Each of my emails in the past few months has been regularly opened by an average of 150 people - about a half of the total recipients in my contact list. For me, a huge number: I am immensely thankful for your time and attention.

(By the way: you are always welcome to reply to them, but you can also unsubscribe from them, if they are undesired, going at the bottom of this page - yet I hope you won't do the latter!!!)

Never like in the past few months I've been receiving heartfelt replies from several Opera students and subscribers of my website, all pretty much saying that they've been following me for quite a while, own my book, study on my videos, and look forward to being able to afford my sessions.

I currently have at least five people on hold, who are waiting to find the money while working one or two other jobs, and that bothers me immensely, especially when I think of the many more out there who probably don't even dare to reach out.

SOOO I have been thinking...

that if as little as 7 people in this community gave €10 each, I could coach one of these students for free, that is without charging them.

Not to mention that if -ideally- all my 150 average readers gave €10/month for one year, our community could buy a storage of 300 free sessions, that of course would be at the benefit and service of those same contributors, upon request, to be held whenever needed by filling up a public schedule.

In other words, un salvadanaio di lezioni: a piggy-bank of sessions: I get paid, you get good, without getting charged.

And when the offer will start to exceed the request, the surplus could be used to put together an artistic project I've been caressing for a long time - but that's another story.

What a revolutionary thought, for 10 Italian bucks a month, to make a fundamental yet niche service available to everybody - without mortifying the value of the work, nor the students who cannot afford it (or believe their talent unworthy of the investment).

For the way things have been to nowadays, you can only get excellent education if you're born either rich or already very good at what you do.

And in my opinion that is pure nonsense.

The internet has indeed changed the game and I have been asked and advised so many times to create a digital course, but as much as I believe in coaching online -for in my case it proved to be absolutely effective- I don't believe in passive digital content as a substitute of live, 1:1 lessons.

I'm not a YouTuber either, I am the most old fashioned Maestra - who just works online because has students in four continents. (Looking forward to welcoming Africa.)

Most importantly, as a coach I have the right as well as the duty to constantly keep learning from my students and our work, to put what I've learnt at the service of the work itself. (And what could I possibly learn by talking to myself in front of a REC button? Niente.)

Not even upon request of my own publisher I've wanted to provide digital content to go with my own book: as far as I am concerned, in what we musicians do, NOTHING can replace the ear of the maestro on the single student. That is what makes the coaching. 

If that coaching is open, or divulged to a broader audience, in real time or later on, even better, but the base MUST be the Maestro-Allievo relationship.

If I hadn't tailored my coachings on the greatest variety and number of students I have met for two decades (I began teaching at a school in Bologna on Oct 10th 2003, on the very day my father died), every time finding the right and different words for each of you, I wouldn't have been able to extract from my work what turned out to be an internationally valid method, with its own vocabulary and imagery, to divulge such an exquisitely oral matter.

And there would be no book either.

For months I've been repeating in my head the mantra "I wish I could work for free" and, after a long search, I believe I've found a practical, totally doable solution in the Salvadanaio: an ongoing community scholarship - which this community absolutely can provide.

I want to be realistic and begin with an achievable goal, a challenge!

To get this started, I need as little as 7 allies to become monthly contributors with €10/month, for a test period of 6 months. 

What do we have to lose? 10 bucks a month for six months? There are worse ways to lose them. In fact, they may just as well be a nice way to say thaaank you, Saraaa for the free material I've been relentlessly providing in the last few years - riiight? 

By the way, the ARKive has recently been updated with some yummy Otello and Nozze, check out the duets and ensemble page (scroll the list!!!).

I want to give my first free session within the end of May.

Are you my allies in this?

You can put your first monthly penny in by clicking on the images below.

But, deh, LOG IN FIRST!

It takes a split second to sign up, no complicated passwords or procedures, no other possible consequences! 

JUST

CLICK

HERE

👇👇👇

If you prefer, you can as well skip my website and contribute to the cause directly via PayPal: this way you'll get to choose for how many months you want to contribute with your €10.

If you prefer this one option, you can send whichever multiple of €10 you wish as

"CANTARE ITALIANO SALVADANAIO CONTRIBUTION" to

(PayPal) maestra@cantareitaliano.org

And if you'd rather make a bank transfer, just hit "reply" to this email to ask for the necessary details.

PLEASE NOTE:
If you go via the website, the €10 will be monthly invoiced and withdrawn automatically by my website via PayPal or credit card, depending on how you choose to pay.

If you go directly via PayPal in one solution, you will be invoiced by me for the chosen figure within a couple of days from the payment.

In my June 1st newsletter I want to be able to provide the first monthly balance summary of the Salvadanaio, plus the video of the first free session I gave.

DON'T. LET. ME. DOWN.

(I know you won't.)

La Maestra ⚡️

oops it's 1.45am again

“extremely good at this” (Graham Vick)

"a fantastic coach, extremely helpful for young singers as well as experienced ones" (Barbara Hannigan)

“bringing the language, the music and the characters to life” (Paul Nilon)

“the foundation of a role” (Jennifer Rowley)

“magic conjunction of vocal technique, musical interpretation and building of the character: a radical rethinking of the act of singing” (Anna Piroli)

“incredible breadth of knowledge” (Heather Lowe)

“magic effect on the voice and our art form” (Jessica Harper)

“opened up a world” (Giulia Zaniboni)

“180 degree turn in my work with the singers” (Theophilos Lambrianidis)

“invaluable: she’ll make a role really succeed on stage” (Ariadne Greif)

“potentially life-changing” (Amy Payne)

“brings life to operatic drama” (Maria Sanner)

“enlightening, professionally and humanly” (Clara La Licata)

“thoroughly prepared and professional” (Marie Kuijken)

“truly unique method and insights” (Jasmine Law)

“a lingual and linguistic genius” (Peter Tantsits)

“entirely devoted to the art of Opera singing” (Ida Falk Winland)

“incredibly informed, consistent, knowledgeable” (Michael Corvino)

“carrying the torch of finest Italian Opera” (Nathaniel Kondrat)

“a crucial basis for all the singers” (David Cowan)

“a cure and a respect of the Music and the words’ musicality that can be learnt so deeply nowhere else in the world” (Matilde Bianchi)