“It was wonderful to attend the online seminar. I loved it. Brought back many memories, and I saw so much of Musin in Ennio’s demonstrations."
«As you set out for Ithaka hope the voyage is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery».....
....«And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean».
"Dear Ennio,
It brings me great joy to express my gratitude for the incredible experience of studying with you in the Musin techniques. You are a fantastic teacher and the Musin method of conducting,
"When the idea came to me to undertake the study of conducting, I started watching videos on YouTube and during my research I was struck by a video by M° Ennio Nicotra.
"Musin's technique is not actually a dry “technique” but a system of communication of one's musical ideas.
"I am very fortunate to have studied according the Musin Conducting Method with Ennio Nicotra, a true Maestro in every sense of the word.
"I am a pianist and piano teacher. I have been conducting didactic ensembles since 2007, but I was not comfortable, I felt the lack of a technique that would allow to express myself and clearly convey what I wanted to say.
Dear Ennio,
It was wonderful to meet and learn from you at Fort Wayne. You are a true master of this art.
Thank you for your keen insights, perceptive suggestions, unrelenting passion and constant positivity. Even in this short time, I feel I have improved greatly as a conductor and have a year's worth of techniques and concepts to now master. Wishing you all the best.
The method of Ilya Musin in the interpretation of Ennio Nicotra
Ennio Nicotra's first meeting (Palermo, 1963) with Ilya Musin was anything but exciting; brought the young scholar an artistic crisis, overcome thanks to the dedication to the system of the Russian master.
Nicotra came to St. Petersburg in 1989 to audition with the teacher. For the occasion, he chose to conduct a symphony by Robert Alexander Schumann.
During the execution Musin does not deserve a glance. However, unexpectedly the future director was admitted to the courses.
"I had the great opportunity to meet Maestro Ennio Nicotra in 2015, in an international orchestral conducting course in Florianópolis, Brazil.
The contact with Musin's technique was astounding, it helps you to clearly transmit your musical idea to the orchestra, it solves technical problems always in conjunction with expressive aspects.
How can I explane my experience in the last Workshop with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic? In one word: Incredible!
"Ennio Nicotra was my first teacher, in 2012, in this noble, very difficult art and profession. Through the specialization courses in Milan, Venice and Palermo, I was able to witness the effectiveness of his method, which is simple to understand in his fundamental and extremely communicative principles.
The "technique of conducting" is one of the fundamental aspects of the study of orchestral conducting.
"Studying under the guidance of Ennio Nicotra was great luck: not only because I had the privilege of coming into direct contact with an heir to the technique of the teaching of the great Russian pedagogue Ilya Musin, but also because I had a pragmatic and intelligent training experience, human but very rigorous.
"I met Maestro Nicotra in 2012 first as a collaborating pianist in his masterclasses. I performed the reduction of some scores with one of the two pianos.
"My desire to understand the secrets in orchestral Conducting were triggered in 2007. As I followed Maestro Valery Gergiev, I sought to understand which method of conducting he followed and it is here after watching the movie “Master and Pupil” I heard of the name Ilya Musin, the Maestro of Maestros.
From there I found the Ilya Musin Musin Society led by Professor Nicotra and I applied to attend the Masterclass in Palermo at a Summer School .
"In my experience of a masterclass with Ennio Nicotra, I was able to observe, among other things, two things of great value: on the one hand, the clear communication of conducting technique as studied through Ilya Musin; on the other hand the expression of a deep understanding of its educational effect.
"After many years of being self-taught in the world of conducting, I felt the need to acquire a
gesture and a technique that adapted to my physical characteristics and which expressed music in the
most organic way possible, in which the gesture and the composer's ideas are as close as
possible.
" I learned so much from this man.
My entire conducting philosophy has been lifted to a new level."
"Maestro Nicotra's teaching is based upon the physical relationship between your hands and the sound, not just the tedious process of memorizing every shade of ink in the score. Thus you are always in contact with the music and ideally never making any movements that are unnecessary. This has helped me tremendously as an instrumentalist as well, as I have largely eliminated "coasting" or "checking-out" from my playing. Although I am a percussionist, I have learned how to breathe with my orchestra as though I was a wind player or a string player retaking a bow."
Jacob Steuer
Estonian National Opera
LEE MUSIKER - NYC based Grammy & Emmy Award winning Pianist, Arranger, Conductor, Music Director.
"I met Maestro Nicotra about 10 years ago for some master classes with orchestra which he held in Madrid for the Carlos de Amberes Foundation.
Afterwards I followed him everywhere, both in Spain and in Italy.
From the first moment I was struck by his teachings because above all he always referred to the appropriate gesture that illustrated music, its character.
"The Musin method is simple, intuitive, communicative, solid and deeply detailed.
It provides the possibility to solve any expressive technical difficulty that presents itself.
"I was very fortunate to start studying 'well and on time'. Well, because of the quality of tuition I received; on time, because often those who start studying orchestral conducting after having been instinctively self-taught, or after learning other techniques, find it difficult to deconstruct all of the knowledge they have learned. I was on the verge of being "on time" when I started studying orchestral conducting, aged 17.
