A Journey to Volterra

This is blog #2! The plan for now is to write one blog a week telling you stories that have inspired me and reinstated my belief in my methods. Having said that, I’m only 21 years old, and sooner or later, I will run out of stories to tell you! I imagine I’ll take a small shift to general topics until the next wonder hits my life.

Here’s the story of how I got to take part in the Volterra Project, a 10-day exclusive guitar workshop in the midst of the Tuscan hills; a truly breathtaking place in the summer of 2022.

I’m pretty sure every serious classical guitarist has heard of this workshop. Held in Volterra, Italy, it’s directed by Mrs. Antigoni Goni, a fantastic guitarist and a person dear to my heart. In addition to her, a different world-class guitarist is invited every year to run workshops and masterclasses alongside her. When the project launched and the applications opened I couldn’t believe my eyes... the guest for that year was Dušan Bogdanovic!

Now for anyone reading this who isn’t a classical guitar fanatic, I’m pretty sure you haven’t heard of the guy- allow me to explain. Bogdanovic is a contemporary composer, very well-known in the guitar community for his unique compositions, a lot of which are influenced by Balkan music (which is where he’s from). See, earlier that year, I had started on my very first piece composed by him, which truly was a labor of love. And now an opportunity was in front of me to work with him on his composition. What more could a musician ask for?!Imagine working on one of Bach’s partitas, and later getting an email that he’s running a workshop in Berlin!

This was all taking place in January 2022, when my instrument dilemma was still in place (Blog #1), I was getting out of a relationship, and I was barely sustaining myself in London. So I didn’t even pause to think whether that was something I could take part in; it was simply too far-fetched.

Months passed... I received my new guitar, spent two days in Edinburgh to get away from my overwhelming everyday life, and at this point, I had thrown myself into practicing; that’s basically all I did. I played the piece by Bogdanovic in exams, played it in competitions and performed it in concerts but I never thought about the workshop again; not once. Not until June...

To be continued :)