When Il Volo won Sanremo in 2015, everyone looked for news on Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca and also on who had followed them in their artistic path. Among these is the master Sergio Bertocchi.
Sergio Bertocchi is an Italian tenor born in Molinella, the same birthplace of Ignazio.
This beautiful interview was published by the Bologna newspaper: IL RESTO DEL CARLINO.

MAESTRO ARTICLE

I translate it for you.

The ability to hover in a song, explained, Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero learned it in Bologna. And who knows if anyone has ever met them on the streets of Bologna, every time they took the plane to fly to the master Sergio Bertocchi, their vocal mentor, the one who taught the three singers how to breathe and how they lean, the sounds by controlling them. Il Volo, a trio of golden uvula that won in Sanremo, the techniques to be successful he learned just at the court of this Bolognese tenor who sang all over the world and who at 71 years opted for a quieter life, with teaching.

Master, how did your meeting with Il Volo happen?
“The first one I met was Gianluca Ginoble three years ago. My manager Virginio Fedeli had asked me to meet him in the studio in Rome at the request of Tony Renis, the one who believed in them after participating in the talent led by Clerici. I worked with him on the first album of the group, I needed a technical job to gain more certainty in singing, and in fact my name appears among the thanks.”

(picture credit from article…)

Then he became the vocal coach of all three singers?
“Yes, because the other two, Ignazio Boschetto and Piero Barone, have also asked for my advice and have come to my house many times. Then when they went to America they asked me to go with them to play the vocal coach but I had to give up, for health, and as soon as they returned we resumed work.”

So what they are now, they owe a lot to his work …
“Yes, I taught them a method but I must say that when I met them I thought they were three phenomena, three boys with an incredible gift and that they would have gone very far. Indeed, they have already burned several stages for their age.”

How would you describe their voices?
“Each has its own great characteristic. Gianluca has a very warm baritone voice in the notes of harmony, Ignazio has a soaring lyric tenor voice, Piero as a heroic tenor and this is his path.”

They were all born in the early nineties of the last century …

“They have a great awareness of what they are and have this great passion that leads them to commit themselves to the maximum. I, in the environment, am known as a very strict one, who does not easily gratify, but with them there have been no difficult moments because they have the innate discipline of those who want to arrive.”

So young and already so famous; will they manage to manage success?
“First of all they are fortunate to be supported and followed by families, which is very important. And in this regard I am pleased to recall a coincidence, that Ignazio was born in Molinella, just like me, and then moved with his family to Marsala. Then I always kept them with their feet on the ground, they are also prepared to be heavily criticized, but they face everything calmly because they are safe. And anyway … if they haven’t lost their mind until now I think they won’t lose it anymore … they are international stars even before winning Sanremo.”

Did you feel that they would do it?
“I heard them the first night they sang and I thought that the song had taken so much, on the audience that had been conquered by a free song that flows and emotion us … and I felt something. They are different and despite the snobby criticisms they are not a table-created product, they are three pure talents.”

Surely it is very nice to hear the opinions of “experts” who talk about Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero.
If then these people say comments like “they are three pure talents,” there is nothing else to add.

Daniela

(credit to owners of all pictures…)