-Who is Mario Margiotta?

I am a classical pianist, trained at the Conservatory of Bari, my hometown. After graduating, I began performing in traditional classical concerts, playing as a mere pianist. However, that model felt cold and distant to me, as if a glass wall separated the musician from the audience. I felt like a fish in an aquarium—observed, yet isolated. So, I decided to break that barrier, transforming my concerts into interactive experiences where the audience is not just a spectator but an active part of the show. I wanted to create a new way of experiencing classical music, one that is more engaging and authentic. Today, I don’t see myself as just a performer but as 50% of the author (the other half belongs to the composer and their music), bringing music, emotion, and storytelling to the stage. In my performances, I alternate between piano pieces and fascinating anecdotes about composers, using a modern and ironic approach. My goal is to make classical music more accessible, ensuring that the audience doesn’t just listen but fully immerses itself in the world of composition, understanding its context and emotions. I want people to laugh, be moved, and feel that classical music is alive and relevant. I strongly believe in the power of musical dissemination—to break down barriers and help people rediscover this extraordinary art form in a fresh, spontaneous, and engaging way.

-When did you realize that Music would be the protagonist of your life?

My passion for music was born when I was just seven years old. One day, while exploring the house, I found an old keyboard abandoned in a closet. I took it out, turned it on, and started experimenting with it. That was the first step on a journey whose destination I had yet to discover. It took me two years to convince my parents that it wasn’t just a passing enthusiasm. Finally, at the age of nine, I began taking piano lessons, and from that moment on, I never stopped playing. Music became a fundamental part of my life. But perhaps it was cinema that made me realize that my destiny would be music. When I was ten, I watched Amadeus, the masterpiece by Miloš Forman, and I was completely mesmerized. The figure of Mozart, his works, and his life—so romantic yet so tragic—completely enchanted me. That was the moment I knew: I would dedicate my entire life to this wonderful art.

-What inspired the idea for a show dedicated to the collaboration between Nino Rota and Federico Fellini?

It all started by pure chance. The artistic director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo, Maestro Elio Orciuolo, saw a recording of my musical show “Pianosolo” on YouTube and contacted me to perform at a concert in Cairo dedicated to the collaboration between Fellini and Rota. When he told me, I could hardly believe it: it was my first international engagement, and on top of that, for such a prestigious event. I clearly remember the moment I received the call. I was on the roof of the beautiful Cathedral of Siena, and in front of me stretched the entire city: a heavenly panorama that already made me feel like I was in paradise. And now, with such news, that feeling was amplified even more. I was doubly lucky because the topic was familiar to me, even though it had been assigned by others. Since my adolescence, I had been passionate about Fellini’s cinema: I had watched and rewatched all his films, and Nino Rota was a figure I knew very well, not only because I deeply loved his music but also because of the connection to the Conservatory of Bari, where I had studied. Rota had been its director for decades, and many of my teachers had been his students and had known him personally. Through their stories and teachings, I had developed an indirect but profound knowledge of Rota as both a man and an artist. It was from these memories that the show I would soon write was born. From its first performance in Egypt, it was an extraordinary success. Since then, it has traveled all around the world and continues to be the most fortunate of my musical performances. It is a work I am deeply attached to, and it still holds a special place in my heart.

-What would you change about the world?

We live in a world marked by deep selfishness, injustices, wars, climate crises, and inequalities that seem to be growing rather than shrinking. Every day, we witness conflicts that claim innocent lives, people forced to flee their homes, and a planet suffocating under the weight of pollution and indifference. Yet, in the face of all this, the reaction is often distance, habit, and resignation. We lack empathy, we lack sensitivity. I firmly believe that culture can play a fundamental role in this scenario. Culture has the power to shake consciences, to make us look at the world with different eyes. A book, a film, a concert can create cracks in the wall of indifference, sparking questions, reflections, and awareness. Music, in particular, is a universal language: it needs no translation, it speaks directly to the soul. Through it, we can tell stories of pain and hope, of struggle and rebirth; we can present people with emotions they may have never truly felt or understood. It can be a bridge between cultures, a way to unite rather than divide. Now more than ever, we need an education that cultivates sensitivity, that teaches not just knowledge, but the ability to put ourselves in others’ shoes, to feel another’s pain as if it were our own. If culture returns to having a central role in society, if art stops being seen as a luxury and becomes an instrument of awareness and transformation, perhaps we can still hope for a better future. Because a fairer, more peaceful, and more environmentally respectful world is first born in the minds and hearts of people.

-How do you imagine Cinema in 100 years?

I believe cinema is facing the same problem as music: a growing homogenization towards mass-market content, while the great filmmakers who experiment are becoming less and less visible. Artificial intelligence is also changing cinema, producing increasingly industrial content, but I believe this can be an opportunity. AI will eliminate mass-produced products and create more space for authentic creativity. This will stimulate a “competition” between human art and the machine, pushing filmmakers to create more original and profound works, while the audience will increasingly seek the authenticity that only human artists can convey. Times are changing, and we must evolve. The world is becoming more interconnected, and the arts, like everything else, tend to blend together. I think it’s a historical necessity. It’s time to mix the arts and disciplines to create something new, capable of surprising an increasingly bored audience. The success of my format comes precisely from this fusion: classical music, education, cabaret, and theater intertwining in a synergy that resonates. Cinema, always an art that blends various languages, will surely have the ability to reinvent itself once again, as it always has throughout its history, and I believe it will be the art form most capable of adapting to the changes of our times, precisely because of its hybrid and synesthetic nature.