GIOVANNI GUANTI
“A memory for Angelo”
The first time I had the opportunity to listen to Angelo Gilardino live was in a concert held on a freezing winter evening in the premises of the current Civic Museum of Alessandria, in the same building that houses the Conservatory.
At that time, between the end of the '70s and the beginning of the '80s, I was a composition student, and like almost all of my classmates I stubbornly pursued every possible opportunity to listen to contemporary music.
I distinctly remember the freezing cold of the room, barely mitigated by an electric heater, with the concert performer apologizing and between one song and another trying to warm his hands by rubbing them near the heater.
Already on that occasion I was certain that I was in front of an intellectual, even before a musician, of the first order: his performances were in fact real lessons in analysis, the structure of the pieces emerged with crystalline clarity and the construction of the executive strategy was completely flawless.
The initial impression was realized and strengthened when, starting a few years later, I was lucky enough to become his colleague at the conservatory: in those years, Vivaldi had laid the foundations to become a national point of reference for guitar teaching .
I fondly remember the various occasions of debate and discussion with Angelo, I regret his lucidity and lack of resignation to clichés, the originality with which he approached any topic.
We have sometimes held different and very distant positions, but I have never been able to doubt his good faith and intellectual honesty.
His lighthouse was his students: their rights, the effective possibility of growing on an artistic and cultural level, his stubborn defense of the right to study as a universal and indisputable element.
As a teacher, I fully share the social and cultural principles that have guided his work as a trainer of generations of young guitarists. As Director of the “Vivaldi” Conservatory, I can only be deeply grateful to him for having contributed so substantially to the knowledge and growth of the reputation of our institute in Italy and around the world.
Giovanni Gioanola
Director of the Conservatory
"TO. Vivaldi” - Alessandria
