A bridge between West and East, stretched out in the heart of the Mediterranean, a crossroad of all the passageways and routes that can be traced in the ancient world, Salento, my land, has been inhabited since the dawn of man and every people has left its mark. Of every civilization, you can admire the rich remains and enchanting beauties, in a precious game of lights, colours, memories, traditions, and languages. At its centre lies the capital Lecce, a historical city that stands out for its extraordinary Baroque style, so different from all the others, with architecture of great refinement, unique in its kind; certainly, it is also Greek, Byzantine, Norman, Arab, Spanish, and Bourbon, but Baroque is its most authentic soul, which is reflected in the palaces and churches, poetry of angels, saints and stone fruits, a harmony of friezes, that become a chorus on a balcony, always amazing those who observe them.

To express as much greatness, I chose J. S. Bach, an extraordinary composer of that period, playing the prelude from the Suite in E major for lute BWV 1006/a and proposing some images of Salento and its particular baroque.

"Music, like many other kinds of artistic expression, is composed of practice, research, and emotion. I live on an island where weather changes give a very peculiar tone to the environment, both in and outside the city. This gives me very strong feelings and inspiration which, translated into musical language, enrich the performance."

My video follows this scheme:

1. Ponce’s Prelude n. 7 – My study process, in a nutshell 
2. Ponce’s Prelude n. 8 – Water, rain: reflexivity
3. Ponce’s Prelude n. 9 – Fire: the energy during performance
4. Ponce’s Prelude n. 10 – Wind, the sea: a horizon to look at.

"Benjamin Causevic and Luka Lovrekovic started playing together in 2019 after they both enrolled to Kunstuniversität Graz in Austria in the class of Lukasz Kuropaczewski. In this short performance we wanted to show the contrast between two masters of their time, Johann Sebastian Bach and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and at the same time to make a cohesion between their Preludes and Fugue."

"In dark times, artists are looking for the very inspiration which drives the spirit to create. The empty streets of the city are no cure for loneliness. The nostalgia for something that was once alive and flowing like a river now seems to be a frozen lake. This is a universe where time has no value. I understand art as an antidote to this “dream of lying and inconstancy”. Artists find salvation within themselves. They always carry on, they continue to see the world with both eyes open wide and never stop looking for truth, revealing it through their work – like Fransisco Goya and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco did. We should not stop being who we are. We must continue on our own paths. That is how we can turn the world into a better place."

"Who are we playing for?

For me, playing the guitar in 2020 is about the need to link the tradition of the repertoire with the development of a more intuitive and creative practice of music.

I chose to play Manuel de Falla's Homenaje, because of its emotional and historical importance, and I placed it like a phantom in a large empty concert hall, in the middle of an improvisation.

This performance is imbued with a mystical atmosphere, making the absent public (audience, loved ones, missing composers, and even us) appear ghostly."

"For this video on the theme Guitar 2020, I have chosen to combine dance and music, performing a very popular song in Argentina: Alfonsina y el Mar, composed by the Argentinean pianist Ariel Ramírez and the writer Félix Luna d'Ariel. The transcription for guitar was done by Roland Dyens.

The choreography, in a contemporary style, is inspired by the text of this song which tells the tragic story of Alfonsina Storni, a poetess of postmodernism who committed suicide in 1938 in Mar del Plata by throwing herself into the sea."

"The guitar is an intimate instrument, perfect for expressing the introspective side of the human soul.

Here, I will present a suite (which collects "inner" movements) composed by a very young composer: Stefano Vivaldini.

I have chosen to play a piece taken from an unpublished collection entitled: "Trasparenze". The piece, which introduces the collection, is called "l'Entusiasmo" and is followed by "La Quiete", "l'Incomunicabilità", "Interludio per ritrovar se stessi" and "l'Autenticità". An emotional journey that winds through five different movements. It is particularly complex to interpret a piece of music that has a specific emotion as its object, but, certainly, the purpose of the piece is in line with what is the final aim of music: to move emotions."

Music: Stefano Vivaldini from the "Trasparenze" collection:

- Entusiasmo

- Interludio per ritrovar se stessi (background music video introduction) 

"Due to the pandemic, all our activities have been restricted to our homes. Working from home, watching online concerts and movies - a new life inside a box. During the lockdown, people all around the world felt more than ever the need to get closer to nature. Since walking was the only activity that could get people out of their apartment, many were constantly going to parks or even spending the entire time of the lockdown in villages instead of their homes in the cities.

I wanted to create a video that would represent the fact that music exists not only in concert halls, big venues, and galleries, but also in open-air spaces in nature. The guitar is part of nature. It consists of 3-4 different types of woods which all together create this wonderful instrument.

I want to dedicate this video to all those who are suffering either physically or mentally during this pandemic."

"I believe this video effectively represents the way I experienced the year 2020 and the issues that came with it: due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I had to find new ways to promote my instrument, which would stimulate my imagination and develop my relationship with the guitar in unusual ways. I used my training as a performer and as a composer to create a video where I try to overcome the impossibility of playing ensemble music during lockdown, realising a “safely distanced” recording of a “double-me" performing a new composition of mine. An effort of me as an individual who makes music nonetheless, using all the means at his disposal, at a time when music must not stop."

“I made a video from my home, where I spent the last quarantine and will spend the next quarantine… In the video, I wanted to show a bit of myself and my music, and what is a better way for that purpose than playing some music by my favourite composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, which I really enjoy playing. Also, I finish the video playing a piece written by myself a few years ago as an hommage to the great Paco de Lucía months after he passed away, and which I dedicated to my grandmother.”