What I am about to write here about Armando Renzi, my Music teacher, is not only a simple memory nor an account of affection and unlimited admiration for the man and musician that he was, but an authentic declaration of gratitude to him because, having had the fortune of being next to him and feeling close to him during my music training years, he gave a sense of direction to my life and the music career that followed.

Constantly, during my path as a composer and until today, as I am writing these thoughts, a deep dialog with him was always present. Same as his teacher’s critical but loving look, and his way so extraordinary authentic and vibrant to live, make and think music.

I know for sure that if I hadn’t met him, I would not have been the same musician…sometimes I wonder through which mysterious channels he managed to convey not only the scholarly rules but also some precious enlightenments for an aspiring composer, and how he fertilize my soul and my brain. I can remember hundreds of counterpoints done and the moment when he reviewed them, smoking as a chimney at the piano….the hundreds of romances without words developed on his famous “assigned themes” and written with a huge fountain pen with an indelible ink….his joy or sometime disappointment in reading with his formidable sight reading a free composition, for string quartet or small orchestra….I can remember his wandering at the piano, ranging from Brahms to Bach, from Ravel to Schubert, only to further clarify the concept of form, melody, orchestration…..Epic and unrepeatable lessons, so intelligent, so dense of emotion and incredible cheerfulness. It is with this entire priceless heritage, from which I have continued to draw, that I have grown and matured….Armando Renzi was one of the great true musicians of 1900 and I had the fortune to meet him, to be his student and to spend time with him between summer 1969 and spring 1983.

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