"The late great French cellist, Paul Tortelier, once said in a masterclass that to be a musician is ten things: a singer, a dancer, a poet, a thinker, an architect, a sculptor, a story teller, a painter, a missionary and a sportsman. To bring a musical performance alive, a conductor must be all of these and more - but where do you begin? 

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....If the bibliography on conducting is a consolidated heritage in Western countries, that of Eastern European countries is almost completely unknown. Among the illustrious names of the former Soviet Union, for example, that of Ilya Musin only recently became part of the Parnassus of the great teachers of orchestral conducting thanks to the studies conducted by his spiritual heir, the maestro Ennio Nicotra.

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“Everybody knows that music is also gesture. It is also easily understandable that an appropriate performance by an orchestra must proceed from well-chosen gestures. But, since in conducting there is seemingly no material connection between the gesture of the conductor and the production of the sound, it can happen that a conductor, being unable to communicate with the most appropriate gesture to obtain a desired sound, has to resort to verbal instructions.

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"How it was...... Years ago, I worked as an accompanist in the conducting class of Professor Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Once an attractive young guy entered our class.

He was very sociable, talented and immediately attracted our attention.

That's how I met Ennio Nicotra. Since then I have worked with him very often.

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“Ennio Nicotra was my assistant during the Masterclasses at the Accademia Chigiana, demonstrating not only that he has absorbed my method,

but also that he is undoubtedly endowed with a great talent for teaching”.