Giuseppina Torre: from Sicily to the U.S.A. with music in her heart
She’s a pianist who is famous all over the world and was born in Vittoria in the province of Ragusa. Giuseppina Torre performs both in Italy and abroad, her career is studded with many awards such as the Los Angeles Music Awards in 2013, the Akademia Awards of Los Angeles in the category Ambiental/Instrumental in 2017 and two awards in 2018 for the 5th Annual Music and Entertainment Awards in Ashland, Kentucky. She played the piano for Pope Francis and created the soundtrack for the documentary Papa Francesco – La mia Idea di Arte. Sicilian Secrets interviewed her for you.
Q: How did you fall in love with music and how did you understand that it would become an essential part of your life?
A: Love for music was born and grew up in my family. Little Giuseppina Torre used to listen to the classical composers. My father is a great lover of classical music and my mother is an opera enthusiast. When I was 4 years old, my uncle Delfino gave me a toy piano that I learned to play by ear any theme song I heard, my parents were astonished. But the real love at first sight for the piano happened when my dad brought me to a concert of pianist Aldo Ciccolini. I was surprised by the elegance of this great master, by the magic of the sounds that his hands were able to create. In that moment I decided that I wanted to become a pianist. Some years later, in 2015, during a concert at Teatro Umberto in Nola, I played a fabulous Steinway and on the soundboard, there was the signature of Ciccolini. What a coincidence!
Q: How has the fact that you are Sicilian influenced your work?
A: The fact I am Sicilian influenced and always influences my creative flair as a composer. My music is characterized by melancholic and nostalgic shades typical of our nature and of the relationship of love and hate that I continuously live with and that is rich with colors, perfumes, culture and traditions but at the same time so arid of opportunities that it forces you to abandon it and then strongly miss it.
Q: How does the inspiration for a new composition come about?
A: I find inspiration from every moment of my life. Every emotion of Giuseppina Torre stays in a sort of incubation to become music. I sit at the piano and like magic, notes begin to flow.
Q: You created the soundtrack for the documentary about Pope Francis. Have you ever had the chance to meet him and be congratulated for your work?
A: Unfortunately, when there was the chance to meet Pope Francis in June, I was in the States for the final of I.M.E.A. where, with the CD Papa Francesco – La mia idea di Arte, I won in the category Classical Album of The Year. Even if I didn’t meet him in person, after a while I received his blessing. I hope there’s going to be another occasion to say thanks to him for having inspired me with his book.
Q: A brilliant career, but what’s the happiest moment that you can remember, the one in which you lived an experience that you will never forget?
A: For sure, the first red carpet in Hollywood for the Los Angeles Music Awards and the first The winner is Giuseppina Torre. They called me on the stage to give me the award, my legs and my voice were quivering because of the emotion, so I barely even said Thank you so much.
Q: Many of your dreams came true, but what’s the professional wish that Giuseppina Torre has for the future?
A: First of all, I hope to continue living with my music and always move people emotionally. I’m working on my next CD that will be released in spring, and my wish is that my music will touch the hearts of people that will listen to it. Just this.
