Maddalena Percivati

I’m an eclectic Italian musician with a classical background (a Bachelor in classical viola performance at Turin’s music conservatory) but a much bigger interest in other genres: I studied jazz violin for two years and played the viola in a rock band back in Italy. But after exploring different musical genres, I went back to the origins, to the reason that brought me to start playing the violin when I was 13: Irish music. I moved to Ireland to take part in a Master’s in Irish music performance at the University of Limerick for the past two years. Irish music gave me what I was looking for from music: a way to express myself, while the study of classical music allowed me to build a very strong technique and theoretical knowledge of music, even if I started pretty late the study of the violin. But determination, hard work, and good teachers made me reach the goals I wanted to, with joy and self-knowledge of what my strengths and weaknesses were, continually making me want to improve. Because I wanted to share my passion for music, parallel to my performing, I also started teaching in music schools in Italy to kids and adults of all ages. Beginners and not, approaching the study of music differently according to the student’s needs, skills, and goals. Both studying and teaching music can be very challenging, but if you’re really motivated, you can arrive anywhere you want.

If you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced musician, we can arrange a specific program for your music lessons. You can decide if you are more interested in classical or Irish traditional music (or both), and starting from there we will set short and long term goals, to see what we can work on. I’m always open to any kind of suggestion (I taught a song on the violin from zero to a “husband-to-be” so that he could surprise his future bride at their wedding, for instance!). If you don’t have any knowledge of music at all: don’t worry! We will arrange the class to combine the study of both musical theory and practice. Start listening to music, think about what you would like to do, contact me, bring your own violin (or “fiddle,” as they call it in Irish music), and let’s start!