Ingrid Carbone has been interviewed on Meiweb on the occasion of her lecture-concert in Cagliary (Italy). You can read the full interview (in italian) here>>

Here follows a translated excerpt.

There are artists who make music and scholars who conduct research. Ingrid Carbone manages to do both, combining scientific rigor and artistic sensitivity. A pianist with an international career and a university professor of mathematical analysis, she has created a language all her own: that of “concert-conversations,” encounters in which music becomes storytelling, discovery, and shared emotion. Fresh from a stay in Amman, Jordan, where she held three days of masterclasses and a special concert, Ingrid Carbone is now the protagonist of a new series of events throughout Italy. Upcoming events include today—Monday, November 10—in Cagliari, with “Intertwining Music and Mathematics | Conversation-Concert” as part of the 18th edition of the FestivalScienza, and on December 4 in Siena, in the former Chapel of the San Niccolò University Campus, on the occasion of Professor Rainer Nagel’s 85th birthday.

Your career combines music, mathematics, and popularization. How do you integrate musical, mathematical, and popular elements into the artistic experience? My vision is to bring the public closer to music and culture, and to enable everyone to understand and be fascinated by music. My desire is to impart knowledge and share my experience. The study and research behind each piece I study follows a rigorous scientific path, drawing on my logical-deductive and analytical skills, which have been developed to the fullest through my academic research and mathematics teaching. Like proving a theorem, the score represents for me a journey in which everything is essential, nothing is superfluous, every single element and every indication must have a precise meaning. It’s a story to be told, and there can be no gray areas. This rigorous study allows me to develop a deep understanding of the composition, and allows me to seek interpretation by placing it in the context I consider most appropriate. So far, I’ve described my work “behind the scenes.” But it’s through the meetings I call “concert-conversations” that I pursue my project of disseminating music and culture. What I propose is a unique event, a performance in which the historical, literary, and pictorial context helps me accompany and guide the audience toward informed listening. This is possible, and with any audience, because I use piano examples that help the audience understand the essential points and rediscover them when, after my description, they listen to each piece in my interpretation. I provide suggestions, ideas, colors, and images that are the fruit of my personal research, and the audience feels involved, engaged, immersed in a dimension they’re unfamiliar with and certainly never imagined.