MUSIC
What a delight it is to meet someone who truly loves what they do and what their life has to offer.
Italian born Alberto Sanna must be one of the happiest men alive, absorbed as he is in his music, he looks forward to every day. Alberto lives in Oxford with his wife Paola and two daughters Alice and Valentina, and believes Oxford to be one of the best intellectual places in the world. He is probably right. But being right on our doorstep many of us probably take Oxford for granted and forget what pleasures there are to be had within those wonderful old buildings. However, listening to Alberto's experience of living there would open your eyes to its treasures all over again, with the reminder that Oxford is also close enough to London, which he considers to be the music capital of the world.

Born in Cagliari, Italy, Alberto is, without a doubt, a world class violinist. He says he started too late, at age ten, to ever become international standard. I beg to differ. Music is in his blood, his family were all professional musicians back to his great-grandfather, and his playing will touch your heart. At aged only 14, Alberto had already made the decision that the violin held his future and considers himself very lucky to be able to follow that through.

Alberto trained as a violinist and musicologist, attending the Milan Conservatory, the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the University of Oxford. He is awash with music degrees and has been the recipient of many scholarships. Clearly he as always destined to have a glowing music career and now enjoys this vocation, as a performer as well as a scholar. He is reading for a doctorate in musicology at St Anne's College, University of Oxford, working on an historical-analytical study of Corelli's compositions, under the supervision of Professor Laurence Dreyfus. A lover of chamber music, Alberto says that "it must be possible to make a career out of playing Corelli. The music is so beautiful, and it is important to play the most beautiful of music".

At various points in his life, Alberto was a freelance musician, a music teacher, a researcher in music education and the founding director of a music nursery and a music school in Sassari, Italy. It was upon meeting a chamber music teacher in Milan that his direction changed. Alberto says he was then able to approach music more theoretically and intellectually, having been introduced to intellectual music, books and writings. Here in Oxford he has the luxury of being able to study and perform (which involves at least four hours practising every day!) without feeling that he has to fit into a mould.
He is relaxed with life and, shrugging his shoulders, he says "Oxford makes me feel so free. You have your own identity here and people take you for who you are".

Alberto has concerts and festivals already booked for 2008, and international distribution is being planned for his CD, Fidibus Canere, which was recorded at the Church of the Scalabrini Institute, Bassano del Grappa, Italy, chosen for its outstanding accoustics.

It is well worth having in your music collection, being a beautiful collection of early music, played on period instruments..

To obtain a copy of Fidibus Canere visit www.tronos.it

Caroline Jaques August 2007.