Pianist, mathematician, and music educator, Ingrid Carbone tells in an interview published on Soundsblog with Stefano Benzi how numbers and notes intertwine in her lecture-concerts between Liszt, Schubert, and a new way of listening to and interpreting music.

Read the full interview (in Italian) here >>

Here’s an excerpt

A professor of Mathematical Analysis at the University of Calabria and a pianist with a solid international career, Ingrid Carbone has carved out a unique career path, one that has brought her to the attention of an ever-growing audience in Italy and abroad.

From albums dedicated to Liszt, Schubert, and Leoncavallo to numerous awards won abroad, to a format for piano and voice, during which the concert becomes a pretext for conversations in which music, mathematics, and popularization converge in a truly unique shared relationship with the audience that defies any simple label.

All this in a country that, even in her own words, proves difficult for a proposal outside the most conventional framework: “Italy is certainly a complicated place where it’s difficult to play, especially if you have a project that goes beyond the ‘comfortable’ norm of bringing to a theater. I don’t have a management team; I do everything myself: from planning to contacts. This is something that’s very restrictive for me, because I end up having to invent a side job that’s certainly not that of a musician. Furthermore, I see closed circuits, where the same people always hang around. When I bring innovative projects, I hear that the audience isn’t ready, but I’m convinced that often the organizers aren’t ready.”

Indeed, the audience’s response always seems very encouraging: “At every show, I know when I start, but never when I finish. I meet so many people, so many curious young people who after every concert ask and inquire about my method and my experiences. So I don’t believe people aren’t ready: they simply need to be guided in their listening. The standard concert format works less and less; we live in an age where attention spans are short, distracted, and fragmented. In the concert-conversations, I create a moment of pause and reflection, a waiting period that prepares for listening. In Cagliari, at the event combining music and mathematics, I saw how well the audience responds when guided step by step.”