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Andrea Cicalese: Taking Life in His Stride

Only 18 years young and already launching into a promising career as a classical violinist: Born in Naples, making a new start in Munich presented plenty of challenges for Andrea Cicalese. Music proved to be his lifeline. His first solo concert with the Munich Symphony Orchestra at the Isarphilharmonie is a dream come true, he says.

A young man on an outdoor terrace, laughing into the camera and holding up a violin. His T-shirt reads "Try your best".
Copyright: Benedikt Feiten/Gasteig

For our meeting, Andrea Cicalese turns up in a white shirt sporting the words “Try your best”. I ask if that’s his maxim in life. “No, just a saying,” he replies with a smile. He prefers to take life in his stride rather than control it, but does dictate the direction himself, says the 18-year-old.

 

Aged seven, Cicalese moved from Naples to Munich  with his parents, and finding his feet in his new home proved a challenge: Speaking “zero German”, he remained an outsider until his parents, both passionate music fans, came up with a brilliant idea: They inscribed their son for music lessons to provide him with support and diversion during this difficult phase. And their plan bore fruit: Cicalese learned the violin even before acquiring German and, through music, found a way to express himself. Graduating from the Pestalozzi Gymnasium – a Munich secondary school specialised in music – in 2023, he gave his first major concert at the Berliner Philharmonie three days before his maths exams. While others let their hair down after their A-levels, Cicalese played solo recitals, performed at festivals and forged plans with a major music label.

A young man from behind, walking down the aisle of the empty concert hall, playing the violin.
Andrea Cicalese tests the hall’s feel and acoustics. Copyright: Benedikt Feiten/Gasteig
A young man walks down the aisle of the empty concert hall and plays his violin.
Checking out the Isarphilharmonie before his performance there. Copyright: Benedikt Feiten/Gasteig

“Playing in the Isarphilharmonie has always been my dream. I’ve watched many of my idols perform here. Appearing in the grandest concert hall in the city where I started playing the violin is simply the best!”

How does a young person deal with this rapid succession of successes? Inwardly, he has been preparing for a career as a violinist for many years, says Cicalese with an air of confidence. He realised early on that playing the violin came naturally to him: “I found that I was good at it and I always wanted to become a professional musician.” Working hard towards this goal every day, he has been travelling to Karlsruhe once a week since 2020 to study with Josef Rissin at the University of Music there. Expressing feelings openly and connecting with people is what counts for Andrea. And not just in music: “Having good people around me is the most important thing in my life.”

Andrea Cicalese and the Munich Symphony Orchestra

27 October 2024 | 3:30 PM | Isarphilharmonie

The violinist also hopes to one day give something back to his home town of Naples and its people, who mean so much to him. Perhaps organise his own festival there or perform in the historic opera house. For now, he is eagerly looking forward to his debut at the Isarphilharmonie, where he will play a concerto by Max Bruch. Naturally, family members from his native Italy will be among the audience.

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