(gentle upbeat music) (camera shutter clicking) (lens swooshing) (intense music) - "Eye On Education," I'm Fred Martino.

Today a special treat, my conversation with Paolo Chiavarili.

He is a graduate student in music from Italy, and he completed his studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Full disclosure, the university is WSIU's licensee.

Upfront, a performance.

(thoughtful cello music) ("Suite No.1 for Cello Solo in G Major, I. Prelude") (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) (thoughtful cello music continues) Paolo, that was beautiful.

Tell me about that selection.

Thank you for being here today and why you chose it too, 'cause everyone would be curious.

How did that become the beginning to this program?

- Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for inviting me.

I really appreciate it and I'm so glad to be here.

The piece I've just played is taken from one of the six suites for cello solo, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, who is one of the greatest composers in the Western classical music history, and he was probably the first composer who believed that the cello could be a soloistic instrument, you know, instrument without anyone else, basically, an instrument that could play by itself.

The piece- - So that's always been one of your favorites.

- Yeah.

And this piece in particular is probably one of the most famous in the cello repertoire for sure.

Probably many among our, many in the audience have already recognized it.

- Have heard it.

- Yeah, because it's often used in commercials.

It was used many times in movies and TV shows.

And in particular, it was the prelude to the first suite in G Major for cello solo by Johann Sebastian Bach.

- Okay, and you've had a lot of time to think about what you like, what you don't like because I understand that you have been playing the cello since you were eight years old.

- Yeah.

- Tell me how this started.

- It started mostly thanks to the amazing effort of my mom.

My mom was a pianist.

She graduated in piano performance in Italy.

Now she became a teacher, but she always wanted to have me and my brother, my older brother, to pursue a musical career since we were very young.

So thanks to her efforts, I started to play cello, a quite unusual instrument for eight-year-old kid.

- And that was at your mom's suggestion?

- Yeah, my mom's.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

My dad also wanted it so much, but my dad wasn't a musician, so he didn't know that much about the area.

My mom wanted for me and my brother to play two quite unusual instruments, so I play cello, my brother is a french horn player.

- Ah.

- Yeah.

- So she knew, she somehow knew that this would be your instrument.

- Yeah, she knew it.

- Moms know things.

- Yeah.

- Lots of people, of course, play instruments growing up, but very few continue on in college and think about it as a career.

Tell me how that happened for you.

- So I took the decision to pursue a musical career probably around 16 because until then I was still playing cello, but I had many options available.

I liked also other subjects.

There were other ideas in my head, you know, but around the age of 16, I took this decision to keep going with music and trying to be a professional musician.

That's what I'm doing now in a different country, getting a master's degree.

- And you got your bachelor's degree in your home country of Italy.

- Yes.

- Tell us about that.

- Yeah, I took my bachelor's degree at Pescara, which is the city where I come from, Pescara State Conservatory in the class of Maestro Massimo Mare, who was my mentor for many, many years.

After that, I took my bachelor's in 2021.

After that, I spent one year in Spain, thanks to this exchange program that we have in Europe called Erasmus Project, that allow many students to study abroad for free, basically.

- Wow.

- It's a very- - And what was that like, going to Spain?

- It was amazing.

It was amazing.

It's a country very similar to Italy from many points of view.

The food is very similar, also the language.

Spanish and Italian are very similar, so I loved it.

While I was there, I found the opportunity to come here and get my master's degree at SIU, especially thanks to one of our faculty members, Dr. Rossana Cauti.

She's Italian as well, and by the way, she comes from my same region, our same region, in this case.

- Yes.

My extended family is from Abruzzo as well.

- Yeah, from the central.

- But we didn't know each other until I met you at SIU, just by chance.

- Yeah.

- And I'm curious about how you would describe the difference of being an international student in Spain, versus being an international student in the United States.

- Yeah, so, you know, between Spain and Italy, there are probably less than two hours of flight.

Between where I am now in Italy, there are probably around 10.

I would say that's the most important reason.

When I was in Spain, I could come back to my place at least a couple of times inside a year.

Now that became an issue, you know, because the flight are very expensive between Europe and America.

And in general, you feel more the distance because, for example, when I was in Spain, I could receive packages from my family pretty quick.

They could send a package the week before and the week after I could receive it already.

Now that has became almost impossible to receive a package from Italy.

You could wait more than a month.

- Wow.

- So that feels completely different.

- How about the culture and the acceptance and the feeling that you have as a student in Spain versus the United States.

Are there differences?

- Definitely.

The Spanish culture is way similar to the Italian one, so they give a lot of value to family, to food.

They care a lot about certain values so they're very similar to the ones we have in Italy.

They go to bed very late like us.

They can have dinner at 9:00 PM, even 10 in summer, while here, it would be almost impossible to find something like that.

The meals, that can happen very late, and also the rhythm of life is, I would say it's feels slower, while here in America, everything always feels very, I would say rushed.

Like there's always a very, in America, there's always this big focus on making productive every single hour of the day.

While in Spain, and definitely also in Italy, we have less of that.

- I bet you miss that sometimes.

- Sometimes I do.

- Yeah, I bet you do.

- I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I do.

- Enjoying life.

I understand because I've been to Italy, and so I understand.

I haven't been to Spain very long, very short period, but I've been to Italy a couple of times, and so I know exactly what you're talking about.

You can slow down a little bit.

- Yeah, definitely.

And they have the so-called siesta, right?

This is the nap after the meal, but here, it's not very common, I would say.

- And you mentioned an instructor in Spain suggested SIU Carbondale for continuing your schooling, right?

- I received, I saw this opportunity and applied for while I was in Spain.

My plan was to go back to Italy after Spain and getting a master's degree there, but when I saw this opportunity, I just took it.

I saw that the Italian, that the professor who made possible this program was Italian, you know, Dr. Rossana Cauti, the Viola Instructor at SIU School of Music, so I contacted her, I asked her more information about it, and here I am.

- Here you are, and tell me some things that you like about the experience of being a student here and living in the United States.

- So I found the United States amazing from so many points of view.

The facilities you have here, the attention you have here to education, to culture.

Also, all the initiatives that you do to develop culture and art around the area.

The School of Music is doing so much about it.

Every week, there are many events, many recitals, many concerts that you can find.

The opportunity that they gave me, because, you know, in Europe it's not very common the idea of getting an assistantship, to be, at the same time, a student and an employee of the university.

In Europe, there's not that much of that and I found this amazing because allow us to experience, to be not only a student, but also to start experiencing a professional career, in this world, in the world of classical music and music in general.

- And I know there's so many things that you love about the United States and you have a desire to stay here.

- Yeah, that's the plan.

- Besides the slower way of life occasionally in Italy, are there other things you miss?

- Well, my family for sure.

- For sure family.

- Food sometimes.

- And the food sometimes.

Love that gelato myself.

- Oh my God, yeah.

- And porchetta, oh my goodness.

- Yeah, you are mentioning some typical things of our region, by the way, yeah, I miss that much.

- That's heaven.

Heaven on a plate.

- Exactly, yeah.

I like American food from, I like so many places.

I like sometimes how easy it is to get food around the area.

How fast is, you know, you're famous for that.

But sometimes, yeah, I miss for sure my family and yeah, I would say how natural are the ingredients in Italy, I would say that's one of the thing I miss the most.

- Yeah, we have a lot of processed food here.

I understand what you're saying, so there's a lot of fresh food.

- That's one of the thing I noticed, yeah.

- Interesting.

Your family, how do they feel about this?

- They are very happy about it.

Of course, many of them miss me.

- [Fred] Yeah, they want you to visit.

- I have many call, I wouldn't say dramatic, but you know, sometimes my mom calls me and so some tears can start to fall, you know, but when I went back last year during Thanksgiving week, it really felt like I never left.

There was that great feeling that it was like if I had never left Italy.

It's a good feeling and I brought there my girlfriend, my American girlfriend that I found here, they met her, so yeah, there is a connection that is starting right now between my family in Italy and my new family here in America.

- I love the way you put that because for people, I think people watching and people who love Italy, even if they've never spent a long time in Italy, if they've gone to Italy, for many people, this is me included, you feel at home too, you feel at home.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Go back and I'm back there again.

It's so special.

Is there anything else you want people to know about Italy, about your home country?

- Hmm, let's see.

Well, for sure, I would say that sometimes the image that you have of Italy here, I wouldn't say it's wrong, but sometimes it's exaggerated, I would say.

It's a country that you have to experience, like my idea of America was very different before I arrived here.

There were certain things that I wasn't expecting in good and bad ways, so I would say definitely to go and experience it because that's the best way to know a country.

- Well, now with a master's degree from SIU Carbondale, you're looking toward your doctoral studies, so I'm assuming at some point you wanna pay it forward, you want to also mentor students the way that you were mentored.

- That would be great.

That would be the idea, yeah, for sure, and being able to teach in a college, well, it's one of my goals at the moment, but that obviously can happen in most of the cases only after a doctorate degree, so I'm trying to build that opportunity.

And also, yeah, I will try to audition for orchestras in America.

I've auditioned for festivals, grants, chamber music groups, whatever can help my career to continue.

- And you've already been performing here in the United States and that must be a thrill for you.

- Yeah, I perform many times in the community, in the area, and many people in Carbondale are starting to know me.

They met me in many concerts, not only SIU, but also outside, so yeah, that is already happening.

- That must feel great.

- Yeah, it does.

- We have about a minute left.

I wanna give you a chance to tell us about our closing selection that we're going to have here.

We have one more selection.

- Yeah, this upcoming selection is still from the same author we listened to earlier, Johann Sebastian Bach, from a different suite, and this will be the Prelude to the Suite Number 6 in D Major.

You will notice many differences between the previous piece is this prelude goes so much more higher in the register of the cello, tries to explore the cello so much more compared to the previous piece, so hope you will enjoy it.

- Thank you for sharing your music and life with us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

Enjoy.

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6 for Cello Solo in D Major, I. Prelude") (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues) (lively cello music continues)