The pains of Giovanni Allevi: "I am like Sicily, I fall but I always get back up"

Knight of the Italian Republic for artistic and cultural merits, Gold Star for Mozartian Valor "for having restored classical music to its former glory", Falcone and Borsellino Award, Ambassador of Save the Children, European Ambassador of the Earth Day European Network for his commitment alongside young people in protecting the planet, awarded the Golden Opera Awards – Oscars of Lyric. And if all this is not enough to define him, there is one detail that perhaps says more than any other about the extent of his journey: NASA has dedicated an asteroid to him. Perhaps that is where we should start to tell his story.

Because Giovanni Allevi is much more than a list of titles and accolades. He is an artist with a thousand shades, capable of traversing different languages: from music to writing, to cinema. His autobiography “Music in My Head”, which became a bestseller, earned him the Elsa Morante Literary Award; his latest book, “The Nine Gifts – On the Path to Happiness”, written during his illness, is an intimate and profound reflection on fragility and the possibility of transforming it into strength.

And then there is cinema: the docufilm “Allevi – Back to Life”, presented at the Rome Film Festival, tells the story of his return to music and life after a complex period, portraying an artist who has made vulnerability a form of awareness. With which today, after years of forced silence and intense introspection, he returns to the stage with the Piano Solo Tour, a tour that crosses Europe and Italy and that on April 7 and 8 will also stop in Sicily, at the Teatro Duemila in Ragusa and at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina, before continuing through Verona, Florence, Trento, Turin, Lugano, Parma, Bergamo, Genoa.

An essential return in which the dialogue with the audience passes through his most intimate instrument, the piano, with which Allevi performs the compositions that have made him famous worldwide – from How You Really Are to Go with the Flow, to Our Future – and new pieces born in these years of reflection.

After the international appointments in Japan, California, and Germany, the Piano Solo Tour arrives in Sicily with two highly anticipated stops, in Ragusa and Messina. What kind of energy do you expect from this land and what does it mean for you to perform here, in such an intimate setting?

"I approach Sicily with great respect, a wonderful land battered by the water emergency and, before that, by devastating cyclones. In an emotionally challenging climate for many people, I wonder what my presence can possibly add. Then I realize that I, too, in my small way, have fallen and am trying with all my might to rise again. In this human sharing, I find the meaning of the concerts in Sicily."

Sicily is a land of strong contrasts, of light and unease, of beauty and fragility. Do you find these same tensions in your music and in the journey you are experiencing today?

"With the discovery of the incurable disease and physical pain, I entered a new existential bubble where gratitude and hope have taken the place of the initial fear. During the concert, it will be like reliving the passage from darkness to light."

This tour comes after a very intense period, both human and artistic. How does returning to the piano, alone on stage, change your dialogue with the audience compared to the past?

"This tour is a new psychophysical challenge for me because it is extremely difficult to play the piano with exhausting back pain and hands trembling from the medication. But everything has changed: I no longer go on stage to showcase a skill or to let people listen to my music. Now I am driven by a much more important mission: to celebrate together the joy of life and to show that even from imperfection, wonder can arise."

In addition to music, you also express yourself through cinema and writing. How does your way of communicating change between these languages? And what can you say with one that you couldn't with the others?

"In a world dominated by power dynamics, oppression, and authoritarian drifts, I want to pursue the opposite path of delicacy, of human compassion for those who suffer, of discovering the vastness within and outside of us. I do this through notes, philosophical reflection, or cinematic images, but the spirit remains the same."

For years, your work has contributed to bringing new generations closer to classical music. In your opinion, what is the key today to make it alive and accessible without distorting it?

"This is a merit that is often attributed to me, but I do not find myself in it except indirectly. Classical music has always been the object of my veneration, and from it comes my attempt at innovation, but there are no shortcuts: to approach it requires years of study, and perhaps it is right that it maintains a minimum of inaccessibility."

In his concerts and books, the theme of fragility as strength often recurs. If he were to leave the Sicilian audience with a thought, almost a "gift" before going on stage, what would it be?

"The concert begins for me the day before, with long sessions of meditation, deep breathing, gentle stretching, and perhaps an hour of brisk walking back and forth in the hotel room. All in silence. When I am finally about to go on stage, the thought is: I wish that those who have come to listen to me leave the theater with their hearts full of joy for living."