It’s a crucial question that I kept asking myself during my artistic wanderings  from one end of the world to the other, for at least ten/eleven months  a  year.

Music is the centre of my life, the reason why I live, but like all the other goals in the life of a human being, it would be and mean nothing if considered just by itself as a sort of  “selfish” need and will: the only thing that enhances a purpose and  give a sense  to it is the “ sharing”.

Sharing  is the word that incorporates and embraces all what we do, among members of the orchestra and conductor, the person called to organize, to  lead and to make possible the process of a common artistic creation based on the interpretative process. In that “laboratory”, during the rehearsals, we bring all our notions, experiences, knowledge and skill  in order to find a way, “our way “, that could go as closest as possible to  the “text” on which we’re  working on,  created by genius and that we all should respect  as the first basic and irrefutable rule.

But… for who do we do music, at the end?

For people, for all the persons who decide – with a precise and motivated choice –  to stop their daily activities, attempting to let outside the concert  hall all the troubles, the issues, the worries that characterize the life of each of us  and join an “assembly” composed of characters of the most diverse backgrounds and levels, in order to partecipate to a unique, intense and profound  moment of ….sharing.

This is the “ Audience” , the Public – from the latin publicum – populus: people – , this physical as much as spiritual entity that is for us musicians, in the act of performing, the subject  to who we adress all our interpretative and artistic efforts  in a broad sense.

We are in between the supreme creative effort of a composer and the will of the Audience to receive, embrace and to make their own  all the feelings, emotions and  values  expressed in that work.

What the Audience tris to find  attending  to a concert and listening to the music , in any place of the world, no matter what language “that” Audience is speaking  , it’s comparable with what we try to achieve  reading an interesting  book or attending a theater play: we are looking for answers  to all the issues – personal and universal –  that are expecting us “outside” in the real world.       We are looking for some comfort to the “confusion” , that kind of jumble of uncertainties and chaos which is a  chronic condition of the human being.

What we do in the act of making/sharing music is an attempt to bring a bit of light inside that “confusion”,   the darkness which is surrounding us:  what else is the Music of Beethoven, Brahms , Tchaikovsky, Bruckner,  Mahler ?  Even Mozart in his timeless vision that escapes every possible cataloging,  always succeed to give us a sort of consolation raised to a dimension that is no longer earthly but metaphysical. How else can we explain the sense of serene lightness and acceptance  which invade us after performing and listening to his Music ?

My first year as Music Director of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra has been a time of primary importance in my artistic and professional  life but it also eriche  me from the human point of view in such a profound and touching way.  The professional and human relationship we achieved has somehow spread all around us and I strongly feel and believe has joined and “hit” the Audinece too, who never felt the chance to let us understand how much they are appreciating our way to communicate with them through  Music: in the most honest, serious and deep way.

The comments  we received through all the possible modern ways  of communications  say so, besides the constantly increasing number of people who are becoming our fans and friends – please forgive me if I don’t want to use the nowaday exploided and debased word “followers”..- .  The dialogue I have  directly with many of them during the signing after the concerts are for me always a source of immense joy and suprise: they show so much love and respect for what we’re trying to do and their way to thank us for their appreciation and the pure happiness we succeed to give them in those two few hours, are for me the best acknowledgement. It’s  comfirmation that the GPhil and myslef have taken the right path and give us the determination to continue to improve ourselves.

The  Audience gave us  the most incredibile sign of their love and appreciation few months ago, at the end of the encore we played at the Seoul  Arts Center in April, when after the last echo of sound of the Wagner’s “Introduction to the III Act of Meistersinger”  a completely full  Seoul  Arts Center Hall remained totally silent : the most incredibile, neverending,  deep, religious  silence , waiting that all the people – in that magical moment enclosed in a single spiritual entity – could again, slowly, descend on the ground.

The gift of sharing.