An "Italian" musician

A musician who was born in Italy, who addressed Kunstenloket - one of the Practics partners - for a help to his "mobile" career, tells his own "mobility story".

I’m a musician, I was born in Rome, and I’ve got an Italian name, but I’ve been living and working abroad since almost ten years from now. Can you say that I’m Italian?
I started playing classical guitar and piano at about 10 years in Rome, attending private lessons and especially playing by ear everything I could. Then teen’s times arrived, and I started playing also drums, electric bass, and keyboards instruments in many bands of the roman "underground" scene and some roman jazz clubs, too.
But I wanted to study music, and I wanted to do it well, while the Italian private schools I knew about where not for me. I heard about a very good music school in Holland, the "Royal conservatory" in The Hague, so I went there with a friend of mine. In spite of difficulties with the language we were accepted and after five years we got our bachelor in jazz piano, in 2005, and a master in 2006.
From that I had the chance (as I still have, indeed) to play in many different countries, such as Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Argentina, Brazil, Lithuania, France, Japan, Denmark, and I played in many different festivals, ranging from modern jazz, pop, experimental, film and contemporary dance… it’s challenging to move cross-borders, both geographically and interdisciplinary…I’ m a musician, and for me music is the language.
Then I felt like I wanted to leave Holland, but not coming back to Italy. It was difficult at the beginning to search for funds and possibilities to move. I was mainly looking for places in which I would have been recognized as an artist, with a special status. Then some friends of mine suggested me the Belgium. So now I’m in Brussels, where I have been living since 2006, recognized as a professional. I like Belgium: friendly people, excellent beers, and nice places where playing, and lots of artists from abroad: I’m recognized as a professional here: from here I can go anywhere across Europe within three hours maximum, you know: Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Strasbourg, London too. And I actually do. I used to move across Europe and Belgium for my concerts or residencies programmes. Sometimes I work as a sound technician to earn a living, but I’m continuously following my projects as a leader or co-leader with groups composed by a mix of international people. Especially I move to Denmark, where I’m collaborating with a theater company. The people who invite me usually deal with details of my stay, thus moving is easy to me. But you should know whom to ask for, and organizations such as Kunstenloket were of great help to me.

Mobility story collected by Mrs. Caterina Pasqui