By Sabrina Marandola
Since he took his first piano lesson at the age of 10, Giancarlo Scalia has composed 81 original
scores, 17 of them for an entire orchestra. His first CD of original songs is on Archambault music
store shelves.
Giancarlo is 15 years old.
"The feeling of playing and
writing music is more of a passion than a chore,” says the Laurier Macdonald High School student.
"I started listening to Beethoven and Chopin when I started playing piano. I got used
to it and I grew to love it. You listen to it and you can be brought to another place.
Scalia, whose favourite composer is Chopin, says he can compose a piece in as quickly as a.
"It’s about timing and feeling. I start off improvising and I see if I get new ideas,”
he says, sitting behind his baby grand in his St. Leonard living room.
Despite his
success as a musical prodigy, he still studies music and has yet to complete his music examinations.
Tomorrow, Scalia is taking his Secondary 5 music exam at the McGill Conservatory of Music.
"People normally complete [the Secondary 5 level] in seven years — he has done it in four years,”
says Scalia’s music teacher Paolo Vani, who has been playing and teaching music for 40 years.
"I’ve taught about 2,000 to 3,000 students in my career. He’s one of the best I’ve ever had.”
Scalia lives for his music and practises tirelessly, his teacher says.
"I practise from three to five hours a day on a weekday, and on weekends, I could play anywhere
between three to eight hours a day,” Scalia says.
He is currently in the process of
working with orchestras through the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre’s cultural director Gian Carlo
Biferali. Scalia says his goal is to make a living playing and composing music.
"I see myself as a composer, a conductor and a pianist,” Scalia says. "I know I will have made
it in life when I could make a living playing and interpreting classics.”
Scalia’s
CD, entitled Un Sogno D’Amore, is available at Archambault or on the store’s Web site for $15.99.