Concert pianist and university mathematics professor, Ingrid Carbone combines her activities as a musician and scientific researcher with that of cultural dissemination. Her format is that of a “conversation-concert” revealing the meaning of classical pieces from her repertoire to audiences who are not necessarily cultured or specialized. You can read the full interview (in italian) on Music Edu>>

Here’s a translated excerpt.

A highly acclaimed artist abroad, Ingrid Carbone has recorded for the Japanese label Da Vinci Publishing, receiving two nominations at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) and eight awards from the Global Music Awards (USA) for her recordings, which have been widely reviewed by the international music press. She has studied with prestigious pianists, including Lazar Berman, and trained at academies such as the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Tel-Hai International Piano Master Classes in Israel, receiving numerous international awards.
A researcher and tenured professor at the University of Calabria, where she teaches Mathematical Analysis and carries out scientific activities, Ingrid Carbone’s approach to musical interpretation integrates expressive sensitivity and the analytical rigor typical of scientific training.

Musicedu: Tell us about your concert-conversations.
Ingrid Carbone: In a time of great cultural difficulty and widespread educational poverty, I believe that music is a tool capable of conveying not only musical content, but also culture and knowledge. Therefore, I have set myself the goal of promoting education in conscious listening with a multidisciplinary approach, in order to pique the curiosity of the listener. We are accustomed to imagining classical music as something for the few, as if there were preclusions to understanding it, but this is not the case. Much of the responsibility for this way of thinking lies with the educators themselves, the professors and musicians, that is, the subject matter specialists who maintain a distance from those without musical expertise and end up repelling rather than attracting the listener. I also give “classical” standard concerts, but I feel I have a responsibility connected to my role as an educator, and that is to pass on what I know to others. And I am so interested in doing this that I strive to find new strategies with the sole aim of bringing my listeners closer. But I don’t do this by offering a typical concert-lesson, but instead prepare the audience for an informed listening experience by recounting and summarizing my personal journey—that is, my extensive study, research, and analysis to reach what I believe to be the correct interpretation of a specific piece. In practice, I explain the meaning of what I’m playing, that is, the sensations, emotions, but also the actual sounds, often onomatopoeic, that the music describes. So I don’t share what I’ve read about that piece elsewhere, although clearly a context is helpful, but I explain what I’m playing on the piano, justifying the key points of the essential passages I’m performing. This is how I manage to bridge the gap between myself and the audience, piquing their curiosity and preparing them to listen to the full piece because the listener will already know what’s about to happen. It’s a bit like the difference between looking at a painting on your own and looking at it while someone is explaining it.