Music from the Edge of Life
Antimo Magnotta, musician and author, will tell his unique story, which serves as a reminder of the restorative powers of music, art and the resilience of the human spirit.
Magnotta was resident pianist aboard the Costa Concordia crew ship, when it tragically sank in 2012. He miraculously survived the shipwreck, which took the lives of 32 people, among them two of his fellow musicians. In the aftermath he suffered from PTSD and moved to the UK to re-build his life from scratch, quitting his job as pianist and taking a waiter’s job in London. A remarkable chain of events led to him becoming the pianist-in-residence at the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Cafè, where he finally found time to document the extraordinary events of the past few years through his music and his writings.
His album Inner Landscape is his tribute to those lost aboard the Costa Concordia, projecting both his thoughts and musically conveying the scene he saw around him. It is a profoundly moving work, through which he has found solace, and which he hopes will inspire others to use the therapeutic effects of creating art to overcome periods of heartache and grief.
He’s the author of The Pianist of Costa Concordia, a chronicle of life aboard the infamous cruise ship, leading up to its catastrophic demise, and How Music Saved my Life, an intimate account of his life shaped by music, from the very beginning to his adult age.
Antimo encourages everyone to listen to his story and find new hope and inspiration in the world around us.
Credit: Maria Cardamone