A pianist and composer, Stefano Battaglia has been teaching since 1988 at the Siena Jazz seminars and at the Higher Professional Qualification Specialisation Course for jazz music performers in Siena, where he has directed the Permanent Workshop for Musical Research since 1996. Between 1984 and the present day he has held over 3,000 concerts throughout the world, collaborating with numerous musicians, actors and performers, and publishing over 100 records; in particular, he began an important cooperation venture in 2004 with the German record company ECM, which has published his last seven works.
The Performance - Giving life and giving form workshop is open to any artistic discipline involving self-expression, without any age limit. It is intended for anyone interested in the expressive dimension and performative experience both in a concrete, active sense and in an exclusively experiential and philosophical sense. Participants will be working in concrete terms on the experience and practice of performance, interacting with the programme on the basis of expressive urgency, quality and talent, knowledge and awareness. The pathway's goals include the ideal abandonment of models and styles studied and acquired hitherto in order to return to a phase of induced reinitiation. Transposed from philosophy to artistic experience, the concept of "tabula rasa" (or "scorched earth") on which Battaglia works, maintains its full force intact thanks to the rejection of imitation and of repetition in favour of a renewed creative purity. The experience is enriching from an emotional, psychological, spiritual and technical standpoint, forging a direct priority channel between the self and the artistic universe and laying the groundwork for achieving and imposing an artistic identity. A pathway of research and rediscovery that seeks to afford priority to artistic manifestation as an alternative to artistic representation. This practice shines the spotlight on both talents and limitations, it fosters an awareness of the various different artistic techniques, and it permits a potential real identification with expressive action. The workshop will be structured in different moments: Tabula Rasa. The art of improvisation: a possible grammar and syntax: individual and group practice and invention; Research and revelation: the creativity and experimentation of self: flame, dream vision and mystery; Significance: the triangle of significance: ethos / logos / pathos; Manifestation and representation: here and now: the now and the light of truth of this unique moment; Time: multi-dimensional space / journey into the past-present-future interval / rhythm: narrative and form; Metalanguage: beyond language: music in relation to other expressive forms, the word, poetry, painting, the image, dance. Interrelation / codes / symbols / signs; Languages and contaminations: the geography and epiphany of expression / traditional idiomatic sources.
Duration of the workshop: from Tuesday 14 to Sunday 19 May 2019.
Time: 2.30 pm to 7.30 pm.