Pianist Paolo Vergari talks to us about the transformative power of music, its value as a universal language and its role in building social harmony.

Paolo Vergari’s story is one made of music. His instrument is the piano, played practically all over the world. He has taught in many places, continues to teach and brings it to life again. He is now a professor at the conservatory in Benevento, and we met with him to discuss how art can be a tool for personal growth and meeting others, for peace and harmony among people. We started from the beginning of this extraordinary journey.

How did it all begin?

In my very simple and genuine family, there was an uncle who was a great music enthusiast. His son studied the accordion and had one that somehow made its way into my home. I would reproduce folk melodies both with it and with the flute I learnt at school. I realized that I liked it and began studying with a teacher. Within a few months, I fell in love with that subject and clearly understood that it could be my path. I also liked soccer and played it, but music captivated me away from that other passion.

How did you start to integrate your talent into society?

As a young boy, we’re talking about the early 1980s, I frequented the “Casa del Popolo” (the People’s House) associated with the Italian left, particularly the PCI (Italian Communist Party). I was active there until I met the kids with the ideal of the Gospel and a united world. It was a second spark, where I found the possibility to concretely live the great values I had learnt from political experience. I noticed extraordinary attention from each person, a generosity that captivated me. I didn’t abandon those kids, and music became a tool for enhancing my relationships within the community. It filtered my relationship with the world, helping me to understand it.

Has anything changed since then?

Over time, music has become an extraordinary way for me to know myself and to know others. Music is a universal language, a common spirit among people, I can testify directly. With conviction.

What role does music play in the education of the youth?

It is a fundamental tool because it is subtle: it knows how to go deep but requires listening. Music helps to refine hearing, perhaps the most important sense we have. From here, listening is born.

An important word

The attitude of listening is the same for a great musician as it is for an emerging one. Growing up with a culture of listening shapes a person in an incredible way. Getting used to listening to others is very valuable, especially in the times we live in. Music eliminates all types of distance—temporal, physical, cultural. It reminds us that we are all brothers.

I see something miraculous in that. Don’t you?

Art, and obviously music, is something profoundly human. That’s why it is universal. It is what remains of a civilization, what tells it best. I believe it has to do with God because it brings us back to creation. Art invents something that wasn’t there before. Even where there have been Mozarts, Beethovens and Bachs, new inventions can still emerge. The creative process of an artist expresses the person more profoundly. For the believer, art expresses the divine nature of a person.

The accordion mentioned earlier reminds me of the film “Padre Padrone” by the Taviani Brothers. There, a young shepherd is forced among the sheep, in the mountains, by his father. He finds in the accordion played by a wanderer the spark that leads him to self-discovery. To you, who also work with the youth, I ask: what power does music have to lead us to inner revolutions, to help us find our identity?

We are born musical because we have certain predispositions within us. However, it takes a teacher who has paved the way before you and helps you form your consciousness—to feel and observe. In the case of music, it’s about finding the connection between the expression of feelings and precise formulas: a harmonic chain or certain chords that, put together in a certain way, create atmosphere. Over the centuries, through music, we have codified feelings. Today, the instruments have changed, there is electronical music, but the same codes associate a type of music with a feeling. Music reaches the heart automatically. There’s no need to know it, and its beauty is easy for a young person to discover. Although, it must be said, for economic speculations, today (in the most widespread musical experience) few emotional colors and musical nuances are used.

Among the many places where you have taught is the Magnificat Institute in Jerusalem, which hosts teachers and students from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. From the perspective of dialogue and the meeting of differences, what was that experience like?

I hold that experience close to my heart. It all began in 2004, during a trip to Jerusalem. I was introduced to a Franciscan musician, Father Armando Pierucci, who had brought up a high-level school. There, social fabric was created through music. I went for three or four years and contributed by funding myself through concerts organized in Italy. The friends of the Music of Modena, with whom I collaborated, learnt about this experience and wanted to organize a big event at the municipal theater in Modena with the choir from this school and the contribution of Jewish and Palestinian musicians. I tried to repeat this experience last year and already had a date, but it was not possible due to the war. Unfortunately, even today the power of a tank is greater than that of a violin, but I do not lose hope. We must raise the volume of music.

Among your numerous experiences, there is also cinema: you worked on the soundtrack for the film “Duns Scoto” by Fernando Muraca. How would you define the relationship between images and music?

On this topic, there is an exceptional documentary: “Ennio,” by Giuseppe Tornatore, about Ennio Morricone. There are reflections that I share. The experience of the film is not among my main reflections, but it was nice to find inspiration from the cinematic substance. Before that, I always started with the music that was in my head, and it was a discovery. Since then, I have reevaluated the relationship between narration and music. Here we enter the concept of pure music, which is enough to narrate, and every external element makes it less noble. There is some truth in that, but it is also true that music escapes objectivity, just as man with his consciousness does. Music represents life in its continuous mutability. It is very interesting when the objectivity of images meets the subjectivity of music. The important thing is to find balance.

With music, you have traveled the world. Considering this experience, what instrument of peace is music?

Music immediately creates family. It removes barriers and fosters a sense of community. At every latitude. However, one must be curious, not close off in one’s own culture or consider it superior. Once, on one of my first trips to China, in Shanghai, I was asked to sing a song. It was a festive atmosphere, and I sang “O Sole Mio.” At the chorus, there was a huge choir of Chinese people singing along with me in their language.

Among the places where you performed are the United Nations Auditorium in New York and the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. What value does it have to bring music to such places?

In New York, it was beautiful to meet so many musicians from different cultures. Playing in certain places makes you feel that the work you do is important. It gives you the feeling that it can change the world. At the UNESCO headquarters, I paid tribute to Chiara Lubich, who was receiving the UNESCO prize. I did it with the dancer Liliana Cosi, with whom I share a deep friendship.

Your instrument is the piano. How would you define it?

As one that embraces opposites and unites diversities. That’s why it’s fantastic.

I have read of many improvisations of yours with other musicians and instruments. What metaphor can the orchestra be for discussing human society?

The perfect metaphor for life in relation, for the freedom of the individual meeting others. You play freely, but while listening to the various musicians. You cannot think that they do not exist. Then there is the figure of the conductor, who, if inspired, knows how to listen, intervene when necessary, and allows the talents of the professionals in the orchestra to express themselves at their best. It’s like the relationship between the constitution and the freedom of citizens. Or, if we want to cite a character dear to me, the freedom from the law that St. Paul speaks of, the freedom that arises from loving one another. The gesture, the musical act is born and lives in giving oneself to the other.