples: the Kinderszenen by Schumann, or Ma mère l'Oye by Ravel. Then, when I have been asked to write a piece for children, I immediately have placed my conditions, later on also clarified in all frankness to the public at its first performance. The work, edited by Carisch, is called Il Giorno (The Day), and I am proud to say that its first execution has received a triumphal success… "
"In Italy… "
"Yes, in Italy. It will also be introduced by the publisher at the next Disma Music Show in Rimini. We are studying a plan to introduce it to the public, but I can already anticipate that at the Show it will be available a promo, that will be added to a promotional CD-box in which Carisch has inserted some parts of this suite. The publisher believes a lot in this proposal, and he has reasons to do so: within next October Il Giorno will also be performed in Spain, for the National Radio-TV Channel."
I interrupt him: "A further confirmation of Maestro Calligaris' international level… ". Sergio Calligaris answers smiling: "Even if this should be the case, it remains true that I am just one who tries to do his own job in the best possible way. I am simply one tessera of that great mosaic which is life. It contains the whole world and its components. Including Music…"

Cristiano Cameroni (translation by Maurizio Brunetti)