Villa Pennisi in Musica

As a musician and music lover I have always been interested in architecture, since it is a discipline that, in many ways, draws parallel lines to music. Architects create spaces that help us live and enjoy life; musicians create musical spaces in which emotions and feelings can take place. Additionally, as someone who plays in many different places through the year, I have also wondered how musicians and architects should work together in order to achieve great-looking concert spaces with a wonderful acoustics. Should function follow form, or should it be the opposite?

I think I found my answer this summer, in Villa Pennisi in Musica. I honestly didn’t know what to expect when my friend David Romano, the extraordinary brain behind the whole idea, asked me to join the ‘Villa Pennisi family’. Almost every musician takes part in masterclasses and chamber music festivals in the summer… but a joint workshop between musicians, architects and designers sounded like either a genius match or a recipe for disaster. How could a group of students build an acoustic shell for open-air concerts which would enhance our sound and equal a concert hall?

It is hard for me to describe, to those who haven’t been yet to Villa Pennisi, what it is like to enter the garden, where everything takes place, for the first time. Students practicing under trees or having a rest in the sun, some architects and designers busy cutting wood, painting and assembling parts of the Shell, some others discussing the perfect acoustic for a LEGO building… all in perfect harmony. And that is the key of VPM: the fact that music and architecture, sound and sound design, acoustic shell and instrument… end up meaning the same thing. They mean art, they mean work and they mean making an effort, all together, to achieve the most wonderful acoustic where one can make the most wonderful music.

I lived many memorable moments in VPM: teaching, playing with wonderful colleagues, listening to our students in concert, chatting with the architects and designers, learning from Maestro Pappano’s insightful thoughts on acoustics… However, there was a night which stole my heart: following several days of hard work, and after a far too large dinner, four of us lucky musicians were asked try the brand new finished Shell for the first time. The harmonies of Mozart’s Oboe Quartet, together with the unique mood of a summer night and the incredible sound result they achieved brought tears of joy to many and made it a genuinely magical moment.

I think VPM is the future. A healthy collaboration, an open and modern relationship between musicians and architects, and a brainstorming central where every idea counts and everyone has the chance to learn, work and make their dreams happen. Thank you VPM!!!