# Lucia Cassarà

Lucia Cassarà (born 9 February 1999 in Palermo) is an Italian pianist and writer.

## Biography

Lucia Cassarà was born in Palermo but lives between Alcamo and Bologna. With her passion for Classical Music, cultivated since her childhoof, she started playing the piano when six, and only two year later she won her first prize at the Concorso Nazionale per giovani musicisti “Città di Palermo” organized by the Collegium Ars Musica.
After getting the secondary school diploma, when only 20 years old, she obtained, on the 26th November 2019, summa cum laude, the first level laurea of Pianoforte at the Conservatorio Musicale Antonio Scontrino of Trapani, discussing her thesis entitled: Il Pianoforte nel Cinema: la musica classica nelle pellicole cinematografiche. In the same place she attends, during the academic year, different masterclasses and courses of specialization.
She also specialized In the solo-chamber at the Conservatorio Alessandro Scarlatti in Palermo, where, on October 29, 2021, she got the diploma of Laurea of II level in Piano, summa cum laude, with the discussion of a thesis on 'Pictures at an Exhibition by Musorgskij 'through a long voyage, starting from the 1871 original work as far as the rock di Emerson, Lake & Palmer, from the Watercolor paintings by Hartmann to the abstract painting of Kandinskij and the musical docufilms of the English director Cristopher Nupen.
Lucia has also combined her passion for classical music to that for Cinema, and on the 22 March 2023, at Università di Bologna, she obtained the Laurea magistrale in Cinema, Television and multimedial Production with the thesis "Gli accompagnamenti musicali nel Cinema - Origine, Evoluzione e Restauro del Suono".
Her interest on Cinema and Writing has driven her to enrole at the courses on Writing and Cinema Screenplay held at Scuola Holden of Turin.
Lucia has also worked at Cineteca di Bologna, where she has done an activity of musical consultancy, making the cataloguing of the musical archive owned by the film director Vittorio De Sica and Giuditta Rissone, his first wife, a beautiful collection of 78 records with songs of the Neapolitan repertoire interpreted by De Sica, who was already known for his good voice. era già noto per le sue capacità vocali. Various songs seem to echo to opera pieces between Rossini and Puccini. I dischi vengono catalogati e digitalizzati in file audio MP3 in modo che possano essere fruibili per ricercatori, studiosi ed appassionati del personaggio eclettico di Vittorio De Sica.
At the restoration laboratory ''L’immagine Ritrovata'' in Bologna she has made some researches on the evolution of the sound restoration sonoro of films, including the period of silent film and of the live musical accompaniments.
When fourteen, she composed his first soundtrack for the corto ''Contenere l'infinito'' by Alessandro Ferrara, a film director from Alcamo, based on the omonimo story written by Maria Sandias, with the participation of the actor Sebastiano Somma. Ha scritto le musiche per il booktrailer fotografico "Lo stupore dell'acqua" sull’omonimo libro del celebre fotografo Melo Minnella.
Lucia has also collaborated with the Academy ADADS (Accademia dell’Arte e dello Spettacolo in Milan), the Galliera Music Lab of Bologna, the television channel Videosicilia and the radio station Radio In di Palermo; Trapani Classica, Festival Scontrino of Trapani, the season Pianisti in Sala Scarlatti of the Conservatorio di Palermo, Compagnia del Piccolo Teatro and Unitre di Alcamo.

## Works

In her first essay entitled Mozart, Disney & Co. - L’immagine e il suono: la magia del cinema, (Ernesto Di Lorenzo editore, 2023), presented at the Turin International Book Fair in May 2024, she explres the history of cinema through theimportance of music, from the epoch of the Lumière brothers until today. Music, in fact, is always fundamental in the creation of atmospheres and emotions inside films, turning from improvised accompaniment to an art form acknowledged and specialized.
After bringing to life the technological developments of sound, from the gramophone to Dolby System, the essay speaks about the restoration of sound, which nowadays tries to preserve and restore audio documents with right criteria. Finally, the essay celebrates cinema as the art which links all the other ones, realizing Wagner's ideal of the Total Work.

### Projects
## Classical Music at the Cinema

Since the beginning of cinema, classical music has accompanied the images of cinematographic works, characterizing and highlighting them. The project, entitled Classical Music at Cinema, by detecting the link between cinema and classical music, proposes piano concerts inside theatres and cinema halls.
Starting from Bach, preferred by Pasolini and Bergman, then Haendel, who is employed in the soundtrack of Barry Lyndon by Kubrick, as far as Mozart and Beethoven, celebrated in various films with their musical pieces, and the charming sonority of Chopin in cine films such as The Pianist (2002 film) by Polanski and many other famous composers, whose works cinema has taken inspiration from.

## Past and Present: Johann Sebastian Bach e Philip Glass

The formal balance of Bach's compositions is found in the repetitive structures of Philip Glass. The two composers, with different languages, explore the capacity of music to create an immersive and meditative experience, proving that, in spite of the difference within centuries, music continue to speak a universal language.

## Art and Music: Pictures at an Exhibition

The project wants to explore, in detail, the connexion between sound and image, drawing attention on the work for pianoforte Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. Through the analisys and interpretation of this musical composition, we will try to highlight the close link existing between the sound suggestions recalled by the piano and the images, emphasizing the ability of the work to create a synergy between the two expressive worlds.
A multisensory voyage through time and space: from the Watercolor paintings of Viktor Hartmann to the visual interpretations of Kandiskij, from the orchestral version by Ravel to the rock reinterpretations by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

## Concerts

* 22 May 2018- During the presentation of the book Mare Nero: investigations and reportages about migrants by Francesco Viviano, a journalist of La Repubblica, she proposes a piano repertoire pianistico entirely dedicated to the theme of water.
* 14 June 2019- Exhibition at the first edition of Premio Letterario Nazionale Cielo d’Alcamo – Best annual incipit, with the partecipazion of the actor Luigi Lo Cascio.
* 14 December 2020- Exhibition at the second edition of Premio Letterario Nazionale Cielo d’Alcamo – Best annual incipit, won by Chiara Valerio, writer, Michele Mari, poet, and Remo Rapino, writer.
* 25 March 2021- Exhibition at the third edition of Premio Letterario Nazionale Cielo d’Alcamo – Best annual incipit with the participation of the winners Emanuele Trevi, (the winner of premio strega 2021), Andrea Bajani, poet and Omar Meir Wellber, orchestra and musical director of Teatro Massimo of Palermo.
2022
* 18 March 2022- Presented the opera Pictures at an Exhibition by Musorgski for the Associazione Jacopone da Todi in Alcamo.
* 26 March 2022- Presented the opera Pictures at an Exhibition by Musorgski for the Concert Season of the Associazione Amici della Musica in Alcamo.
* 17 June 2022- During the event Ricordando Turi Simeti, she played some musical pieces by Philip Glass, one of Turi Simeti's favourite composers.
2023
* 22 April 2023- At the Awareness' Day for organ donation, she dedicated the concert Symphony for an Angel to Asia Nicosia, who died at 12 because of a car accident.
* 7 June 2023- Gives the concert “Bach e Glass” for University of the Third Age in Alcamo.
* 20 October 2023- Gives the Conference-Concert entitled “Classical music and cinema” for the Yacht Club and Kiwanis Club in Como.
* 10 December 2023- On the International Day of Kindness, at the Teatro Tonino Pardo in Trapani, gives the concert Note di Gentilezza (notes of Kindness), for the Rotary Club of Trapani and its province, with musical pieces from Bach to Chopin; she also composed some original pieces collected in the nella Suite della Gentilezza.
2024
* 18 February 2024- Concert with Stefano La Colla a tenor from Alcamo, at the Teatro Comunale "Cielo d'Alcamo".
* 9 March 2024-For the Libera Università Tito Marrone of Trapani she held the lecture- concert La Musica classica e il Cinema, at Palazzo D'Alì in Trapani.
* 15 May 2024- Gave the concert From Bach to Philip Glass for the Accademia ADADS of Milan.
* 31 May 2024- During the literary review Note a margine - i libri 2024, presented her essay, pointing out the most important aspects of the relationship between music and cinema.
* 7–8 June 2024- At the Cinema Esperia in Alcamo presents the show La musica classica al cinema, un omaggio alla storia del cinema, with screenings from great films and a live repertoire of music by Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin.
* 13 July 2024: on the 30th anniversary of TSE - 1994–2024, Bob Wilson e Philip Glass at Gibellina in the context of Orestiadi in Gibellina 2024, executes the studies for pianoforte by Philip Glass.
* 9 November 2024: Teatro Garibaldi of Mazara del Vallo, concert “La musica classica al Cinema per l’Associazione Amici della Musica.
* 20 December 2024: Sala Eutherpe, León (Spain).
2025
* 1 February 2025: Palazzo dei Carmelitani in Partinico, concert held on the 1st centenary of Danilo Dolci's birth, and of the 69th anniversary of the Sciopero alla Rovescia.