16 Apr A brand new start
Several months passed before I managed to make music again. I began to think that I needed more sophisticated tools and more education about music scoring – I am kind of a self-taught musician, meaning that I studied singing, piano, violin and solfeggio at school but my harmony knowledge is something I studied by myself, also I didn’t know much about orchestration and how to write a score for a clarinet, for example. I started thinking about enter a Conservatory or a Music School that would give me a degree in music composition.
I was a bit scared because I found out that there was an exam to enter the schools, so I reckoned that I could study during the summer and in September try to pass it; I spoke with some classical musicians and they all agreed that my knowledge of harmony and counterpoint was way too poor to even try. There was only one option: apply for the 2-year pre-academic course and then the 3-year film scoring and composition degree course.
And that’s what I did: I chose the Saint Louis College of Music because I’m not really into old-fashioned conservatories, and it’s the first and only Institution of Higher Education in Music Studies in Italy to be acknowledged by the Ministry for Education, University and Research and enabled to award the equivalent of Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees. I thought that the environment could be very stimulating and fresh, and I really liked the subjects included in the course. In September I went to the main building (it’s in the center of Rome and a few steps from the Colosseum, in a stunning location called “Rione Monti“) and I signed up.