Cristiana Pegoraro, an internationally renowned Italian pianist, has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. She recently gave a tribute concert to Italy at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, an event that celebrated Italian-American culture through a repertoire ranging from Vivaldi to Morricone to her own original compositions. In this interview, he tells us about the deep connection with New York, the city that gave a decisive turning point to his career, and reflects on the importance of music as a universal language, capable of conveying profound messages and inspiring audiences, as well as valuable advice for young musicians, who need perseverance and humility to emerge in today’s music scene.
The program of the October 18 concert at Old St. Patrick Cathedral Basilica, as the name of the evening also says, was a tribute to Italy. Can you tell us what it meant for you to play in such an iconic location for the Italian community in New York and what message this concert conveyed?
I was very happy, honored and also excited to have played at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral Basilica, a place, as mentioned, so iconic to the Italian community in New York. I am Italian and I came to New York many years ago to further my musical studies and to open new horizons for my concert career.
This concert wanted to convey an important message, which is that there were many Italians who left their country, Italy, to try to build a life here in America, a successful life, better than the one they had. Many of them succeeded, but through great sacrifices, great efforts, great distances. I think of how many left their families to come here at a time when there were no cell phones, at a time when you took the ship and it took a month to get here, and then found themselves in a foreign country without speaking the language … they faced so many difficulties. But over time, the Italian community has made its way here in America and especially in New York: the Italians have really been very good at establishing themselves.
This concert was a reminder of the efforts made, but also an opportunity to popularize a wide-ranging Italian music repertoire, from Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ to Ennio Morricone’s film music, passing through Neapolitan songs and my own original compositions, so a program that spans various centuries and various styles of music. Important to say that Italy is a very artistic country, it has a great history, tradition, musical culture, and that’s what I wanted to share with this program.
You have played in some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, but what does New York represent to you? How has it influenced your musical career?
What does New York represent to me? New York and America were a dream for me. I studied in Italy, graduated in piano at the age of 16 and left Italy to go to Austria and Germany for further education, and then took this big leap across the Atlantic and landed in New York. Again, like a dream, I wanted to come away from Europe, try different experiences, open my horizons, which I did here in New York. This wonderful city offered me so much, also from the point of view of acquaintances, people who then opened doors for me and helped me get my career off the ground internationally. I started doing concerts already at the age of ten and before arriving in New York I had already done many tours abroad, from South America to Germany and Russia, but the decisive input came from New York. For me New York was-and still is-a very important city, because it definitely launched my international career.
In addition to performing classical pieces, there are also original compositions in his concerts. What emotions or stories do you hold most in your pieces, and how do they relate to your experience as a pianist?
In addition to playing the piano, I really enjoy composing, which I do very spontaneously. My compositions really come from the heart. To write I take inspiration from life, I take inspiration from travel, I take inspiration from everything that makes me grow, from all the emotions that I can feel while living. So, what I tell through my compositions are my life experiences.
However, my compositions also want to convey important messages such as love. You know, I am from Terni, the city of Saint Valentine. In Terni rest the Saint’s remains in the Basilica dedicated to him. I was recently awarded the title of Valentine Ambassador to the world by the Valentinian Cultural Center and the city of Terni, and this gives me the opportunity to share even more, through witnessing the work of this Saint, a message of Love during my concerts.
Of course, an artist should always be good at “communicating” with the audience and sharing emotions. To do this, he or she must have a rich inner world. I believe that in this sense it is very important to travel, to learn about other cultures, to have experiences. Everything that I learn and assimilate in my life I try to externalize through my performances and especially through my compositions. In particular, in the program I played yesterday, I also included one of my compositions entitled ‘Sailing Away,’ which is dedicated to an imaginary sea voyage – I like to call it ‘the voyage of a modern Ulysses’ – which then represents the journey through life. This takes us back to those sea voyages made by emigrants from Italy who came here to America. This is one of my compositions that I love to play the most, because life is a wonderful gift, to be lived 100 percent.
She is involved in several humanitarian projects and collaborates with organizations such as Unicef and Amnesty International. How do you balance your music career with your social work, and what is the role of music in these initiatives?
I believe that it should also belong to the role of the artist to share important messages with his audience. We are fortunate because when we are on a stage we have the power to be listened to carefully. Through art we can send very important messages. Which I do: I dedicate myself, precisely, to many initiatives, including charitable ones, and collaborations with international organizations. I try to carve out time to do everything because I feel it is necessary. It is not easy, but I try. Of course, the role of music in these initiatives is important because, let’s remember, music is a universal language. It doesn’t need words, right? It is a language that goes straight to the heart, and I believe that each of us has a sensitivity. So, speaking through music to people’s hearts is a very direct way of reaching them. I always think that if I can communicate to even one person an inspiration for life, an important concept, the universe that can be behind a melody, already I have done my duty as an artist. My duty as an artist is to inspire my audience, to try to make people better human beings through this perception of music and its masterpieces. The language that speaks to our soul, speaks directly to our heart.
New York was definitely a milestone in his formative journey. What messages or advice would you like to pass on to young musicians who would like to take the same path and what challenges do you see in the current music scene?
Definitely, as I had a chance to say before, New York was a very important city for me and it still is, because it is a city that allows you to do so much, but you have to be committed because there is a lot of competition and it is very fierce, the level is very high, and so you have to be good, you have to be competitive, and to stand out you have to be unique in doing certain things that nobody else does. Also, a little confidence: I also write poetry and I consider myself a well-rounded artist, a creative. Very often poetry inspires music or vice versa. New York then opened many musical horizons for me because it brought me closer to so many different cultures. There are people from all over the world here, and it was through South American friends that I got closer to South American music, to Piazzolla’s tangos, of which I was the first to do piano transcriptions, and my CD Piazzolla Tangos won the gold medal at the prestigious Global Music Awards in California. I also became interested in the Cuban music of Ernesto Lecuona, a very great composer who was almost forgotten at the time, and other composers who were not too well known outside their borders. What I mean is that I had the opportunity to get closer to South American and Central American music here in New York just through other musicians, going to concerts, listening to different repertoires, without even traveling to those places. New York is a city that opens a lot of horizons if you are ready to keep your eyes and heart wide open to experiences. One message I want to convey to young musicians is this: it is not enough to have talent to succeed in an international career, because talent is only the first step. Many other things are necessary. First of all, the spirit of sacrifice, because you have to make so many sacrifices to study, to prepare, to improve. Nothing is improvised and nothing comes down from heaven as a miracle. You really have to work hard. You then have to have a lot of humility, because it is necessary and is perhaps one of the most important things. So is the spirit of adaptation, because traveling so much you find yourself in so many strange, difficult, tiring situations. When you are on a stage you have to give your best, even if we are sick, have a fever, are in a bad mood. At that moment, however, we have a duty to give the best of ourselves to the audience that has come to listen to us, and for that to have the right character is very important. And then I always say: what we build on our own legs belongs to us forever, while what is given to us is transient, it doesn’t stay. We have to rely on ourselves, confront ourselves, try to improve ourselves always, as artists and as human beings.
In terms of the challenges of the current music scene, that’s a very interesting question…clearly time moves on and the world changes. We are living in a time of great technological expansion that gives us access to an infinite amount of material online. I make a reflection. I remember when I was growing up, if I wanted to buy a piece of sheet music or a record I had to go to a store, often order it, wait for it to arrive, go back to the store to get it, go home and start studying or listening. One had to wait some time to get what we wanted, a time, however, that generated positive anticipation, and what satisfaction when we could have what we wanted in our hands! Now with a click we find everything on the Internet, any kind of performance, any kind of musical score. This makes things very easy, maybe even too easy. There is no longer that “positive” effort in getting things. Obviously as easily as you find interesting and useful things, you also find bad and negative things, you have to be very careful in navigating the world of the web. You have to teach young people to be careful, to choose the right things, there are so many pitfalls… This speed given by the Internet, however, leads us to be much less careful. Young kids watch videos on tiktok, very short videos. We are getting used to not having sustained attention. We think that in the nineteenth century concerts lasted even more than three hours. Now it would be impractical to have a piano concert of three hours in a row. Humanity is changing, and one of our artistic challenges is to be concise and to help the audience “get into” the music we are playing. I like to narrate music, my concerts are not only music, but also stories, histories, anecdotes. Classical music is not boring or old people’s music. It is music for everyone, and therefore also for young people, only we are losing this culture and therefore it is necessary to help people to listen. I tell these stories, I illustrate what people are going to listen to, and by doing so I already bring the audience into the piece, after which I play. This way the audience appreciates the performance much more.
The biggest challenge, however, is always to keep music culture alive, which unfortunately is being lost before other interests. A lot depends on the school, on the family, but I am of the opinion that music must be part of us, part of our education. We need to start as early as the age of childhood. We have to bring children closer to music, because music is part of us and it is a wonderful thing that we can have in our lives, an addition that can also help us in so many moments. I am obviously biased because I am an artist, but music is an art that should accompany us always, an art that brings us very close to God, because there is so much of the divine also in music, in the inspiration of these great composers who really made history. It will be a glimmer toward a better humanity, if we can keep it in our hearts and souls.
The article From Italy to New York on the notes of a piano: interview with Cristiana Pegoraro comes from TheNewyorkese.
