Sonically overwhelmed by a solo percussion endless phrase of Tears of Nature by Tan Dun (Golden Lion at Venice Music Biennale 2017), once it finished I went to meet the young musician behind this because it was too extraordinary to do not learn more instantly.
His surname gives the color to his shoes and to all the tips of his hundreds drumsticks – his manners are quiet and shy while his music is thunder and tempest. His mum loves him crazily and the Tears of Nature Chinese American composer (who was also conducting on stage his piece) either: love with tons of respect for his talent.
Simone Rubino gifted 20 minutes of marvel in which a minute body was playing surrounded by hundreds of conventional and unconventional instruments -included stones, paper, ceramics – to play them with mastery often using the face and other parts of his body as surface to produce sound. He told me that he had one rehearsal and one study for this piece – the study one year earlier….
Your (very young life) in a few lines, starting really from its beginning
I was born in Chivasso on 1993 from a family of musicians.
Everyday music was present in our lives, also while eating;)
I was playing wherever I was and the most inspiring room of the house was the kitchen where I was able to source an endless array of very interesting sounds.
Your way into percussions is like a ‘plasticist’, like a carver. You make the sound and you accompany it toward the next stage. Because you feel that music is not only a state of mind but a way to share energy. That’s why the percussions? Was this only possible in this range of ‘orchestra’ roles, even if you perform often solo?
It’s like that: for me music is energy and character but at the same time sensitivity and intimacy. The music is communication: through it you can express so many states of mind, I would even say that it is like a medicine.
Without sound this world – and us, the humans – would maybe not exist. The music is also movement, rhythm. Our heart has also a constant pulse.
But, moreover and first of all, music is life!
Music is clearly your life. Has it been always like that or there was, for a little while, a different daydream in your mind? Can you tell us what did you feel within your first encounter with the audience? Which is your relation with your extraordinary talent?
Is it a perfect marriage or a complicated relation?
Since I was a kid, I was passioned for music. It’s probably a natural gift.
The first time I was performing I felt totally at ease with the audience.
I had room to express my feelings.
I definitely found my real language.
I’m very conscious of my talent and I am very respectful of it.
I take care very much of my body in order to reach the maximum energy and vitality.
You travel constantly among Italy, Germany, US and many other places (and you recently performed with Golden Lion Tan Dun at Venice Music Biennale with a memorable solo in The Tears of Nature). Is, down to your heart, still Turin your city? In general what do you feel to give to your city and what do you feel to get back from it?
Of course it is. I play a few times in Turin each year by trying to motivate audience and to open classic music to anyone, especially to young generations.
Just for the reason that Turin is giving me this huge possibility it’s for me a good reason to feel immense gratitude.
Your favorite food and drink
Grilled fish and mango smoothies 😉
Which is the music with you when you like to detach yourself from work and just listen ‘for pleasure’ if this can make sense in your life?
Which is the book with you now?
I listen very often to opera, symphonic music and also jazz.
One of my favorite authors is Frank Zappa.
The book with me now is A New Earth by Eckart Tolle.
It’s too early maybe to ask you what did you learn so far from life (which is a question we always ask to our ‘people from this world’). While you’re free to answer to this if you like, I wish more to know where do you see yourself in ten years from now, when you will be only 34….
Right now I learnt from life that the more you’re ‘aware and informed’ the more you can find the inner peace – our true essence.
I think that reaching this is the real success of life and it is not only a goal to achieve in the next 10 years but all life long…
Simone’s performance, Santa Cecilia