When we last saw Piero he was in the Choir of the Little Singers of the Philharmonic Association – Santa Cecilia of Agrigento. The time came for the change of voice, as happens with teenage boys, and this meant new decisions had to be made. All agreed his voice needed to be preserved so he had to step out of the choir. Rather than remain idle, Piero accepted singing engagements such as weddings where he would sing the Ave Maria and earn one hundred euro. He saved this money and when his mother needed something for the house he would say, “Here mom use this!” He learned the value of the dollar or should I say the euro at a young age and saved all his earnings. Piero’s always been a smart man when it comes to money. Just ask Ignazio and Gianluca. He handles their accounts. Or at least he used to!
Getting back to the story, when the change of voice finally happened, Piero moved on in his life. One way to move forward was to enter competitions. Piero, in fact, participated in many singing competitions and won most.
Piero has a funny way of describing the competitions. Let’s listen to him describe it….
And then there were the cups. In Sicily when you win a festival, they give you huge cups, two meters by four, heavy, bigger than you.
Okay, let’s stop for a minute! If the size is 2 meters by 4 meters, that would mean the trophy was 6 ½ feet by 13 feet. I hope he brought along a truck to carry them home!
Piero continues….
But how did I start to perform at regional festivals? With the school! And here a great chapter opens up. In elementary school there were no music classes. So, I looked forward to middle school where there would be music lessons. On the first day of middle school professor Nisi called everyone in alphabetical order and made everyone sing. Our teacher wasn’t from Naro, so she didn’t know me. She had no idea I was a singer. I really wasn’t looking forward to the first hour of music and getting up and singing. I was the second on the list. The professor calls “Baldacchino” and Baldacchino sings. Then she calls “Barone” and I sing Un Amore Così Grande, my battle horse from that afternoon under the carob tree in the garden of Riolo. In practice, from there I started, and I never stopped: with the schools there were musical reviews, and the music teacher brought me to make them all. I did the first Valledolmo festival singing Un Amore Così Grande again, and I finished third. I remember it like it was yesterday: I with a tuxedo, all classic, pulled. After Valledolmo I went to Vallelunga, I won that festival and from then on, I won them all. Three years of middle school, three years of regional music festivals. Until it has arrived, the change of voice, between thirteen and fourteen and a half years.
So, what happened? When I resumed singing, I was in high school, an accounting school, and there’s no music, no music teacher and no festival. But is it possible that I could quit like that, to participate in festivals? My father took the situation into hand, and I started again. I won them all. One summer I took part in six festivals, and I won all six. I sang La Voce Del Silenzio and Un Amore Così Grande, I arrived and all the guys who saw me already knew that I would ruin their evening. I had a lot of fun, I accumulated cups – always two meters by four – and I was more and more convinced that if there was one thing I wanted to do in life, it was singing, Living For and With Music.
The festivals were wonderful, but Piero needed more. He needed to decide where his future lies. So first he needed to decide where he would go with that magnificent voice. It was already obvious that his voice was an opera singer’s voice but that is a difficult path to take. And the road is usually lined with many disappointments! But decisions had to be made and now was the time to make those decisions. What did Piero do? Let’s get back to his story to learn how he moved forward….
If I have to tell the truth, my project was to become a tenor and a singing teacher. Many opera singers have this double life because, unless you reach certain levels, you cannot live by singing alone.
I always thought I would sing alone for the rest of my life. I imagined myself a tenor divided between theater and teaching. But before I got there the road was very long, and it was in the strict sense of the word. I went from Naro to Vittoria, where there was the master who had advised me to go to the teacher Bavaglio in Palermo. There was a two-hour drive in the first leg and as many in the return.
Having to travel to sing was not new to me, indeed for us, because I always traveled with dad.
Every Saturday my father took me to Agrigento to the rehearsals of the choir of Santa Cecilia, those afternoons were so beautiful. He sacrificed those afternoons he could have spent at the bar playing cards with his friends and he took me to Agrigento, a fifteen – twenty-minute drive from Naro.
I remember that we were following Series B because the time of the matches was the same as the choir rehearsals, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, so I went to sing, and my father listened to the radio.
On the return of from Agrigento to Naro, we commented on the results and in the meantime we stopped at the Eurospin to do the shopping, at the shopping center ‘The swallows’ of Porto Empedocle, and we did shopping, but not clothes, no! We were buying ham and food for the whole week. We came home with these three-meter receipts, and I was so happy. Going to Vittoria was a different matter. Yet when the teacher told me: ‘You must study in Vittoria,’ my father answered only: ‘Okay’ and changed the car to travel more comfortably.
At the first lesson we get to Vittoria, and I go to this baritone, all excited, and he makes me do the vocalizations and comments: ‘I expected more from you as the master Bavaglio spoke about it.’ I was really demoralized. But the goal was there, I wanted music to become my life and so, despite the disappointment, for four or five months I kept going to him. In the meantime, I continued my piano lessons. My first master Stefano Tesè could no longer come to Naro and had sent me to Canicattì from the master Pietro la Greca. He was young and good, I felt like I was with my contemporary and I was more motivated to study. Sometimes, since my father worked, my cousin Giuseppe took me to the teacher La Greca.
Before the baritone of Vittoria, for about two or three months, I had studied with a soprano from Caltanissetta. It was at that time that Giuseppe had begun to accompany me to singing lessons, when dad could not. So, my cousin took me to the teacher La Greca and on the way back I was given a ride by a boy from Naro who was studying the next hour after me. I waited for him to finish, and we would go home with his father.
So, it seems a plan is in place. Piero is traveling to his singing lessons. And it’s all going well and then one day everything changed….
What happens one day? Usually, as the boy who gave me a passage lived near my paternal grandmother, he always left me with him, where my father came to pick me up when he finished work. Only that evening my father was already at my grandmother’s and was talking on the phone.
“Who was that, dad?” Was the first thing I asked him when he finished speaking.
“Wait, let’s go home and I’ll tell you.”
It was strange that he was so mysterious with me, but I always trusted him blindly and if he said ‘after’ he meant that it was okay. I was curious, for sure, but I waited calmly. We finished dinner, and daddy keeps his promise and tells me: ‘On the phone was a lady, a certain Isabella Abiuso. She is part of the casting of Ti Lascio Una Canzone and she got your name from the Tour Music Fest.’
Now things are about to happen but wait, it was almost a missed chance! Piero almost walked away from his future. He was tired, he wanted to stop the competitions. But let me let Piero explain what happened. He tells it much better than I do….
Stop all and take a step back: what is the Tour Music Fest? It’s a festival that I did not want to do. It’s not that I was undecided, I wanted to think about it. No, I did not want to do it just because I won all these festivals, and I was a little tired. Yet it is a great European festival dedicated to emerging music born in 2003. It has several stages, runs throughout Italy and not just singers, but also bands and musicians participated.
The stage closest to us was that of Cosenza. ‘I have to drive,’ Dad had told me. ‘We have a comfortable car, you sleep, and we go, you do not even notice.’ Twenty-four hours to do Naro-Cosenza, Cosenza-Naro. We arrive there, I sing, and they do not give me more news. And they gave it to someone else.
But it doesn’t end there….
Isabella Abiuso, one of the talent scouts who selected children for the broadcast of Ti Lascio una Canzone, called the editors of the festival and asked for a name to try, someone interesting for that kind of television program. The organizers of the Tour Music Fest tell her, ‘Mrs. Abiuso, here there is nothing that we can give, apart from a certain Piero Barone, which for us has not gone well because it is not the kind of music that we deal with, but he certainly has an innate talent.’ I was not sixteen yet, it was November 2008. ‘Dad’ I immediately said, ‘this Ti Lascio Una Canzone, I’d like to do it. Let’s try, why not?’
The first edition of the show was very successful and the second was aired from April 4th to May 30th, 2009, every Saturday evening for a total of nine episodes. The director would once again be Roberto Cenci, as in the first edition, produced by Ballandi Multimedia, and the management would have always been entrusted to Antonella Clerici. My father thought about it and said: ‘Wait, let’s talk with the maestro to Vittoria.’
‘You are crazy,’ was the teacher’s answer. ‘You ruin him with these things because television takes the boys’ heads, it spoils the future.’
Possible? Before I was not good enough and now I could not do the audition because I could ruin the future? My father did not see this anymore. ‘No, I have to make him do it.’ But if you ask my father what he remembers about that audition, he certainly will not tell you about the master of Vittoria, but the first answer will be a number: 1280. These are the euros that he spent to buy two or three complete clothes in a very nice Naro store, because as a good Sicilian he said, ‘How? I do I bring my son to an audition at RAI, I have to make a good impression, no?’ I felt like a king with those clothes.
One thing we know, Piero can dance!
So, there you have it! Piero dressed like a king is on the road to via dei Gracchi where he will meet his destiny. His desire to Live For and With Music will be fulfilled but first, he must be accepted.
Next time we meet Piero at via dei Gracchi where he will come up against hundreds of young people looking for stardom. We know for sure he will be on a collision course with Ignazio and Gianluca but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We still need to get Ignazio and Gianluca into the mix.
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
Next week we witness Ignazio almost miss his opportunity at fame.
*What I have written here are excerpts from the book the guys wrote about their lives. “Il Volo, Un’avventura Straordinario, La Nostra Storia.” (An Extraordinary Adventure, Our Story) This is just a small piece of each mans’ story. The book is written in Italian. If you can read Italian, I would highly recommend that you read it. It’s wonderful! If not, I can only hope that someday it will be translated into English. Or you can use Google Translate to translate it.
I also recommend you read their second book “IL Volo: Quello Che Porto Nel Cuore” (What I Carry in My Heart).
Just in time for Christmas, a new EP release 4Xmas Amazing Grace, O Tannenbaum, Feliz Navidad and Happy Xmas (the War is Over) order yours on Spotify, Amazon, all media.
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com and don’t forget to visit the Archives.
Last November 11th, yet another femicide took place here in Italy, a young woman named Giulia was murdered by her ex-boyfriend.
“According to the report of the Criminal Analysis Service of the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police of the Ministry of the Interior, from 1 January to 12 November 2023, in Italy 102 murders were committed with female victims, of which 82 were killed in the family or emotional context (53 of who were killed by their partner or ex-partner).”
Giulia was only 22 years old, a good and sweet girl who had tried to break off the relationship with her boyfriend Filippo, also 22 years old, who after the killing hid Giulia’s body and fled. He was arrested in Germany.
This latest feminicide has greatly shaken Italian public opinion and numerous meetings have been held in recent days to raise people’s awareness on this topic.
In one of these meetings, organized by the newspaper GRAZIA at Parenti theater in Milan, Gianluca Ginoble also spoke.
The title of the event was: WHAT MEN DON’T SAY.
Gianluca recited the famous monologue dedicated to women victims of violence in Latin America by the Peruvian activist Cristina Torre Cáceres.
Here is the translation of the entire text read by Gianluca with a lot of feeling.
If I don’t answer your calls tomorrow, mom. If I don’t tell you I’ll be back for dinner. If tomorrow, Mommy, you see that the taxi doesn’t arrive.
It may be that I am wrapped in hotel sheets, on a street, or in a black bag. It may be in a suitcase or abandoned on a beach.
Don’t be scared, mom, if you see that I was stabbed. Don’t scream if you see that they dragged me. Mommy, don’t cry if they tell you they impaled me.
They will tell you that it was me, that I didn’t scream, that it was my clothes, that it was the alcohol in my blood. They’ll tell you it was because of the time, because I was alone. That my psychopath ex had motives, that I had cheated on him, that I was a whore. They will tell you that I lived, mother, that I allowed myself to fly too high in an airless world.
I swear to you, mother, that I died fighting.
I swear to you, dear mother, that I screamed really loudly while I was flying.
He will remember me, Ma, he will know that I was the one who ruined him, because he will recognize me in the faces of all those who shout my name at him. Because I know, mom, that you won’t give up.
But, as much as you might want to, don’t bridle my sister. Don’t lock up my cousins, don’t forbid anything to your nieces. It’s not their fault, Mom, just as it wasn’t my fault either. It is them, it will always be them [the men].
Fight for their wings, since they cut mine off. Fight so that they are free and can fly higher than me. Fight so they can scream louder than me. So that they can live without fear, mom, just like I did.
Mommy, don’t cry over my ashes.
If it’s me tomorrow, mom, if I don’t come back tomorrow, destroy everything.
If tomorrow it’s my turn, I want to be the last.
And these are the words added by Gianluca after reading.
So I asked myself what contribution I can offer as a man in favor of this noble cause.
I believe that we men must be the first to raise awareness among other men, especially the younger ones, the boys who are the future. To get to know each other, to ask for help, precisely because the problem underlying this refusal to admit weakness that leads to anger and violence is primarily the non-recognition of one’s own madness and neurosis.
To ensure that Giulia can truly be the last.
Gianluca, as always you have shown your kind soul and attentiveness to the problems of life and youth, thank you for your contribution! ❤️
Then, in recent days, Il Volo wrote that the concerts in China will be postponed, here is the press release.
Due to unforseen circumstances we regret to inform that “IL VOLO China Tour” will be postponed to April 2024. The new dates to be announced shortly.
However, in Japan the screening in cinemas of the event recorded behind closed doors at the Kiyomizu Temple has been confirmed, and now we can show you the promo.
Piero, on the other hand, was involved in the performance that took place in Bologna by the students of maestro Fulvio Massa, Piero’s singing teacher and he was present as a student.
In this photo, Piero with Anna Contino, vice president of the Ozzano Emilia Music Group, who published the photo with this comment: “With the very kind and great Piero Barone”
…………and what happened to Ignazio????
It seems that there is a new love for him, but for now nothing has been confirmed!!
Are only rumors but since all the pages have talked about it, I’ll report what was written.
She is Venezuelan with an Italian father and is often in Italy. Her name is Michelle Bertolini. She has known Il Volo for some time, as there is a photo of him at the Meet & Greet in 2019 in Budapest, here it is.
And these days…..
It seems that Ignazio is really in love and flew to Venezuela for her.
In this video he sings for her “La luna hizo esto”
This was also a busy week for Gianluca Piero and Ignazio, because we remember they were also in the recording room for the tracks of the new CD.
Congratulations to Gianluca for once again highlighting his kind and sensitive soul.
Congratulations to Piero for honoring his commitment as a student in the field of opera music.
Congratulations to Ignazio if he has found his new love, we wish him with much affection.
I’ve always said Gianluca is very different from Piero and Ignazio. He had a calm and peaceful childhood. He didn’t have the challenges that Ignazio had or the intense classical education that Piero had. No, Gianluca lived a very simple life.
When Gianluca describes his life it’s almost like a fairy tale. His childhood is about the sea and the sky and faraway places that allure him. His description of his childhood does not include reality! Instead, it takes us inside Gianluca’s mind and leads us Through A Valley of Make Believe to a place where his passions grew and where his love for family, life, music and country came to life before they were revealed to the world.
It was Gianluca’s imaginary world that surfaced and became a phenomenal reality on the day his voice was revealed. It was his secret voice. The voice he hid away out of shyness. The voice that captured so many yet caused Gianluca to turn and hide every time he was asked to reveal it! A phenomenal voice that rose from a small classroom to a local choir and finally made itself known to all the world.
I’ve said this before, in Abruzzo they have an expression. Molto gentile! (very gentle) What they are saying is there are people who are kind and peaceful people. They live what they love through passion and always find a calmness in it. They live simple lives.
They spend time walking in the mountains and immersing themselves in the beauty around them.
There certainly is a lot of beauty around these people from the grandeur of the Gran Sasso to the beautiful beaches along the Adriatic, all that you can see, touch or feel has a beauty and calmness to it!
I understand these Abruzzese people and how they live because they are my people too. So, it seems for Gianluca, from his very early years there was no pressure, no concern for anything other than living this peaceful life.
I believe this allowed Gianluca to spend all his days singing and listening to the music he loved. This beautiful peaceful life would explain why, when Gianluca goes home, he feels like he is on vacation. Montepagano is a very beautiful town. It sits at the top of a hill facing the Adriatic Sea. It is like a picture-perfect postcard! It’s no wonder Gianluca is at peace here. Montepagano is Gianluca’s paradise. Within this peaceful environment, Gianluca developed his great passion for music. And from this came our great passion, which is the embodiment of Gianluca, his music!
As you know, Gianluca’s mother worked, so, he went to after-school session with the nuns. He had a teacher named Gabriella. One afternoon, while Gianluca was doing homework, he suddenly got up and started singing Time to Say Goodbye. The teacher was speechless. “What a voice you have, what a wonderful voice,” she told Gianluca. “But do you know Andrea Bocelli?” She could not believe how it was possible for such a small child to have such a voice and to know a singer of that kind.
“Of course, I know him,” Gianluca said, “he’s my idol, my favorite singer,”
Gianluca said this with a certain pride. “Only I do not have his CD yet.”
Gabriella said, “I’ll bring it to you tomorrow, I’ll gift it to you.”
Gianluca says, “I was seven, maybe eight years old and thanks to Gabriella I was able to start listening to Andrea Bocelli as often as I wanted.’
As a child, Gianluca was very shy especially when it came to singing. Let’s listen to what Gianluca had to say about this shyness….
It also happened that at school. The teacher knew about my particular voice and in the classroom, in front of my classmates, about twenty children of my age, I was asked by the teacher to sing: ‘Gianluca, make your voice heard to us, guys, let’s listen to Gianluca’s voice, she said.’
Do you know how I reacted? I sang, of course, because it was the teacher who asked, but first I went to hide behind the blackboard and put myself face to the wall. I was ashamed to die. I still remember that feeling of being hidden while I sang, without seeing anyone. Also, because I was already singing with this voice that tended to the baritone, it was really special. I understood that it was a beautiful thing, which everyone liked, but I was still ashamed. Dad says I also did it at home to turn my face to the wall while I was singing. What could I do? I was a very shy and a little insecure child. I’ve always been looking for confirmations since I was a child.
But now, the shyness is over. I considered this a defect when I was a child but now, I have overcome the shyness.
Yes, this was Gianluca’s passion as a young boy to sing Bocelli songs. And he sang them all the time. But it was music itself that motived Gianluca. In an interview with the “Rosetana Star” Gianluca said: “Music for me is the oxygen of my life.”
And it wasn’t just Bocelli as Gianluca will tell you. As I grew older, I became more passionate about singing, including the great American classics, first of all Frank Sinatra.
Gianluca was in awe of Sinatra but, I personally think Sinatra would be in awe of Gianluca. Love you Frank but Gianluca’s got this one!
So, how did Gianluca get to where he is today!
We know Gianluca never took a singing lesson or entered a competition before Ti Lascio Una Canzone but he was a member of the Piccolo Choir of Roses. And if it wasn’t for this choir, Gianluca may not have been discovered.
Piccolo Choir of Roses is one of the local branches of the Zecchino d’oro. The Mago Zurlì, who was the presenter of the event when Gianluca was in the Choir, was Gianluca’s father, Ercole Ginoble.
But, let me let Gianluca tell you how this all came to be….
When I sing, I don’t forget instinct. What does that mean? As I said, I have never studied singing. I learned to ‘use’ my voice only thanks to my musical ear. I listened to the music, and it transmits everything I know. And I especially thank the Little Choir of Roses.
When I was about eight or nine, all those who knew my voice gave me the same advice: go sing in a choir. In Roseto there was the Piccolo Choir of Roses directed by the master Susy Paola Rizzo. They sang the songs of the ‘Zecchino d’oro’ or other famous songs with arrangements in that style, with music for children. The Mago Zurlì, that was the presenter of the event, was my father. He had been for a couple of seasons.
This is where I started. It was nice because we studied the songs throughout the winter season, not the technique of singing, the songs. It was different, because we did not study the notes and how to do them, rather we studied instinctively, following what the teacher said and what our ear heard.
Then, in the summer, we demonstrated our work in the Municipality of Roseto. We sang in the squares during the local festivals, in the lidos, in the bathing establishments, around the whole of Abruzzo, all these tiny villages.
During the performances with the choir, besides the repertoire of the Zecchino d’oro, we sang the songs of Bocelli: Misere, Il Mare Calmo Della Sera, La Voce Del Silenzio.
The choir brought Gianluca to the center stage because they recognized the value of his voice and on most occasions, he became the lead in the group. It was during one of these events that Gianluca became front and center and would become the main event in the one and only competition he was ever a part of.
I always like to include interviews in my stories but today I want to include an article that was written by Maura (Nonna) Pucci for Flight Crew in June 2020. Maura holds a special place in Gianluca’s heart. He refers to her as Nonna (grandma).
Maura wrote….
…. Gianluca sings with all of himself, with his eyes, with his facial expression, with his hand movements, even with his body posture. He sings a song, he does not perform part of his work, but “brings out” the passion for music that he has in himself, to transfer it to those who listen to him: he is fulfilling a mission…. because he “feels” the music, to the maximum degree.
Maura recalls: I saw Gianluca with an entranced expression, listening with closed eyes, to the splendid voice of Piero, who sang beside him, “O Holy Night.” These are things that move me and are not forgotten.
Gianluca brings to the stage all the behavioral and character characteristics that distinguish him in his private life.
Always in search of perfection, he is PROFESSIONAL to the maximum degree, GENTLEMANLY attitudes, CHEERFUL and SMILING, sometimes even LIVELY, but never too EXUBERANT. WITTY, but with measure; RESERVED, but no longer shy as in the past; ROMANTIC, TENDER, helpful, full of affection for fans, just as he is towards family members, friends, children, the disabled.
I want to add a quality, which with the presence on stage, perhaps not involved, is also sincerely MODEST and not “arrogant” as many insinuate.
Some time ago, he said something that struck me, and now I will try to summarize. I still find it hard to realize that I, who have had idols since I was a child and still have them today, may in turn have become an idol for many people.
Maura concludes: This is “my” Gianluca, as I see him, and, according to my personal tastes, I have found in him all the qualities that make him a son, a brother, an ideal nephew. In fact, I consider him a virtual “grandchild” ……….
We are at the conclusion and until now, I never said that he is also beautiful! Yes, because I wonder how much it costs for a show artist to be BEAUTIFUL too.
It depends. Being beautiful counts a lot for a movie star, how many beautiful actors have been successful without being able to act!
But a singer is asked …… a beautiful voice, that he knows how to use and that enchants those who listen to him.
Like Gianluca’s voice, a healthy bearer of strong and contagious emotions.
If then, the lucky singer is also pleasant in appearance, that is just a plus that does not hurt.
Well Maura, I think you summed this up for me! All those beautiful traits come from the man who can certainly walk Through A Valley of Make Believe and come out a superstar!
In Episode Three of Gianluca’s Story we will meet the woman who heard the voice and knew he needed to step on a stage and make his voice known to others worldwide!
To all the American fans I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a joyful day with all your friends and families! On this day of Thanksgiving let us all (every fan) pray for peace in this world!
What I have written here are excerpts from the book the guys wrote about their lives. “Il Volo, Un’avventura Straordinario, La Nostra Storia.” (An Extraordinary Adventure, Our Story) This is just a small piece of each man’s story. The book is written in Italian. If you can read Italian, I would highly recommend that you read it. It’s wonderful! If not, I can only hope that someday it will be translated into English. Or you can use Google Translate to translate it.
I also recommend you read their second book “IL Volo: Quello Che Porto Nel Cuore” (What I Carry in My Heart).
Just in time for Christmas, the guys released a new EP 4Xmas Amazing Grace, O Tannenbaum, Feliz Navidad and Happy Xmas (the War is Over) order yours now on Spotify, Amazon, etc.
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure. Next week we rejoin Piero on the road to Stardom!
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com and don’t forget to visit the Archives.
With Il Volo you never get bored, once a project is finished they immediately start another.
Piero has just returned from a good performance at the New York Marathon and gave an interview to the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. Here is the video with English subtitles, made by Donalee of Il Volo American Fan Group We Are Love whom we thank so much!!
There isn’t much time to rest after this marathon, because Il Volo has announced this new tour in China, and it’s imminent.
Great news! From the end of November we’ll be performing some shows in China. 🇨🇳
Here’s the first date, stay tuned for more announcements:
24.11.2023 – Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Memorial Hall, Guangzhou
In reality there should be three dates, but for now only the first date has been confirmed by Il Volo.
Meanwhile, our three favorites have locked themselves in the recording room and are preparing new projects that we fans will await with great joy!!
Ernesto is also part of the new project as a songwriter.
I can’t wait to hear the results, I’m sure they will amaze us. 🥰
The various Italian newspapers are talking about Il Volo to understand whether or not they will participate in the Sanremo Festival, but the news is not yet confirmed.
Instead, while browsing through the various articles, I found this interesting one published by Prima Brescia, a Brescia-based newspaper, because if you remember, I told you that the orchestra that recently accompanied Il Volo in their events was actually from Brescia.
Here is the article and I translate for you only the part that concerns Il Volo.
The orchestra conductor who directed the young opera trio Il Volo speaks from Brescia.
His CV has plenty to tell, but recently many people from Brescia have recognized him on television and on tour with the opera trio Il Volo. Maestro Edmondo Moses Savio reconfirms himself as a Brescian pride. His involvement with one of the most followed musical trios of all time, starting from that fateful 2009 year in which Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble formed themselves as a group, was as a preparator and choir director at the Arena di Verona for the two concerts, on 1 and 3 May this year which were broadcast on time by Canale 5.
From Manerbio (a small town in the province of Brescia) to the direction of the Il Volo Orchestra
An occasion allowed the Maestro from Manerbio to be noticed for his professional qualities and ability to perceive change and bring the latter to the heights of the voices and instrumentalists he directs. The collaboration continues outside the borders of Verona in various concerts, in the role of conductor: in Ascoli in Piazza del Popolo last 21 July, at the Arcimboldi theater in Milan from 2 to 9 September, in mid-September a private concert for the American Embassy in Rome, back in the Verona Arena for the Tim Music Awards last September 20th broadcast on Rai 1.
“After the post-production in May for Canale 5 I was contacted for a zero date in Ascoli, if everything had gone well I would have continued at the Arcimboldi. An experience that makes you deal with needs and requirements different from the traditional ones in which there is no time to ‘philosophize’ everything takes place quickly, in the same day – said the director – I continued the summer with concerts scheduled with the Giuseppe Verdi Opera Choir of Brescia, and in August the call arrived to conduct the concerts in Milan.”
From opera to pop rhythms
A change of dynamics in orchestral conducting in the world of pop in which the man from Manerbio has been able to navigate at his best.
“An experience that I consider a very interesting parenthesis between the lyrical and baroque repertoire that I frequent the most – commented Savio – My first approach to the pop world was with the album by Renato Zero, (Italian singer) but with Il Volo we have gone further, into a field that is not the traditional one of classical music, in this case there is the need to stick to the times of making TV, there is the need to hear recommendations that may apparently seem superfluous but are subsequently found and they must be managed on a practical side, as happened in the two experiences in the Arena. It can be strange at first, but then by activating problem solving skills and experiencing this environment more and more, you discover very interesting dynamics.”
The interview then continues talking about maestro Savio’s other projects.
In the photo the maestro with Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero.
In recent days, Ignazio has published a beautiful photo of himself after going to the barber. The photo attracted the admiration of many fans and a newspaper wrote this nice article which I will translate for you. Read the final part carefully, full of beautiful words towards Il Volo.
Il Volo, Ignazio Boschetto changes his look and drives the fans crazy: what he did ?
Ignazio Boschetto of Il Volo suddenly changed his look: fans said they were over the moon with his new image.
The singer is certainly one of the most loved in the world of Italian and global entertainment, precisely because he was able to immediately attract the attention of the general public. He did it thanks to his friendliness and his talent, with which he was able to make space for himself in the musical field. It all started when he joined the musical trio Il Volo together with Gianluca Ginoble and Piero Barone. Since then, their musical path has literally taken off.
Now, waiting for their next work projects, Ignazio showed off a brand new look and all the fans went crazy.
Ignazio Boschetto changes his look: he is very different.
The famous singer of Il Volo appeared on social media very different from how we were used to seeing him: the artist has in fact decided to renew his appearance and his shot is now making the rounds on the web. Until now, everyone was in fact used to seeing him with semi-long hair and an irresistible beard: this was precisely the aspect that has always distinguished him since the beginning of his career.
Now things have changed, and Ignazio has opted for a clean cut to his hair but, above all, for a mustache that has attracted the attention of fans. A photograph of him while he is at his trusted beauty salon, which guaranteed him an impeccable look, is making the rounds on the web. Fans are already excited and can’t help but notice the singer’s beauty, despite his change in appearance.
In fact, numerous comments are arriving from followers, who have not missed the opportunity to comment and compliment him. “You are magnificent,” one of them wrote. And again: “This look suits you very much”, “You are truly divine”, “Splendid Ignazio”. It must be said that the messages from web users come from all over the world, also because the famous Il Volo trio is much loved all over the planet. The group has in fact fully represented Italy throughout the planet since the first moment it set foot in the world of entertainment.
Since then, the three have stood out for their grace, simplicity and above all for their impeccable talent. A voice, that of Il Volo, which will certainly remain in the history of world music.
And now let’s enjoy this beautiful ice skating performance done a few days ago in Slovakia, I don’t know what event it is or even the name of the skater, but I’m sure of its musical basis: Il Mondo sung by Il Volo!!! ❤️
This week has also been intense with work, who knows what they will be recording in the recording studio, there will certainly be many new features and also many changes, the time has come for Il Volo to show its professional growth, Piero, Gianluca and Ignazio, not they are more kids to guide in the world of music, they are mature men who have worked hard and who now want to demonstrate their artistic maturity to everyone. And we will be there to applaud them!! 🥰🥰🥰
When we last left Ignazio, he was ten years old and enjoying life and his friends in Bologna.
Ignazio was a part of the school choir and was becoming more passionate about his music each day. In short, finally a little tranquility. How long would it last? Four years, more or less but then, Ignazio tells us….
In July 2004 we were on the road again.
Finally, the family is established, and the decision is made to return to Marsala. For Nina this was a great decision because she always missed Marsala but for Ignazio, Bologna was always his home and honestly what ten-year-old child wants to leave his friends, his school, the only life he has ever known to move to a place where you know no one and have to start all over again in a new school.
So here we are, it’s 2004 and Ignazio’s life is about to take a major turn. The truth of the matter is, if the family did not make this move, Ignazio might never have stepped on the stage at Ti Lacsio Una Canzone and Caterina would not have had her dream come true, to open a pizzeria. If you combine Ignazio’s passion for singing and Caterina’s desire to open a pizzeria you get: A Slice of Pizza with Ignazio on the Side.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we leave Bologna, let me have Ignazio tell you about one of his last days there.
The family was packed and ready to move and Ignazio was just winding down and preparing for the move that he really didn’t want to make.
Whenever Ignazio went out to play with his friends, he brought along a walkie talkie which he used to keep his mother informed about where he was and what he was doing. Ignazio tells us….
Near the end of July 2004, we had already packed everything, and we were ready for the move to Marsala. I went to get an ice cream with some friends near home, really, just a few steps away. Upon returning, I saw some guys in the building next to ours playing soccer. I could go home and do nothing but, it was the last days I was in town? And the game was in the courtyard next to mine, it was practically like it was mine. So, I stop. I did not think to call mom with the intercom, and I played soccer, all afternoon, without even a ‘Mom, I’m down here!’ And mom started looking for me, all over Molinella. She rode around the city and did not find me. Then she called my father, who was at the supermarket shopping: ‘Come I cannot find Ignazio.’ My father arrives, my mom throws the bike in a corner, runs in the car, then, out of the corner of her eye she sees my shorts.
‘Ignaziooooo !!!!’
‘Hey, mom!’
‘Woeful!!!!’
At one point, my mother from anger also spoke Chinese. If it had not been that we had already packed everything for the move, I certainly would have had to iron two beautiful chairs full of clothes for punishment. Instead, as a punishment, no more backyard and no pizza for a month. What then, being without pizza for a month, was worse than two chairs of clothes to iron, because I always ate pizza. And pasta, too. Two other passions of mine, together with soccer and music. I know, I know, you could see from my form. In the canteen, at school, I liked to eat toasted bread! And I always asked for an ‘another serving of pasta.’ Mamma told the ladies who worked in the canteen at school: ‘Do not give him too much soup as he is chubby, just a little bit of pasta and if you do not give it to him, even better.’ One day, one of them replied: ‘But when he comes with that little face and tells me, please another little …. here, lady, how can I say no?’ I was a born actor.
But in all, the one that gave me the most satisfaction with pasta was Nina. I ate some huge dishes. Since mom and dad had to work at night, I ate with Nina and she cooked pasta. It was not that she cooked two and a half ounces! She cooked almost 9 ounces for two people. We ate really full dishes. And then, Nina would call mom at work and ask her for recipes: ‘How do you make ragout like grandmother does? How do you make crepes?’ And she started cooking for the whole family.
‘The moral of the story is in addition to my passion for soccer and volleyball, Nina gave me a passion for cooking.’
Now, let’s join, 10-year-old Ignazio in his early days in Marsala just before he took his first step towards stardom! Ignazio writes….
*In 2004 there was a great change, the economic stability that mom and dad were looking for had arrived. Mom has regained her health and then what do we do? We returned to live in Marsala.
Ignazio’s parents always thought that sooner or later they would be back in Sicily, but Nina also had her part in the choice. Every time they went on holiday in Marsala, for Nina, it was a pain to go back to Bologna, given the beauty of Sicily and since she left a lot of friends and all the rest of her family there. However, in the end, on July 24, 2004, the family moved back to Marsala.
So, let’s see how Ignazio is adjusting to life in Sicily….
In the beginning I did not accept Sicilian life. It was difficult for me to set myself up at school because the programs were very different from the school where I had trained. The consequence? I was seen by everyone as ‘the polentone’ of the situation, it was the Bolognese accent….
(A “polentone” is a somewhat derogatory term that is given to the citizens of northern Italy.)
In the beginning I did not take it very well. At lunch at my paternal grandmother’s house, my mother was so hurt by my words that she started to cry: ‘I recommend you, if I die you must take me to Bologna.’
Fortunately, Ignazio met new friends close to his home and this changed his mind.
Ignazio continues….
If you combine the damage in Bologna, the notes at school and various red crosses and the punishments: ironing, washing dishes, cleaning the floors, in short, housework. You can now imagine the teasing that I had to hear from Vito, Vincenzo and Ivan, my new friends in Marsala, every time I did something wrong, mom made me do the housework. One day, I faced my mother. ‘Dear mom,’ I tell her, ‘the pleasure is over, I’m not going to have you make fun of me anymore.’
Here in Marsala, it was the same as in Bologna’s straight straight ‘nu puzzu’ (it refers to the well) it was there that I went after school, in time to eat something, and then everyone ran behind the house to the well, that is a square in the center which had a closed water well.
Ignazio, Vito and Vincenzo, and sometimes Ivan, would meet every day at the well and decide what to do. They would build huts, play the game of the week, go for a bike ride, in short, everything and more, and this is also where they met to go to school soccer that was just two kilometers from their homes. And sometimes, in the middle of a challenge or under a hut, under construction, you could hear shouting ‘Ignazio!’ and everything stopped….
We stopped breathing for a second and descended silently. Mom wanted me to go home and do my homework. She wanted, but I did not always agree….
During the first year we were back in Marsala, mom had gone back and forth every day to the center of Marsala to be able to secure her great dream: to open a pizzeria of her own.
In order to open the pizzeria, mom had to do certain things. First thing: she went back and forth to the office for the permits and all the bureaucratic things that she needed to do. Second thing: she used the ovens of friends and made pizzas. I remember it very well. She went from one oven to another and tried so many types of flour, she tried the dough, she tried so many types of mozzarellas, so when she finally opened the pizzeria, she already knew how to prepare the right dough. It is different to make pizza in Bologna than making it in Marsala, take the word of a son and brother of a pizza maker: it is different because it depends on the humidity, the temperature and the type of flour. It’s not a simple matter to make a really good pizza.
So, mom did these two things alone, but to build the pizzeria physically the job was for a team and involved the whole family. My father with the savings accumulated over the years began the work. He was now working in a company that built wooden structures and being an experienced bricklayer, the dream could be realized, and it could be built in front of the house.
For a whole year, in every free moment, my father dedicated himself to building the pizzeria for my mother and I loved to help him, so much so that when there were a few days of school vacation I went to work with him.
You will think that I tell you about the pizzeria under construction, but I am not a pizza maker, of course, but if there had not been the pizzeria, perhaps I would never have started singing seriously.
While the pizzeria grew, a passion grew within me. It was a passion for electronics and music. I had started to be part of the elementary school choir and my dad, who was more passionate about electronics than me, had bought me a mixer, a microphone and two speakers, with which we started doing the easiest thing that could be done with those instruments: karaoke. I really enjoyed singing the songs of Andrea Bocelli and Giorgia.
Finally, in 2005 the pizzeria was completed, and mom opened the Pizzeria dei Desideri.
Within a few months mom already had regular customers and since the pizzeria was right in front of the house, when I was singing at home, even the customers heard me. One day a gentleman said to my mother, ‘You know, my daughter is studying singing, why don’t you come with your son once? Even just to try.’
Listening to Ignazio sing Il Mar Calmo delle Sera I could imagine how it must have been sitting in the pizzeria and hearing his beautiful voice. It’s no wonder this customer suggested that Caterina have Ignazio take singing lessons.
Ignazio continues….
Like everything else, we talked it over within my family and everyone was enthusiastic about it. It was decided I would go and see what this singing lesson was like.
I remember it as if it were yesterday, and instead ten years have passed! And now, I was eleven. I wore a yellow shirt with green stripes, fashion was never my strong point. Arianna, the daughter of the pizzeria customer, who had heard me sing, and her mother and I waited in front of the school for more than twenty minutes for Liliana Andreanò, the singing teacher.
Lilliana Adreanò arrived in a grey Opel Astra. She got out of the car and immediately entered the school.
I was worried, almost embarrassed. Hard to believe, right? Even as a child I’ve never been the type to be speechless.
Lilliana begins to talk about music, what kind of songs I like to sing. It was already a strange thing because usually I just sang, no one asked me why and how.
You know, Liliana I like to sing Giorgia’s songs. Lilliana said: ‘Strange for a kid to sing this kind of song.’ She asked, ‘And which song of Giorgia would you like to make me listen to?’ Gocce Di Memoria (Drops of Memory), I said. I didn’t even have a doubt. I start singing and Liliana was amazed by my extension but asks me to try a male song too.
That unique and amazing extension. Like no other tenor in the world! He had an amazing voice, even at eleven years old.
I thought a little bit and then I said to her: sometimes I even sing Con Te Partiro by Andrea Bocelli. I started singing and, when I finished Liliana told me: ‘Ignazio, this is your musical direction.’
From that first lesson I began to study songs like Il Mare Calmo Della Sera, Un Amore Così Grande and all those that came to mind, and I liked it. It approached that genre that was not lyrical, it was modern music but with something classic. With Liliana I found myself very comfortable. We understood each other immediately because she is a sociable person, simple, as are all of us in my family.
After several lessons, Lilliana proposed that I take part in a bullfight (competition) organized in Paolini. I wasn’t completely convinced that I wanted to get on a stage. Until that moment I had only thought about singing, but I had never seriously thought that all that singing one day could bring me into the spotlight. In short, I was afraid. Fear of making mistakes. Fear of not being able to face the stage, but just to gain mastery on stage, Liliana urged me to participate, and so in the end I decided to do it.
I was about to get on the bullfight stage. My legs were trembling, the butterflies in my stomach were no longer butterflies but crazy swallows.
I decided to participate with the song by Bocelli “Con te partirò” (Time to Say Goodbye), a song that I had studied and re-studied with Liliana, but as soon as the music started I had a terrible fear of forgetting the words. So, what did I do? I looked down all the time. So, the audience, the place, what happened around me while I was singing, it’s not that I do not remember anything, I just do not know because I only saw the tips of my feet.
Fortunately, however, I remembered all the words and it is not so obvious because sometimes it happens that I forget the words even today now that I have become professional, the emotion continues to take us despite everything and.… I came in third.
Once the ice was broken and the stage panic was over, that ended up being just the first of many competitions for Ignazio. In general Ignazio would go with Arianna to Lilliana and a beautiful friendship developed. On those occasions they always had a lot of fun and Arianna always came a step ahead of Ignazio. Ignazio third, Ariana second; Ignazio second, Ariana first.
They just had fun, without envy. That is until….
Ariana changed teachers and our streets became a bit divided. We still found ourselves in competitions together, but a rivalry was starting that was not healthy.
This is the same period in which I started taking piano lessons, with various teachers: I changed three in three years. In the end, let’s say, I can play something, but a little, just enough for me to compose. I am not prepared like Piero, who has a very classical education.
And, speaking of Piero, it is a mystery that Piero and I had never met in some competition. He has done almost all those in Sicily and yet I have made some of them and I also started in the same period, around eleven-twelve years, after more or less a year that I lived in Marsala.
After two and a half years, three that I was studying with Liliana, one day she told me that for the genre that I was going to sing another teacher was better suited to give lyrical singing lessons. So, I was convinced and started to follow another singing teacher, Roberta Caly.
So now it becomes complicated. I went to Lilliana for singing lessons and interpretation. I went to Roberta for lyric singing. And I took a diction course from Lilliana and Roberta. I also went to a diction course with Lilliana and a diction course with Roberta but taught by other teachers in the school. And I also attended a jazz workshop.
The study of singing was used to learn the technique and interpretation to understand what I said when I sang, so that I could express my emotions with the words of the songs. However, I must say that despite the studying, I have remained a more pop voice than, for example, Piero who is a pure tenor and even today he studies and dreams one day of singing in an opera.
Ignazio went to class every day except Sunday when he went to see Nina’s soccer matches. Nina was now playing in Serie B.
Between the school, the singing lessons, the piano lessons and diction Ignazio was always busy, so much so that he was forced to leave the school of soccer….
I could not do everything, also because of the not fantastic economic conditions in which my family was. But I did not really want to miss anything and so I immediately found another thing to do: an extracurricular musical laboratory.
Although Ignazio was so busy, he did not want to give up that workshop, it was about setting up musicals, one of the most beautiful experiences of his life. That is, it started with a musical, but then it became three….
The first musical I did when I was small and fat, was Streetlight, which tells a story of rivalry between two bands in the Chicago of the seventies. We staged it at the Teatro Impero of Marsala on May 31, 2007. It was beautiful. I was the protagonist the voice was certainly not like the one I have now. With this baseball cap, one thing to see (and, in fact, somewhere on youtube you can find it too). Then I made Grease, the American musical from which the film of the same name is taken with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and then Rugantino, the musical comedy of Garinei and Giovannini of 1962 still represented today with great success all over the world.
In Rugantino I played the lead role. I still remember the songs …. and that time mom made me a fantastic hat with a fishing net: grip, dyed blue and adapted to the size of my head. Spectacular!
Yes Ignazio I can see you in a musical, writing, singing, producing, being the whole performance as you are in Il Volo!
In 2007, I stopped studying with Roberta. I met Giovanna Collica, a very good soprano, who gave lessons in Siracusa. A gentleman who organized fashion shows in summer around Sicily, had called me to open the fashion shows. The show was in Palazzolo Acreide in Siracusa and that is where I met Giovanna.
Geographically speaking, Siracusa is on the east coast of Sicily and Marsala on the west coast. No matter the distance, studying with Giovanna was too important to pass up. She was a very good soprano she had even dueled with Luciano Pavarotti.
Her lessons were a great opportunity, so once a week what did I do? I took the bus with Nina, or I would leave with my parents in the car and we would go to Siracusa. Every time I entered Giovanna’s house, I asked her ‘How is the cat?’ because she had a very plump white cat that threw himself from the balcony at least once a week.
It took a lot of money to cover the travel expenses, the lessons and in the meantime also the registration for competitions that in many cases were not free. So, it was at a certain point, mom and dad found themselves not having enough money to send me forward. They were more hurt than me. Having always worked and being accustomed to facing sacrifices for the family, they did not want to surrender to this obstacle but at the same time they did not know what to do.
In the end, it was necessary to make a decision. The decision was to ask a person dear to us for a loan that, as soon as mom and dad had settled a little, would be returned.
This person has helped us with great generosity, so as to allow me to continue to pursue this dream.
So, we come to the end of this week’s story about Ignazio. We learned that there was a place in Marsala where you can have A Slice of Pizza with Ignazio on the Side. But above all we learned that, through the generosity of a special person, Ignazio had the opportunity to continue his lessons and take the next step which will lead him on the road to stardom!
In conclusion, I sometimes I feel like I spend every day of my life writing about Ignazio! In the last four years I’ve written over two hundred stories about the guys, and it seems as if half of them are about Ignazio. Why? Because Ignazio wears many different hats. He is an Entertainer, Lyricist, Manager and Entrepreneur!
And let’s not forget about Bosky TV where he chats with us every chance he gets. That is when he can run away from his busy schedule of singing, arranging and producing. The amazing thing about all of this is we can’t seem to get enough of him!
Next time we will follow Ignazio to the competition which will lead him to Ti Lascio una Canzone.
Join me next week as I go back Through the Fields of My Mind and open the door to a new adventure!
Next week we follow Gianluca to the event where he will meet his fate.
*What I have written here are excerpts from the book the guys wrote about their lives. “Il Volo, Un’avventura Straordinario, La Nostra Storia.” (An Extraordinary Adventure, Our Story) This is just a small piece of each mans’ story. The book is written in Italian. If you can read Italian, I would highly recommend that you read it. It’s wonderful! If not, I can only hope that someday it will be translated into English. Or you can use Google Translate to translate it.
I also recommend you read their second book “IL Volo: Quello Che Porto Nel Cuore” (What I Carry in My Heart).
Just in time for Christmas, the guys released a new EP 4Xmas Amazing Grace, O Tannenbaum, Feliz Navidad and Happy Xmas (the War is Over) order yours now on Spotify, Amazon, etc.
If you would like to share a story with me, please email: susan.flightcrew@yahoo.com
To read more Il Volo stories visit us at www.ilvoloflightcrw.com and don’t forget to visit the Archives.
Credit to owners of all photos and videos
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