Giovanni Allevi: glasses? 'A miraculous tool'

As well as being 'a miraculous tool', as he describes them, glasses are part of Giovanni Allevi's personality. 'What kind of relationship do I have with glasses? 'I changed them several times as my short-sightedness slowly worsened', he said during an exclusive interview with Eyesway. 'I've always had a good relationship with glasses and if you're short-sighted like me, you know what it's like to wear new glasses, the joy of seeing everything in focus again! You spend hours at the window looking at the rooftops or the leaves on the trees'.

Giovanni Allevi is considered to be one of the greatest musical phenomena of recent years and one of the major composers on the current international scene. Since March 2005, when he debuted at the Blue Note in New York City, his career has continued to grow, but even before that debut in the world's temple of jazz, he had a background of extraordinary experience. He was born in 1969 in Ascoli Piceno. Both parents are musicians and he spent his childhood immersed in classical music. He studied piano, graduated from the Morlacchi Conservatory of Perugia with top marks and began to give concerts in which he alternated pieces by Chopin, Bach, Beethoven and Ravel with his own compositions, which were received with surprise and enthusiasm. In 1998 he graduated in philosophy and in 2001 moved to Milan, where he gained a diploma in composing at the Verdi Conservatory.

Since then, his musical works and his worldwide successes have continued without interruption. The most recent was in Beijing during the Olympics, where the composer-conductor-pianist played with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Asia's most renowned symphonic orchestra of 90 musicians. At that time, Allevi played some of the pieces from his best-known albums, 'No concept' and 'Joy'; he then conducted the orchestra for the entire works in his album, 'Evolution'.

He remembers that success while he prepares for a new concert and talks about rituals and obsessions: 'before every concert I always eat a slice of chocolate cake, then I stroke the keys of the piano and I tell it to be good; when I am in Milan, I always do the same things: I always have a cappuccino and a brioche in a bar and then I write on a paper napkin the names of the people I met during the day and turn them into melodies which, sooner or later, end up in my compositions'.
We also talked about glasses. As well as being necessary in some cases, do you consider them to be a fashion accessory?
'I have never thought of them as a fashion accessory but as a miraculous tool that I need'.
What do you think about the aversion to glasses many people have?
'Women are crazy about men in glasses! And vice-versa'.
What do you look for when you choose a pair of glasses?
'I make sure that they suit me, obviously, and that they won't fall off. During a piano concert the glasses could slide down my nose because of perspiration or sudden movements and I can't take my hands off the keyboard to adjust them…!!!'.

So the next step is to find glasses…for pianists!