An evening with Antimo Magnotta - a forty-five-minute piano concert that changed lives
A packed hall of alumnae, staff, friends and students were treated to a moving evening concert yesterday, organised by the Circle of Friends, from renowned pianist, and survivor of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia, Antimo Magnotta. Eloquently reliving his past, interspersed with music he composed following the tragedy, he took the audience on his journey of resilience and hope.
On a beautiful summer’s evening, the hall swamped with sunshine and with some enjoying the newly-launched 120th Anniversary wine, guests were transported back to a darker time in Antimo’s life – reliving the accident itself, and the years of recovery that followed. He recounted his life before he was employed, by chance, on the fated vessel and his idyllic childhood in Italy where he learnt to play the piano to an exceptional standard thanks to the support of his parents – a baker, and a bus driver. From humble beginnings, in this small village, he was soon to become a global traveller as he embarked on 18 years of playing the piano on cruise ships – as he remarked a career that was “the crowning of my childhood dreams.”
This happiness, however, was not to last as on the 13 January 2012 the ship he was sailing on – the Costa Concordia – hit a submerged rock off the Isla de Giglio. His harrowing account of the tragedy itself where 32 souls were lost in one of the most tragic cruise line disasters of modern times ensured not a sound was heard in the audience as his words and music painted a traumatic picture in all our minds.
The promise to his – then 3-year old daughter Sofia - that ‘Daddy will take you to the cinema’ on his return pushed him to find a route to survival when faced with adversity and without a rescue boat available. He then found himself hanging from the winch of a crane waiting to be rescued, and unable to drop to the water for fear of hypothermia. Spitting on his rescue light to activate it in the darkness, he was finally rescued and taken to shore. He would describe this moment rather poignantly as ‘his second birthday’.
Years of recovery and loss followed, but ultimately moving to London, working as a waiter, and a chance discovery in the historic café of the V&A museum when he played the piano to his, then manager, saw him find music, and himself again.
We are very grateful to Antimo for sharing his story with us. Many of us in the room were deeply moved by his story and inspired to reflect on our own experiences and humanity as a result of his music and his story.
For more information visit his website.