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Nicola Elias Rigato

Composer and Pianist

Italy

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About

Nicola Elias Rigato was born on 12/8/1991 in Rovigo (Italy) where he lives. In 2012 he obtained the Piano Diploma at the “F. Venezze ”of Rovigo reaching full marks, praise, honorable mention. He continued his studies at the same Conservatory obtaining a Degree in Chamber Music, with Maestro Massimiliano Mainolfi, reaching 110 with honors and mention. He studies through numerous masterclasses with Maestro Oxana Yablonskaya, also participating in those of Masters Pier Narciso Masi, Roberto Prosseda, Orazio Maione, Pietro De Maria, Sergei Edelmann, Piero Rattalino, Wolgang Manz, Anna Kravtchenko. In 2019 he obtained the Diploma Old Order of Composition with full marks at the "Steffani" Conservatory under the guidance of Maestro Gian-Luca Baldi, also participating in the composition masterclasses of Giovanni Sollima, Paolo Aralla, Claudio Ambrosini, Fabrizio De Rossi Re , Gianvincenzo Cresta.

In 2012 he forms a Trio with Sofia Gelsomini (violin) and Marco Venturini (cello), which is the winner of the Absolute First Prize of the City of Giussano 2013 and Salieri Legnago 2013 competitions. The "Trio Hermes" performed at the Sacile Theater ( 2014) and at the Alfieri Theater in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana (2015).He performs in piano recital at the Cotogni Theater, Castelmassa (2011); Agazzotti Cultural Lounge, Modena (2012 and 2017); Social Theater and Accademia del Concordi, Rovigo (2013); Marcabruni-Giuliani Palace, Arco (2015); Mendigorria Theater, Spain; Casino Ceretà Theater, Puigcerdà, Spain (2014); Cabinet of Reading, Padua (2017).

His music was performed by the Duo Zappa-Mainolfi in Lisbon (2012) and during the duo's tour in South Africa. In 2015 he performed original music in duo with the violinist Valentino Corvino at the Academic Theater of Castelfranco Veneto. It is performed during the Seetaler Poesiesommer European Tour (2016), as well as at the FUNDUS event, at MART in Rovereto (2016); of this international project, in the same year, he becomes responsible for Italy, bringing contemporary music to the major Italian art museums. In 2015 he composes original music for the Museum of Polesella (RO), in 2016 he composes original music for the audiobook "Peter Pan and the island of dreams", published thanks to AlphaZTL and the inmates of the Brindisi prison. In 2018 he won the Don Sante Montanaro Award International Composition Competition (Bari). In 2019 he is a guest of InnoVits in the final event "The Noise of Attention", a business laboratory, in which he gives a speech on the theme of attention.

Since 2012 he has been teaching piano and composition at the Bonifacio Middle School, Pro Music School, Prima Corda Association. He teaches piano composition and ensemble music in Modena at the FOUR cultural association, Casa di Musica, of which he is vice president. In 2018 he published "La Mano, La Mente, Il Cuore" (Fabbrica dei Segni publisher), a method of piano specialization and first instrumental application of the FOUR Method by Laura Polato, already adopted by several Italian primary schools. In 2019 he published "Sul Palco - practical guide for musicians and pianists" (Fabbrica dei Segni publisher).

https://www.terentyevpublishing.com/composers/nicola-elias-rigato

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Interview

What does music mean to you personally?

a key to access the inner world, where I can connect to the best part of me and capture ideas (which I would not call mine)

Do you agree that music is all about fantasy?

Yes, but not only that. Music is about creating a new world. Concretely.

If you were not a professional musician, what would you have been? 


I wanted to be a philosopher, an astronaut, a theologian, an architect, a soldier. Shared ideas? Being a composer is doing each of these all together.

The classical music audience is getting old, are you worried about the future? 


I know that one of my goals is to be able to tell music especially to young people. I see that there is a lot of desire, it is enough to find the right language to be understood. Classical music is really simple to understand, it takes two or three interpretations.

What do you envision the role of music to be in the 21st century? Do you see that there is a transformation of this role?

I imagine that music can be an increasingly transversal phenomenon, capable of connecting more and more people from more and more distant parts of the globe, connecting genres. I hope that due attention is invested in listening. We still have, after centuries of music, to learn to listen.

Do you think that the musician today needs to be more creative? What is the role of creativity in the musical process for you?

I see a lot of creativity around me, there is a generation that enjoys mixing every genre creating new references with an impossible speed in the past. The creative process has also gotten faster somehow. It is a lot of having the right "nutrients" and dealing with "digesting" them in your life

Do you think we as musicians can do something to attract the younger generation to music concerts? How would you do this?

I believe that every artist has to do a deep work on himself to bring out the real himself, this creates a lot of strength. The second step is that we must learn to communicate, it is not easy, but it’s a great challenge. Times are changing!

Tell us about your creative process. What is your favorite piece (written by you) and how did you start working on it?

the creative process is an infinite space with infinite access routes. Sometimes a sound is enough and everything starts, sometimes while walking I have a melodic idea, sometimes I have an image, sometimes I just improvise at the piano and my hands do the most of the work, sometimes I have a feeling, sometimes it is an emotion that guides me, sometimes I’m in a strange place and it has it’s own story, sometimes I have set myself a concept or a structure to follow and that is self-built under my eyes ... The piece that I like best, I think, is the Adagietto for cello and piano. I was on my bike, and the melody rained down on me, I pedaled very fast singing to get home and write it. Then months and months of development, immersed in the piano. The world became very small and distant, and I was one with that slow birth.

Can you give some advice for young people who want to discover classical music for themselves?

Take a new music each day and listen to it carefully. Go into the unknown, take the names you know less, look for the works that for some reason intrigue you, make a list of 365 songs and practice listening every day.

Do you think about the audience when composing?

I even think of the audience while I study piano at times. There is a part of me that is related to the other, and that I once saw as an antagonist. It was a kind of need for pleasure. Now I use it to maintain contact with perceived beauty. I try to have a relationship with the imaginary ear of my audience. And my audience begins to have the faces of the people I love and who love me, and therefore when I play, compose, or perform, I always feel at home, among them. I am part of the public, mind you. The composer is a role within me, I'm just the assistant.

What projects are coming up? Do you experiment in your projects?

The most recent project is a virtual choir. It is called We-Choir. We are choristers scattered around Europe, with the aim of performing new contemporary music written by emerging young composers. It is a wonderful project and I am fully satisfied with it. There are too many forgotten voices out there, composers and singers. We have to come together and make the music feel alive by singing it together. Singers, composers, come with us for the next projects! This is the first video we made. The song is Meanwhile Planets, a composition of mine, a sort of prayer addressed to the cosmos.