Vincenzo Scaramuzza
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Vincenzo Scaramuzza (also known as Vicente Scaramuzza; 1885–1968) was an Italian
pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...
and music teacher.


Biography

Scaramuzza was born in
Crotone Crotone (; ; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy. Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( or ; ), it became a great Greek city, home of the renowned mathematician-philosopher Pythagoras amongst other famous citizens, and one ...
,
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, on June 19, 1885. Introduced to the piano by his father, Francesco, a renowned piano teacher, he started performing at the age of seven. After passing a difficult exam, he won a scholarship that allowed him to continue his studies in the prestigious Academy of Music of
San Pietro a Maiella San Pietro a Majella is a church in Naples, Italy. The term may also refer to the adjacent Naples music conservatory, which occupies the premises of the monastery that used to form a single complex with the church. The church stands at the west ...
in Naples where he met the best teachers of the time, like Florestano Rossomandi, Alessandro Longo and Beniamino Cesi. He was still very young when he got his diploma with the congratulations of the jury and began his career as a concert pianist, performing in the biggest Italian towns. But his great aspiration was teaching. At his time, it was very difficult to get a teaching post in any of the Italian Academies of Music. Scaramuzza had to take part in a very difficult National Competition, a real challenge for the best piano students of Italy. Among all the contestants, only Scaramuzza, and another student, Attilio Brugnoli, could get the highest marks. But, for some bureaucratic reasons and because he was older than Scaramuzza, it was Brugnoli who got the major teaching post in the Academy of Music of Parma, while Scaramuzza was awarded a consolation prize, a minor teaching post in Naples. Disappointed and annoyed by the excessive bureaucratic rules of the Italian educational system that in his opinion hampered the freedom of expression of a teacher, after only two months teaching in Naples, Scaramuzza decided to leave Italy. It was the year 1907 when he moved to
Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, where he really started his career as a teacher at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Music, in
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
. Then, after marrying one of his students, Sara Bagnati, he founded the "Scaramuzza Academy of Music" in 1912. He also resumed his career as a concert pianist, performing not only in Argentina, but also in Europe. He soon became famous as a virtuoso of the piano. He was well known all over South and North America and Europe for the absolute confidence with which he was able to perform even the most challenging pieces of the repertoire thanks to his formidable technique that allowed him a complete mastery of the instrument.Art Piano: Vincenzo Scaramuzza
/ref> But his pedagogical calling was stronger than his concert artist career. So in 1923 he gave his last concerts, notably a memorable one in Berlin where he played three Beethoven sonatas (op. 31 n°2, op. 106 and op. 110) under the applause of
Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...
. From that moment on he dedicated himself exclusively to teaching, perfecting his extraordinary innovative method for piano teaching. This method, based on an accurate study of the anatomy of the pianist, allows a complete relaxation of the muscles and tendons of the hands and the arms even when the pianist performs the most difficult pieces of music. As a consequence, the sound is always smooth and round, never metallic, not even in the fortissimo, and the performer is never troubled by any muscular stiffening. Hence, Scaramuzza devoted himself only to teaching from 1923 onwards. He taught many well-known international classical pianists such as
Martha Argerich Martha Argerich (; ; born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of eight before receiving further piano training in Europe. At an early age, she won sev ...
,
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, Carmen Piazzini, Daniel Levy,
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, Fausto Zadra, Alberto PortugheisAlberto Portugheis was the only Europe-based pianist to take part in the concert "Homage to V Scaramuzza" at the Colon Theatre. and Enrique Barenboim, father of
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, not forgetting Maria Cristina Filoso, and Monica Stirpari who released in 2009 a CD of homage to her teacher. He also taught tango pianists Arminda Canteros,
Osvaldo Pugliese Osvaldo Pedro Pugliese (December 2, 1905 – July 25, 1995) was an Argentine tango musician. He developed dramatic arrangements that retained strong elements of the walking beat of salon tango but also heralded the development of concert-style ...
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,
Atilio Stampone Atilio Stampone (1 July 1926 – 2 November 2022) was an Argentine pianist, composer, and arranger prominent in the Tango genre. Life and work He was born to Romana Zangone, from Calabria, and Antonio Stampone, a pasta maker from Napoli, in the ...
, Orlando Goñi,
Antonio de Raco Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...
and Sylvia Kersenbaum. He was also a composer. Among his few compositions were ''Bosco Incantato'', ''Hamlet'', both
chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...
works, and four Mazurkas composed for the piano. He left no record of his teaching system as a book, but one of his students, Maria Rosa Oubiña de Castro, reconstructed it from material he wrote down in his lifetime. The resulting book is titled ''Enseñanzas de un gran maestro'', and was published in 1973. Furthermore, four other relevant books have subsequently been published: ''L'arte pianistica di Vincenzo Scaramuzza'' by Prof. Antonio Lavoratore in 1987, ''Le Moi intime du Piano'' by Pierre Tran in 2009, ''Vincenzo Scaramuzza - Il Maestro dei grandi pianisti'' by Panzica Pamela Ivana Edmea in 2012 and ''Vicente Scaramuzza. La vigencia de una escuela pianística'' by Sebastian Colombo in 2013. In the last years of his life, Scaramuzza was compelled to stay in bed by a serious sickness, but he never gave up teaching: he had the piano moved in his bedroom and from his bed he kept on giving lessons to his students until the end. He died in Buenos Aires on March 24, 1968.


References

* * "L'arte pianistica di Vincenzo Scaramuzza" by Prof. Antonio Lavoratore (Instituto Nazionale per lo Sviluppo Musicale del Mezzogiorno) * "Le Moi intime du Piano" by Pierre Tran (Publisher: Van de Velde) {{DEFAULTSORT:Scaramuzza, Vincenzo 1885 births 1968 deaths People from Crotone Italian emigrants to Argentina Italian classical pianists Male classical pianists Italian male pianists Argentine classical pianists Piano educators 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century Italian male musicians