Teenage pianist with rare muscle disease is showing music’s power...

... with incredible Chopin videos

Wheelchair-bound pianist stuns social media with her incredible Chopin videos

Credit: Valentina Irlando/Instagram

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

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A year ago, this young Italian pianist couldn’t read music. Now, she’s playing Chopin recitals and storming the Internet with her incredible progress videos.

Valentina Irlando, 13, was born with a rare muscle disease – and has been in a wheelchair for as long as she can remember.

But over the last year, Valentina has found the perfect therapy: playing the piano.

The performance videos are now sweeping the Internet, with her beautiful renditions of Beethoven and Chopin demonstrating remarkably quick progress on the instrument.

“For me playing piano is the best medicine!” she tells Classic FM.

“When I was little, I really liked to ‘play’ the piano that my uncle had at home. Since I was born, my grandfather pushed my parents to buy me a piano because his dream was to have a musician in the family.

“So, for Christmas they gave me a toy piano, I really enjoyed playing with it but after a while I started not using it anymore.”

For a number of years, Valentina lost her love of the piano – but last year, she felt that something was missing from her life. So, she decided to take it back up.

“But I had never learned. When I was little, I did not take lessons. I did not even know the musical notes.”

Over the last year, Valentina has been practising every day, and sharing her progress with her Instagram followers.

Her videos, that have been shared across the Internet – and even liked by the famous French-Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili – are a wonderful demonstration of the power of music.

In many of her videos, Valentina credits her teacher – Credici on Instagram – for always sticking by her.

“I would like to thank my teacher for believing in me and for always supporting me, even when what I wanted to do was impossible,” she writes.

“And to think that a year ago I didn’t even know the musical notes.”

Music teaching is vital to a child’s education

Nicola Benedetti: ‘Music teaching is vital to a child’s education’

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

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The leading violinist on the state of music education in schools, the essential role of music in our day-to-day lives, and why we need to do more to celebrate our country’s teachers.

Nicola Benedetti has spoken passionately about the need for better music education in schools, saying “music teaching is vital to a child’s education”. 

In a speech held at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in London, the violin virtuoso drew on her time spent campaigning for better music provision in some of England and Scotland’s most underprivileged schools.

“Any one moment can flick a switch and turn a tide. Each moment with someone young can be that moment for them – when they choose hope over apathy or choose to persevere over giving up,” she says, speaking to members of the Royal Philharmonic Society and the wider classical music industry.

“Music fires the imagination in young minds. On many an occasion, I have learned more about the pieces I’m playing from critiques of a four-year-old listening to me playing, than I have from years of studying and learning professionally,” Benedetti says, with a smile.

Read more: ‘With Nicky’ – Nicola Benedetti’s exclusive practice tips >

Nicola Benedetti is campaigning for better music education across the UK. Picture: PA

The Scottish-born violinist, who has tirelessly campaigned for better music education across the country, has previously said that while her first love is music, her second is educating people through the art of music.

Since the age of 15, Benedetti has worked with schools and music organisations around the world, engaging with local music-making and spending countless hours working alongside teachers who have dedicated their lives to music.

“I saw a huge number of inspiring teachers engaging their students with no sacrifice on quality,” she recalls.

“I saw great teaching and playing, regardless of level. The more I looked, the more excellence, ingenuity, creativity, dedication, resilience and unbelievable steadfastness in both teacher and student I encountered.”

Read more: ‘Music needs a more prominent place in the stringent education system’, says Benedetti >

Benedetti pauses. “But I also saw lacklustre music teachers and students, worn down by years of zero celebration of their work, continuous battles to hold onto the tiny resources they have, and feeling like they are pushing against a culture that only celebrates music sold like addictive candy.”

Nicola Benedetti is a leading violinist and music education ambassador. Picture: Andy Gotts

In January this year, Nicola and her team set up the Benedetti Foundation, a charitable organisation which will support students and teachers in music-making.

The foundation’s main focus will be the ‘Benedetti Sessions’ – a series of orchestra-based weekend workshops, designed to address the needs of young musicians and of teachers, and to enrich the lives of today’s young people through music.

“Music is a gift from the depth of one person’s soul to another. It is the art of all things we cannot see nor touch,” the virtuoso says.

“The teaching of music is important because, put simply, music is important.”

Venice floods: St Mark’s Basilica in Venice suffers ...

...  ‘significant damage’ with historic tides

Footage shows Venice flooded as the city struggles to cope with rising water

By Kyle Macdonald

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The historic church, which dates back to 1092, has been swamped with water following the city’s highest tide in 50 years.

St Mark’s Basilica, which has seen music performances from the likes of great Baroque composers Vivaldi, Monteverdi and Gabrieli, has been flooded following high tides which have impacted the entire city of Venice. 

Last night saw the highest tide in more than 50 years, peaking at 1.87 metres. Waters swamped the city’s famous canals, flooding squares, houses, shops and the 11th-century Basilica.

People worked through the night to clear water from the historic mosaics that adorn the floor of the building, situated in St Mark’s Square. According to church records, this is the sixth time the building has been flooded in its history.

The Mayor of the city, Luigi Brugnaro, tweeted: “Venice is on its knees. St Mark’s Basilica has suffered serious damage, as have the whole city and the islands.”

St. Mark's Basilica flooding. Picture: Getty

Brugnaro blamed the flooding on the effects of climate change and urged protection for the city from rising sea levels.

The floods have so far claimed the lives of two people on the nearby island of Pellestrina. Italy was hit by heavy rainfall on Tuesday, with more wet weather forecast this week.

The Mayor also pledged that the long-delayed MOSE project, designed to protect Venice and the Venetian Lagoon from tides of up to three meters, will be completed. It began in 2003, but has been continually set back by cost overruns, scandals and delays.

Over the centuries the Basilica has been one of the world’s most important places for Baroque music.

As a young man, composer Antonio Vivaldi's was believed to have occasionally played in the Orchestra of St Mark’s.

Baroque composers such as Monteverdi and Gabrieli wrote large-scale religious works for the vast, elaborate building.

A rare portrait of teenage Mozart is being auctioned in Paris

The rare portrait of a teenage Mozart will be sold at auction. Picture: Christie's

By Sian Hamer, ClassicFM London

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It is estimated the rare painting of the young classical composer could sell for up to £1 million.

A rare portrait of Mozart as a teenager is due to be sold at auction at the end of the month.

The artwork, attributed to Italian painter Giambettino Cignaroli, will be auctioned at Christie’s Paris on 27 November – and it is estimated the rare portrait will fetch between €800,000 (£688,000) and €1.2 million (£1 million).

Painted in January 1770, the portrait depicts a teenage Mozart sitting at his harpsichord in front of a score, wearing a white wig and a red frock.

The 13-year-old composer had been touring Italy at the time, and the portrait captures him following a successful organ concert he had given in Verona.

Mozart lived between 1756 and 1791. Picture: Getty

Many attempts have been made to decipher the score which sits in front of the composer in the artwork.

“Some musicologists argue that it is the work of the Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi,” Astrid Centner, director of the old paintings department at Christie’s, told Agence France-Presse.

“Others say that it is a score by Mozart himself that has been lost.”

Read more: British composer completes Mozart’s 230-year-old unfinished work, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik >

Listen to Debbie Wiseman's ‘Ein Bisschen Fehlt’ – a response to Mozart’s missing ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ movement

Centner explains that what makes the artwork so extraordinary are the circumstances around the ordering of the portrait, which can be actually retraced.

In a letter from Mozart's father, he describes how Pietro Lugiati, a general tax collector in Venice, decided to commission the portrait.

“This happens very little in the world of art…” Centner adds. “Wolfgang’s father, Leopold, speaks about it in a letter to his wife and tells the story of January 6-7 1770.

“At the bottom of the portrait is a sentence in Latin describing Mozart, which reads: ‘He surpassed any praise in the musical art’.”

Read more: Mozart’s London townhouse has been listed for £7.5 million – take a look inside >

Throughout his lifetime, the composer had very few portraits painted – but one of the most famous was a drawing of him at seven years old, in front of a piano with his family. The artwork is currently on display at the Musée Carnavalet.