ABOUT Davide Santacolomba
Anna Kravtchenko
Anna Kravtchenko

Antonio Melita PH
Antonio Melita PH
ABOUT DAVIDE SANTACOLOMBA
ABOUT DAVIDE SANTACOLOMBA
BIOGRAPHY
Davide Santacolomba is an Italian concert pianist. Born in Palermo in 1987, he started studying the piano at the age of 14, 5 years after his deafness was discovered: Bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. He graduated from Palermo Conservatory with highest marks and honors. Under the guidance of Anna Kravtchenko at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Davide Santacolomba obtained the Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy in 2017 and the Master of Art in Music Performance in 2019, and graduated with top marks in both programs. The meeting with Anna Kravtchenko was fundamental for her artistic growth, also enriched by several masterclasses of illustrious masters such as: Giuseppe Andaloro, Roberto Plano and Irina Plotnikova (Moscow). Davide Santacolomba’s performances have been widely praised by renowned music critics for the rare musical sensitivity of his interpretations and his charisma. He is well-known in Europe due to his numerous appearances in the world of television and information, such as Rai 1’s TG1, Il Fatto Quotidiano, La Repubblica, Libero Quotidiano, Rai Parlamento di Rai 2 and TV2000, RSI (Swiss) and fanpage.it. In 2015 he was discovered by “Le Iene”, an Italian program which dedicated an entire report on his unique story as the only known case where an Italian person with a significant hearing loss was able to completing the extremely demanding requirements to become a professional pianist. Davide Santacolomba’s career is also blossoming on the international scene. He was initially selected to perform in three editions of International “Beats of Cochlea” music festival for deaf
musicians in Warsaw, Poland, received second prize in the Unheard Notes Piano Paralympic competition in December 2018 in New York and third prize at the famous Italian Talent Show “Tu Sì Que Vales”. Davide Santacolomba has performed in concerto for piano solo or with orchestra in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Germany, the United States and Japan, playing in prestigious halls and festivals, among which we remember Audiotirum Paganini in Parma (Festival Verdi), Teatro Giovanni da Udine, Haus der Musik in Innsbruck, Teatro Verdi in Bolzano, Teatro Politeama, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Engelman Hall of New York Univeristy, Warsaw National Philarmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia Hall and the Chopin University Hall in Warsaw and Theater und Medien of the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover. He gave his debut in Asia when he performs in Tokyo at the National Olympic Hall in September 2019 in the presence of the First Lady, Akie Abe. On September 9, 2021, Davide Santacolomba was invited to play J.S. Bach concert for piano and orchestra in D-minor BWV 1052, in the Warsaw National Philarmonic main hall, famous for the Chopin piano competition. Today Davide Santacolomba is considered by many doctors and scientific experts of international renown as the few pianists in the world with a significant hearing loss to have reached a high professional artistic level. He is often invited to perform and share his story at events in Europe where important scientific conferences on hearing loss are held. Davide wears a cochlear implant from Advanced Bionics in his right ear and a Phonak hearing aid in his leftear. He is currently working as piano Professor at A.Corelli Conservatory of Messina (Italy).
Davide Santacolomba is an Italian concert pianist. Born in Palermo in 1987, he started studying the piano at the age of 14, 5 years after his deafness was discovered: Bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. He graduated from Palermo Conservatory with highest marks and honors. Under the guidance of Anna Kravtchenko at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Davide Santacolomba obtained the Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy in 2017 and the Master of Art in Music Performance in 2019, and graduated with top marks in both programs. The meeting with Anna Kravtchenko was fundamental for her artistic growth, also enriched by several masterclasses of illustrious masters such as: Giuseppe Andaloro, Roberto Plano and Irina Plotnikova (Moscow). Davide Santacolomba’s performances have been widely praised by renowned music critics for the rare musical sensitivity of his interpretations and his charisma. He is well-known in Europe due to his numerous appearances in the world of television and information, such as Rai 1’s TG1, Il Fatto Quotidiano, La Repubblica, Libero Quotidiano, Rai Parlamento di Rai 2 and TV2000, RSI (Swiss) and fanpage.it. In 2015 he was discovered by “Le Iene”, an Italian program which dedicated an entire report on his unique story as the only known case where an Italian person with a significant hearing loss was able to completing the extremely demanding requirements to become a professional pianist. Davide Santacolomba’s career is also blossoming on the international scene. He was initially selected to perform in three editions of International “Beats of Cochlea” music festival for deaf musicians in Warsaw, Poland, received second prize in the Unheard Notes Piano Paralympic competition in December 2018 in New York and third prize at the famous Italian Talent Show “Tu Si Que Vales”. Davide Santacolomba has performed in concerto for piano solo or with orchestra in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Germany, the United States and Japan, playing in prestigious halls and festivals, among which we remember Audiotirum Paganini in Parma (Festival Verdi), Teatro Giovanni da Udine, Haus der Musik in Innsbruck, Teatro Verdi in Bolzano, Teatro Politeama, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Engelman Hall of New York Univeristy, Warsaw National Philarmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia Hall and the Chopin University Hall in Warsaw and Theater und Medien of the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover. He gave his debut in Asia when he performs in Tokyo at the National Olympic Hall in September 2019 in the presence of the First Lady, Akie Abe. On September 9, 2021, Davide Santacolomba was invited to play J.S. Bach concert for piano and orchestra in D-minor BWV 1052, in the Warsaw National Philarmonic main hall, famous for the Chopin piano competition. Today he is considered by many doctors and scientific experts of international renown as the few pianists in the world with a significant hearing loss to have reached a high professional artistic level. Davide Santacolomba is often invited to perform and share his story at events in Europe where important scientific conferences on hearing loss are held. Davide wears a cochlear implant from Advanced Bionics in his right ear and a Phonak hearing aid in his leftear. He is currently working as piano Professor at A.Corelli Conservatory of Messina (Italy).

Ambra Lavigra PH
Ambra Lavigra PH
A Severe Auditory Disability Is No Obstacle to Becoming a Great Pianist
Davide Santacolomba and his rare willpower.
The first time Davide Santacolomba heard crystal glasses clinking for a toast, he was fascinated and amazed. He was intrigued by that sound of celebration, and surprised because he did not think that two clinking glasses would create a sound. Before he was fitted with a cochlear implant, Davide Santacolomba could not hear sounds like the wind blowing, the birds’ chirping or many other high frequency sounds. Yes, this native son of Palermo, now 31, is a pianist by profession, and classical concertizes all over World. How distant it seemed the day when, as age of 8, he was diagnosed with a severe sensorineural hearing disability. ‘’My family and I were guests of my family’s friend, who played Are You Sleeping, Brother John on the piano to amuse me. Left alone in the room, I desperately tried to reproduce that song, even though I could only partially hear the melody. And, I don’t know how, but I did it.” Thus, a great love between Davide Santacolomba and music was born. After starting private piano lessons at the age of 13, the Conservatory was the next goal toward continuing his studies. However, a teacher revealed a big obstacle to him: ‘’You’re deaf, which means you will not be able to play piano at the professional level.’’ ‘’Beethoven had an extraordinary sense of absolute pitch, but he lost his hearing later in life and he remembered certain sounds’’, Davide Santacolomba says. ‘’I had never heard them. My situation was unique, and failing the entrance exams would have prevented me from being admitted to the conservatory’’. Nevertheless, he decided to prepare for the entrance exams, and…he was admitted. Giovanna De Gregorio was the only piano teacher who accepted the challenge and trained him to prepare for the pre-conservatory diploma (he scored the highest marks). She said to both mother and son: my expectations aren’t many, but even much more. They were many years of hard work, during which he and his teacher also tried a novel and unique strategy; musical passages normally played in the higher register which he could not hear was transposed one or two octaves lower. “I study in the lower register everything that must be played in the upper register. Then, through a process of conseguential logic, starting from the reference of low sounds, you can be able to imagine what the same effect is in the higher register’’. So imagination is the peculiar element of this technique, or “the ear of the mind”, as Davide Santacolomba defines it. Another strategy that Davide Santacolomba uses is the feedback of the people who listen to him: his teachers, his colleagues, but also his friends who are not musicians and the audience at his concerts. ‘’When others tell me that I play too loud, I notice that my muscles stiffen, so I just need to refer to a muscular sensation to control the sound’’ admits Davide Santacolomba. The last element is the enhancement of the emotion and the feelings that this pianist pours on the keys in each of his performances: ‘’We have always tried, my teachers and I, to focus especially on the emotional intentions that the music itself suggests and to develop my ability to sense and radiate those emotions,” concludes the maestro. ‘’This boy is a miracle,’’ whispered his attentive and irreplaceable teacher, Giovanna De Gregorio. When the hearing in both ears were too deteriorated, almost all lost, at the age of 26, he underwent cochlear implant surgery, not knowing what the outcome would be. ‘’I was afraid, but I had to go ahead’’, says Davide Santacolomba. After receiving his cochlear implant, he discovered sounds he never heard before: whispers, the blowing wind and even the higher notes of the piano. But additional training is always required to accumulate new auditory experiences in both music and speech. Davide Santacolomba admits that ‘’even though hearing music today is much better compared to pre-implantation, I only hear part of the higher notes, and not always in a well-defined way in any case.” He adds that “When I play fast I have difficulty in receiving every single note. Last but not least, I also have difficulty in hearing the notes in the middle of the piano because of the strong distortion emanating from my acoustic hearing aid and implant both. But that’s okay.’’ Davide Santacolomba met the acclaimed pianist and pedagogue Anna Kravtchenko in a master class in Palermo and it was love at first sight. Because Madame Kravtchenko teaches at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland in Lugano, Davide competed and was selected over hundreds of other candidates to study with her. ‘’Lugano is a unique place in the world.”, Davide says. The experience ended in summer 2019, after four wonderful and exhausting years of study, ending with two masters degrees (one in piano performance and the other one in piano pedagogy). Davide Santacolomba adds: “One day, I want to settle in Sicily, where I return at least once a month. I love its beauty, decadence and the uniqueness of great and kind-hearted people, including my family and friends.’’ Davide has also played Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante op.22 in Poland with the Radio Orchestra of Poland. In doing so, Davide Santacolomba is first deaf musician with a cochlear implant in the world to have played with the orchestra—truly a remarkable achievement. ‘’I’ve had so many moments of discouragement and despair in my life,” the renowned pianist says, “and I’ve often found myself wanting to give up music, but my family, my teachers and the audience at my concerts have constantly urged me not to stop believing in myself. Having gotten to this point, I would like say to others: Never stop believing and chasing your dreams, because if you really want something and are willing to do everything to get there, sooner or later, the dream will become a reality.”
Alessia Franco’s interview
This English translation has been edited for clarity by Wendy Cheng
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