{"id":8093,"date":"2015-01-22T14:29:10","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress72\/?page_id=12261"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:26","slug":"love-at-first-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2015\/01\/22\/love-at-first-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Love at first sight’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Love at first sight\u2019<\/h2>\n

Italian Lorenzo D\u2019Alessio (21) studies History and Culture in Ravenna. He\u2019s in Rotterdam as an exchange student until the end of January. Lorenzo has played the harp for thirteen years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

text <\/strong>Gert van der Ende photography <\/strong>Michel de Groot<\/p>\n

Born in San Marino and raised near the tourist seaside resort of Rimini, Lorenzo D\u2019Alessio is now a History and Culture student in Bologna. From September to January, he\u2019s an exchange student in Rotterdam. As his pedal harp was too big to bring with him, he currently practises at the Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR). Unfortunately they don\u2019t have the regular pedal harp, so D\u2019Alessio has to make do with a slightly smaller variety (44 strings instead of the regular 47) while he\u2019s in Holland. But he\u2019s happy enough. In fact, he even performed on stage on campus during the latest edition of the Piano Bar. He played a piece by the French harpists and composers Carlos Salzedo (\u2018Inquietude\u2019) and Marcel Tournier (\u2018Au Matin\u2019). \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of Salzedo, Stravinsky and Debussy, but I\u2019m also influenced by alternative rock music, like Imogen Heap. I really love experimental, mystic music.\u201d<\/p>\n

He started playing piano and having keyboard and music theory lessons at the age of 6 before moving on to the harp six years later. \u201cI wasn\u2019t very keen on the piano and my teacher\u2019s behaviour didn\u2019t help. Soon after quitting the piano, I fell in love with the harp. It really was love at first sight. Many people think of the harp as a woman\u2019s instrument. They obviously don\u2019t know that most pieces for harp were written by men.\u201d His mother put him in contact with a distant aunt, who had studied the instrument for many years. She started teaching the 13 year old D\u2019Alessio on a weekly basis throughout the summer. He then went to the music school in Rimini. \u201cEvery week, eighty minutes by bus there and back for a one hour lesson. But despite that I really enjoyed playing.\u201d His parents didn\u2019t mind him stopping his piano playing and were very supportive, even buying him a real harp. After a few months, the aunt suggested that he should attend the Conservatory Bruno Maderna in Cesena, which he did. Now he\u2019s in his eighth year and will be graduating soon. One of his teachers was Stefania Betti, who is quite well-known in Italy. She has continued to support him, despite D\u2019Alessio\u2019s periods of insecurity and laziness. \u201cShe was like a second mum to me and helped me overcome these.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love about the instrument is that it\u2019s a soloist in the orchestra; it can\u2019t be categorised. It\u2019s different from the others and isolated, like myself. Furthermore, the sound \u2013 although sometimes difficult to hear \u2013 is unique and ancient. Somehow the harp and I are on the same frequency.\u201d These days, D\u2019Alessio is practicing hard, composing his own music and writing his own lyrics, and has also taken up playing the piano again, along with the guitar. He also likes to paint. \u201cI like to do things which enable me to present my inner inside to a public\u201d, he explains. D\u2019Alessio definitely wants to form a band, but knows this will be difficult in his hometown. \u201cQuite a lot of people there are narrow-minded, think I\u2019m strange, but I don\u2019t care. I work on my own and anyone who wants can follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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