The Dino Ciani Festival and Academy, which has family ties in Pacific Palisades, returns to Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy for its sixth season from July 26 to August 25, bringing together some of the biggest names in classical music. Dino Ciani was an accomplished Italian pianist whose international career was sadly cut short by a car accident in 1974, when he was 32. The idea of the music festival to commemorate Ciani was conceived by his niece, Catarina, who grew up in the Palisades (her mother Hedy still lives here) and spent nearly every summer of her childhood visiting relatives in Italy. ’My mother is a piano teacher and a wonderful pianist and so we always had young pianists at home,’ Caterina told the Palisadian-Post by E-mail from Italy. ‘She loved to organize concerts at home. Not only that, but because of my uncle’who in Italy was a very well-known pianist and musician’we always had great artists coming to our house for dinner and to practice.’ Catarina attended Corpus Christi, Crossroads, Marymount High and UCLA, where she returned for her MBA in arts management. After many years of working music festivals all over the world, including Italy’s famed Spoleto Festival, Catarina settled in Cortina, where her family had a house and where Dino Ciani had loved to ski, rock climb, study and practice. ‘As they were building a new music hall, I decided with some friends to propose a festival in Dino’s name,’ she said. ‘With the support of the local government, the festival was born in 2007. ‘In 2007 we started out with five events and two wonderful concerts’one with Martha Argerich, who was a friend of my uncle’and another with a wonderful Italian duo, Andrea Luchesini and Mario Brunello,’ Catarina said. ‘This year the festival has grown to over 30 events, conferences, concerts and lectures.’ The festival’s theme, ‘1900 and Beyond,’ ties together the various concerts, conferences and events that artistic director and pianist Jeffrey Swann has chosen. Possibly the most anticipated event is the Festival Dino Ciani Ensemble’s interpretation of Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘Pierrot Lunaire,’ which will be performed on the 100th anniversary of the composition of Schoenberg’s masterpiece. Numerous events will be held during the festival, including master classes with internationally renowned master teachers and artists; conferences, guided visits and site-specific concerts in the region’s historically and artistically significant landmarks; the Emerging Artists’ Academy Concerts Series and concerts at high altitude in the local ‘rifugi.’ Though she now lives in Cortina with her musician husband, Claudio, and their two children, Catarina fondly remembers playing with her neighbors on Mt. Holyoke, listening to the ocean waves, riding her bike to the beach with friends, the Fourth of July and the annual block party. ’It may sound silly, but being able to come home from a long school day or work day and just sit quietly for a couple of minutes to watch those spectacular sunsets’it does something to your soul,’ she told the Post. ‘And when you don’t have it anymore, you really miss it. ’Cortina reminds me so much of Pacific Palisades when I grew up there,’ Catarina continued. ‘It’s safe and beautiful. The kids can run around in the town center by themselves, and everyone knows each other. All the kids go to the cinema together on Wednesday afternoons when they book kids’ films (it reminds me of going to the Bay Theater as a kid). And all the moms here are so incredibly helpful, kind and generous. Everyone gives each other a hand. I feel like my kids are getting the same things that I got from the Palisades-‘beautiful nature, a super friendly and safe community of families and lots of sports activities that both of my boys just love to take part in.’ For more information, visit festivaldinociani.com.
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