«NI didn’t even dare announce the encore. I chose For Elisa by Beethoven or Dream by Schumann: they need no introduction! Gloria Campaner’s shyness is surprising. Surprising for a pianist who began her career as a child, winning international prizes and reaching the Carnegie Hall in New York. And what is preparing for a rather sensational appointment: playing worldwide – on 22 February at the Verona Arena – for the closing ceremony of the XXV Winter Olympic Games. Challenging operation already from the title: Beauty in ActionBeauty in action, in movement.
«And I also became a presenter: I will introduce the broadcast of all the most important concerts of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Rai National Symphony Orchestra on Rai 5. Inside the notes with Gloria Campaner it’s the format” she smiles, a little incredulous herself. It’s not over: it is artistic director of festivals (Piano City in Lecce, Seven Springs in Turin). Protagonist of collaborations with the poet Franco Arminio and the actress Valeria Solarino. Assistant director to Damiano Michieletto for The Barber of Seville. To conclude, the project that is closest to her heart: “C#-See Sharp. The gym of emotions”, a workshop he created to help young artists overcome blocks and unleash creativity. «Before the Arena I will have to practice daily self-sessions» he jokes.
Gloria Campaner’s return in style: «I discovered the true joy of music»
«In reality, today I experience music better: with extreme professionalism, but with joy. With the attitude of someone who explores something he knows well, but in which he still senses infinite possibilities. I feel like I’m swimming in a river constantly discovering new stimuli. Since I was little I have led a solo existence (that’s what I had written on the dressing room door): now I’ve become a bit of a… choir. (laughs) I feel like I’m part of a choir.”
What limitations did you feel before?
«“A lifetime is barely enough to do just one thing well”: the phrase of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli – my favorite pianist, I would have liked to match a tear of his sound! – was drilled into my head. “Won’t one life be enough? So let’s focus on exhaustion, aware that – in any case – it won’t come in a satisfactory way.” I finally opened my eyes: I adore you, Benedetti Michelangeli, but you’re not right! In a lifetime you can try, try again, fall, take a running start, pick yourself up. You can, above all, change direction, go beyond your comfort zone. Our essence is beyond that border: it is where things come “worst” to us, where we are clumsy, awkward. Where we are not perfect.”
Gloria Campaner with her husband Alessandro Baricco in Notte Eretica al Muretto di Jesolo (photo by Andrea Bezdikian).
Gloria Campaner and Alessandro Baricco: love, his illness, rebirth together
And what led you to “open your eyes”? The meeting with Alessandro Baricco?
(thinks about it) Honestly? No. When we met – and we undoubtedly fell in love (almost eight years ago now) – I was in a whirlwind of shows, concerts: I immediately left for three months in the United States and, to follow, a tour in South Africa, in Japan… It happened later, with the great stop of the pandemic and with the reflections aroused by a difficult illness like Alessandro’s (a chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, ed.): when you get up you’re someone else, you really have another skin, another pH… This applies both to you and to those who breathe next to you.”
At the end of 2022 he announced to us that he would even stop performing concerts.
«And so it was: at the time I had already been performing for 32 years, priorities had changed and I was more interested in dedicating myself to C#See Sharp, that is, studying a method so that talented, but too sensitive, kids could train their emotions as if they were a muscle. The project was complex and required my full attention. I said to myself: if I can’t practice 8-10 hours a day anymore, I might as well stop. Over time, however, the piano has always been my companion – I missed it, seeing it closed made me sad: I started again, at first just for myself.”
Gloria Campane will play worldwide – on February 22nd at the Verona Arena – for the closing ceremony of the XXV Winter Olympic Games (photo by Gea Gonnella).
«When I fell into that manhole at La Fenice…»
It’s the fault of Benedetti Michelangeli’s all-encompassing vision…
«This interest in coaching had become equally all-encompassing. I wish there had been a “mental coach” when I fell into that manhole at La Fenice.”
Excuse me?
«I define unexpected failures as “manholes”. I was 17 years old, I was taking part in a very important competition in the theater where I grew up, which I frequented with my family (I was born in Jesolo, near Venice) and I was on stage: I started a Beethoven sonata and landed in another, The goodbyes… Goodbye indeed! It was such a shock that I have only recently been able to talk about it. I ran away in tears and took refuge in a porch to cry. I hated myself, my hands, my fingers. It took me a long time to rebuild a minimum of self-esteem, but I continued to doubt: will I make it or not?
His mission as a coach: to help young people train their emotions
He did it. Now how do you prepare young people for the “manholes”?
«First of all, dismantling – when faced with stress – the “fight or flight” scheme. You must neither fight nor run away. We need to become aware of fears, fragilities and transform them into an expressive element: I called this method C# See Sharp, focus (See Sharp is the English pronunciation of C#, C sharp, ed.). An emotion in itself is neither negative nor positive, it is up to us to decide what sign to give it. Fear, for example: sometimes it alerts you, it saves you, sometimes it blocks you. We need to learn to manage it. In the laboratories there is a “physical” section (from exercises to “educate breathing” to those for lowering the heart rate) and a more “motivational” one. The incredible thing is that recently it’s not just those who practice performing arts who show up, but also teachers (their curtain is the classroom every day) or managers who have daily performances.”
La Traviata from the courtyard together with her husband Alessandro Baricco and her 40th birthday in April
Next surprises, in such a varied journey?
«The creative direction of a courtyard Traviata, with a small cast and low ticket prices: born from an idea by Alessandro, who will be the narrator, it will go on tour for three years. “Backyard”? Yes, it will be set up in the courtyards! Everyone on your feet, there will be the atmosphere of a festival, a village fair, popular as happened with the tour companies. You will have the singer very close or, perhaps, you will miss an aria… Patience!
“I lived on art, I lived on love”. Isn’t there a risk that it might be too much?
«In truth, Alessandro and I choose a few proposals to carry forward together. For 2026 the only project is The wayward one. Of course, even though we don’t share much on stage, we tell each other everything that comes into our heads, and this is an immense value. His presence gives me a lot of trust and trust sets you free. I’m lucky: he’s a great teacher and a very nice, sweet, light-hearted person.”
As? I read that he defines himself as unpleasant compared to her, full of empathy…
«He seems a little snobbish, which he certainly is or, at least, was. He has changed a lot, but he remains a Turinian, a Piedmontese. Savoy in everything.” (smiles)
A significant birthday awaits her on April 5th: her 40th birthday.
«Strange sensation: on the one hand, having dedicated myself intensely to the piano since I was five, I seem to have more of it; on the other hand, with so many initiatives just undertaken, I feel much less. What do I hope for? Materially, a trip on the Nile… Ideally, to adapt Anna Karenina’s phrase to my pace: “Without haste, without respite”. I would get it tattooed, even though I don’t have any tattoos.”
