I meet Michel Gagnon in his office, in one of the wings of the Convento degli Angioli, a structure that dates back to 1490. Going up the stairs, I pause to think about the history of those rooms with high ceilings and thick walls, where the past merges with the future, the cultural future of a city that in recent years has concretely demonstrated that it has great artistic potential.
Michel welcomes me with a smile. He is a sunny person, he likes human contact and although he always has a lot to do he emanates a rare tranquility. I ask him if he prefers to do the interview in French, but he immediately stops me ...
«Absolutely not, for me this is a good exercise… let's do it in Italian».
So let's start from the beginning ... also because this is an interview to get to know you better, so let's forget your CV and tell us your story ...
“But do you really want to hear my story (surprised)? I come from a let's say normal family, in the sense that no one was a great artist. I was born in Montreal, Canada, a city where French and English are spoken, my language is French as you can hear from the accent (laughs) and I grew up there, with my mom playing the piano. The plan (pauses) that was my first blow to the heart, do you say that in Italian? A coup de foudre that changed my life, I started my career as a pianist, I studied music at university and from a young age I knew that this was my path ».
But you didn't become a professional musician ... so something else must have happened ...
«I discovered the work. You know in Montreal, before 1980, there was no opera. I liked it a lot and listened to it on the radio. Then, at some point, the Place des Arts, Canada's most important cultural center, had plans to start a company. They contacted me and, this will surprise you, they asked me to join their choir. I had already played with great opera singers, but never to sing… ».
The complete version of this article can be found in the Ticino Welcome paper edition
