On Saturday, January 29th, our students enjoyed an online didactic concert and master class held on Zoom by tuba player Gianmario Strappati from Italy.
Gianmario is an Italian soloist and Ambassador of the Don Bosco Missions for Music in the world (Missioni Don Bosco ONLUS), who has recorded for CNN, Rai, Vatican Radio, Rogers TV, and Sky Classica.
The session began with a live presentation and accompanying explanations of some repertoire for tuba and piano. Gianmario also talked about his experience as a musician giving recitals around the world and took the opportunity to give advice and technical explanations concerning breathing and vibrato, as well as explaining general concepts and providing examples of technical exercises for daily practice.
The program lasted one hour, with repertoire including composers such as W.A. Mozart, J. Williams, A. Lebedev, A. Piazzolla, N.R. Korsakov, and V. Monti, among others. Toward the end of the session, Gianmario then answered questions that had been sent using the Zoom chat function.
It was an enjoyable experience for all, during which we were truly able to see the quality of the students we have – primarily children who knew how to take advantage of a valuable opportunity such as this, all while being very respectful, participative, and thoroughly enjoying this live concert.💙