Paolo Cognetti

Once, when I was six, an upright piano caught my eye: I distinctly remember how I stretched up my arms to reach the keys, and then my amazement at the sound they made. I shortly afterward began taking piano lessons and my first compositional experiments. A lot has changed since then but not my love for music, which has grown to become my deepest reason for living.

Overwhelmed by social media notifications, newspaper headlines, political crises, a climate gone mad the temptation to escape from our lives has never been greater. I ask my listeners to stay awake, to go beyond their comfort zone, to embrace change, and to take the risk of being happy.

We still tend to see man essentially as an individual, a separate ego. Asian traditions and the recent acquisitions of physics and cultural anthropology suggest otherwise. It’s the same with music: it does not exist in its own right, but it is made thanks to those who play it, listen to it, talk about it, love it, in short, thanks to all those for whom it holds importance. It’s music only when it’s shared: let’s make some together!

www.paolocognetti.com