the teacher
Carlo explaining the articulation of the middle part of Bach's BWV 998 Fugue in Iserlohn (Germany), 2010.
Conservatory of Music, Maastricht
Information about the Conservatory of Music in Maastricht, application forms etc. can be found by clicking here.
Dear visitor,
Welcome to my new website. Let me give you some you some information about my work as a teacher. I began in 1983, immediately after completing a diploma at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and have continued to the present. I really love teaching at all levels, and quite apart from the satisfaction of sharing my students’ success, I am convinced that this strand of my professional life has formed an essential part of my development as a complete musician.
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As a teacher I have worked with children and adults in the music schools of numerous countries. This wealth of experience has given me the gifts of patience and the ability to explain even difficult concepts in a plain and comprehensible way. I have been fortunate to have tutored guitarists among the best in the world. This wealth of experience has taught me that difficult skill – comparable with that of Swiss tennis star Roger Federer’s trainer – the ability to teach players who already play better than yourself. Casting your eye over the list below you will immediately understand what I mean. I have had the honour to work with amazing players such Duo Melis, Marcin Dylla, Goran Krivocapic, Irina Koulikova, Vladimir Gorbach, Florian Larousse among many others. I think we all learned a lot from each other and I will be eternally thankful to them for having trusted me, as a person and as their teacher.
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Since 1997 I have taught in universities. First at Leipzig, where in a simple but touching ceremony, I was awarded the title of Honorary Professor for educational merits by the Dean and Council of the Institute. During that period I also taught at the Music Academy ‘Ino Mirkovic’ in Lovran (Croatia). That school was a branch of the prestigious Moscow Conservatory ‘P.I.Tchaikowsky’. Whilst there, besides teaching such wonderful players as Adriano Del Sal, I had the opportunity to meet outstanding musical personalities like Ivo Pogorelich. With my colleagues, I had the honour and pleasure to discuss music (and international cuisine), which enriched me enormously as a musician, a person and a chef! In 2002 I was appointed professor at the Conservatory of Music in Maastricht (Netherlands). There, for more than 10 years, I have continued to promote my educational project. My aim is to give all my students at every level the instrumental and cognitive skills to find their own way in study and performance. Beyond this, I try – when necessary – to convince them that musical-playing has nothing to do with eccentricity.
The fact that, during these 17 years, students of my class have achieved to bring home more than 60 prizes from top Competitions around the world (among them we can proudly point out over 40 1st prizes), that until now students from not less than over 30 countries decided to come to Maastricht to work together and, finally, that many students are nowadays themselves teachers at Conservatories around the world and `colleagues´ at the most prestigious Guitar Festivals shows unequivocally the quality of our job. I write `our job` because without the patience, trust and talent of my students this would never have been possible.
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Yours sincerely,
Carlo