during this time of sheltering-in-home, italian composer and improvisor silvia tarozzi has been sharing beautiful new videos. like most musicians around the world, all of silvia’s performances have been canceled or rescheduled, and any rehearsal plans put on hold. her videos speak to art’s ability to thrive in unexpected circumstances, and to reach hearts across the globe.

I asked silvia to tell me a little more about each video:

“‘Nowhere Everafter’ is one of my favorite tunes by great american musician Butch Morris. I met him in 2011, a couple of years before he died and I still have a loving memory of him. ‘Nowhere Everafter’ is a composition without words, beautifully recorded live in the disc ‘Homeing.’ Butch also released a carillon with this tune.

My version is a bit inspired by both of them. The text is also by him and it was in a letter that he wrote to a very close friend of his. When I read it I immediately thought that a musician that gives to a poem the same title of a musical composition must have sung it in his head! So, I tried.

By the way, the sound of the carillon appears also (reversed and soft, accompanying Pauline oliveros's voice) as "the aura of a black bird" in the last episode of "Thirteen Changes" that I recorded in my solo cd Virgin Violin.’

“The video of ‘Love in the time of hornets’ is more improvised and came as fast as the music in it! I filmed the hornets and bees in the wisteria in my garden; they seemed completely drunk with pollen and love.

The sound is from 2013! I collect sounds since when I worked on ‘Thirteen Changes’ (again!), in 2012. The process that I followed to record Pauline's piece was to let me be inspired by the poetic suggestions of the score (a verbal score) and improvise on the violin in response but also interacting with sounds of nature.’

for “ignoranti senza scuole,” silvia and deborah walker recorded parallel improvisations. silvia and deborah are waiting to see when they can finally get together and record their new album, “songs of war, work and love.” in the meantime, they are trying to bridge the distance between vignola and bonn, inspired by this song by the mondine di vermicelli.