"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.
I believed that my instincts would save me on every occasion. I had no clear idea of anything that was "invisible"; I focused only on the "visible" aspects. I therefore forced myself to bend a bit of my instinct towards greater competence and knowledge of many fascinating technical and conceptual elements that are rarely talked about.
I owe Ennio Nicotra the unquestionable merit of having taught me almost all of the technical principles that I know, clear concepts based on the empirical experiments of Ilya Musin that find real confirmation in everyday practice on the podium. His teaching is based on the principle of observation of the phenomenon, imitation of the teacher and reworking of the student. The study of the repertoire is therefore, filtered by the use of innovative technical elements applied, case by case, to the repertoire of all eras and all genres.
These innovations, among which I cite as irreplaceable principles for me, are the "taking of the sound", the "dramatisation of the gesture", the "direction of the phrase", the "circular gesture" and many others, which must be considered by the student as useful tools to develop their own language and "repertoire" of the gesture.
The work of Ennio Nicotra allows the student, within short instructive periods, to immerse himself in the score with a different awareness from that which can arise from the mere formal and harmonic analysis of the repertoire; therefore, we think together about the best strategy of how to make the transmission of musical thought that must take place between the head of the conductor, his heart, his arms and the orchestra, increasingly fluid."
Alberto Maniaci
