Giovanni Allevi

6.24.08

So I know I said that Atrani was my favorite place on earth, but I think I may have lied without meaning to. We just got back from a weekend in the area of Umbria, where we stayed two nights in Assisi, one night in Perugia, and an afternoon in Spoleto and Orvieto each. Before the first night in Assisi was over I was hooked. While out at dinner Tim told us how he had seen some advertisements for a concert that night. After asking around, we found it was a famous Pianist. Little did we know the fame he held.

The concert was on the lawn in front of the Basilica di San Francesco. Tickets were expensive but since it was an outdoor concert in a hill town we just climbed up any stairs we could find and ended up in a space looking directly down on the lawn and concert. I was in awe the entire time. We later found out that his name was Giovanni Allevi and he is one of Italy’s finest composers of the current time. After taking piano lessons for 10 years I truly enjoy listening to great pianists. An hour into the show he took a break from playing the piano and an orchestra got set up. He came back out on stage to direct the orchestra, and at the end he even sat down with them and played along with them while directing. I was on such a mental high after listening to the music with a wonderful backdrop to view that I could have sat there for hours.

When we made it to Perugia I found out that he has four CD’s out, three of them are just him and the piano and the newest is him with the orchestra. I bought his two newest, and can’t listen to them with out reliving the experience.

The rest of the weekend was amazing with wonderful churches and architecture and history to learn, but the Allevi concert was definitely my high for the weekend. But to prove that I had fun elsewhere here are the two watercolors I completed.