THEAround the world in 60 days. Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru. An escape to the Arab Emirates, a tour in Italy and one in Northern Europe. A “jump” in Asia and one in South Africa. Finished here? No: next appointment with Gloria Campaner on December 15 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome for i 24 Preludes op. 28 of Chopin, organized by theRoman Philharmonic Academywith an introduction edited by the companion, the writer Alexander Baricco. After a quick return to India (“the country of the heart”), his 2022 ends on December 28 in Taormina al Tao Christmas Fezt with a tribute to Astor Piazzolla. And with December 28, his activity as a concert performer is also suspended.
“I connected the dots”
Gloria Campaner (photo Damiano Andreotti).
Now that’s a twist!
laughs, Gloria Campaner, who seems to be the perfect incarnation of Mozart’s words: “a good pianist needs head, heart and fingers”.
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I have been playing in public for 32 years (just what is needed to mature the pension, smiles); I made my debut alone at 4 and a half, accompanied by the orchestra at 11, I faced international tours even before becoming of age. But it’s not my tiredness, otherwise a nice, long vacation could be enough for me. There was the pandemic with its reaffirmation of real priorities: I appreciated that time for myself that I’ve never had before or since… The health problem of a loved one has arrived, and like any health problem it makes you understand the fragility of our lives (Baricco underwent a stem cell transplant for chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, ed). It was as if all the dots had finally come together to show me the whole figure…».
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“A bit of revelry”
December 29 will wake up, and?
«I could have a hoop on the head: we must have reveled the night before! (laughs). I will have to cultivate strength because inevitably in the first few months there will be a “psycho-physical” lack for a gesture that I have carried with me all my life. My mother says that once, when I was three years old, I took my little red plastic piano, positioned the Barbie dolls as an audience and started strumming… However, music school only arrived a year later, and by chance: I signed up to escort a very shy friend of mine.
The conservatory as a private student, victories in international competitions, specialization for soloists in Karslruhe, in a crescendo that leads up to the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York.
“I Know Monsters”
«That rhythm was so dizzying – a hundred concerts a year – that even the most positive things flowed away overwhelmed by what was pressing. There was only preparation, there were no parties or weekends: you have to train every day like an athlete. I may seem like a caterpillar, but it’s not easy: loneliness and monsters before-during–after the performance there are many and I know them, although I have learned to control myself. And also to move less … As a child I was agitated so much that I practically went into a trance: my grandmother had thought of calling an exorcist, a priest to bless me (laughs). When you are a child you are not afraid of being attacked or judged, but with adolescence everything changes as soon as you realize that you could be wrong, not liked, not accepted… Fear is disabling, you can’t channel it all into adrenaline, into creativity: there the chasms begin».
The way to the East
Gloria Campaner and Alessandro Baricco at the premiere of La Scala (© SGP).
«On New Year’s Eve 2011-2012 I received what I call “a warning from the universe”: during the concert at the Vivaldi Theater in Jesolo, my hometown, I passed out on stage: internal bleeding. The episode resolved very well, despite the scare. Life, however, through suffering gives you something in terms of awareness and kindness. When I woke up from the anesthesia and saw someone giving me blood, I realized that I was still alive by a miracle, I started practicing gratitude with all my heart, every day. I overturned my life style, dedicating myself to yoga, to in-depth theoretical and practical holistic studies, I stayed for a long time in various Indian ashrams».
Gloria Campaner and the breath
Gloria Campaner (photo Damiano Andreotti).
And now the next step: the abandonment of the source of all stress. Do you enjoy your “retirement”?
«Noooo! I dream of taking off the stage for a while, above all to help some talented young people – but with some fragility, too sensitive – to face it tomorrow with joy. If we don’t learn to train emotionality – like a muscle – hand in hand with technè, emotions will then have the upper hand and we will be overwhelmed when we least expect it (and maybe we will be pushed to leave). The Chinese use the same ideogram for the words “joy” and “music”, while it is such a difficult path that we often forget how much happiness there is in playing. Providing the tools to rediscover that vibrant joy we call music, that’s what interests me».
Enlightened Masters
Gloria Campaner (photo Jarek Wierzbicki).
A figure that already exists? «No, not in our world (except in cases of enlightened masters like Yehudi Menuhin). At the Royal Academy, in London, at least the teaching of is expected Science of Emotionn, but here in Italy there is a long way to go. How to define the role? Performing coach, perhaps. Which of course doesn’t provide shortcuts to studying, eh: as Martha Argerich says, you have to be prepared for 130 percent to give 70…».
A new philosophy
And the didactic formula?
«Already tested since 2018 in a series of five-six hour masterclasses taken everywhere, from America to South Africa, from India to Japan to Europe to the two universities where I teach, in California and Cape Town. The “pillars” of the “gym of emotions” are 12: there is a “physical” part based on learning to breathe (it’s incredible how many people don’t know how to do it correctly!) and on exercises that lower the heart rate. And a more “motivational” part to be able to focus on the best part of us and overturn certain perspectives. Guy? Don’t think: “I don’t want to make a mistake!”, but rather: “What do I want to donate?”. There is no sterile mistake or real defeat: either you win or… you learn! I called these laboratories (which he sometimes collaborates with Ilaria Gaspari) See Sharp, focus. Identify your fears, your fragility, transforming them into an expressive element».
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