Patrizia Carlotti between Music, Singing, and Writing
Interview by Maria Teresa De Donato
Dear friends,
Today, as the first
interview of this New Year 2025, I have the pleasure of introducing you to a
truly special woman: Patrizia Carlotti, a pure-blooded Tuscan whose life
I hope to immortalize in a novel shortly. While waiting to realize this
beautiful project, I invite you to follow us in reading this interview and on
our social networks.
MTDD: Hello Patrizia,
welcome, and thank you for accepting my invitation.
PC: Thank you, dearest
Maria Teresa, for the interview!
MTDD: There are so many
things to say about you, but I would like you to start by introducing yourself
to our readers.
PC: Very well … I was born
on July 31, 1972; as a good Leo, my motto is "Lioness yesterday, today,
and tomorrow, always ready to fight life's adversities and overcome them!"
MTDD: That's a great
attitude. Congratulations! In addition to being employed by the Public
Administration, as far as your activity as a singer is concerned, we can define
you as a "daughter of art."
Would you like to tell
us about the role that Music and Singing have played in your family and, above
all, in your life?
PC: Yes, I must say that I
was fortunate to be born into a family where music was the daily bread. My
father was a professional trumpet player, singer, and entertainer, and my
paternal grandfather played the mandolin and the violin.
There were always many people at home; the orchestra rehearsed
in the garage, and I played pretending to be a singer as a very young girl. I
was always around the musicians, but they put up with me; I was their mascot.
As I grew up, it was no longer a game; music became the driving force of my
life, and let's say it always saved me in difficult times. I learned to read
the score; I don't even remember the age, but
it was customary for me, like eating
and drinking; in my blood ran the love for music that my beloved father had
passed on to me, so by playing, asking millions of questions, I quickly learned
the name and positions of the notes on the staff, reading them in the G or
violin clef. I was not in middle school yet when I learned to play the recorder
well. In my adolescence, I experimented with which instrument I could study and
which one could be more like me, but, in the end, I never understood it.
Unfortunately, since I wasn't consistent in my studies (I was so bored with
solfeggio!), I didn't complete my studies in piano, guitar, or flute...
(Besides, I didn't like the teachers who taught me!) In hindsight, I wish to
return to consistently putting more effort into my studies. Maybe I wouldn't
have disappointed my father, who already, by the fact of being born in 1935,
was clearly from another era, had a soft spot for his little girl, but he would
have liked my brother Fabrizio, who is 7 years older than I, to have had a
passion for music! It is known that those who undertake the profession of
musician or singer must always have their suitcase packed, to be here one day,
and there the next... My father didn't want this life for his daughter. When I
became an adult woman, he changed his mind.
MTDD: Although your father disagreed with you pursuing an artistic career as a
singer, you did not give up. You continued cultivating your passion by
participating in various competitions and receiving awards.
Would you like to tell
us about it?
PC: I started
participating in competitions at 16 with a song entitled "Cosa è che non si
accetta." (= What is it that is not accepted) I started writing when I was
a child… I enjoyed composing anything; I invented stories and little poems, and
then, with my piano teacher, I wrote the lyrics of the first song ever,
precisely "Cosa è che non si accetta." The Maestro wrote the music.
With that song, I participated in several singing competitions
in the singer-songwriter sector, and I must say that as long as I participated
in local competitions, I won, or at least I came in the top three; as soon as I
started doing more important things there was no more "tripe for
cats!" (that is, The chance to win was no longer an option) Unfortunately,
my father was always right about competitions… You almost always know who has
to win! After having my daughter at just 23 years old, I stopped participating
in contests; I dedicated myself exclusively to her and her growth and immersed
myself in the beautiful profession of mother and wife. However, I sang in both
the parish and gospel choir. Gospel taught me a lot, especially to use
dynamics, modulate the voice, and "stay" within a voice composed of
50 elements.
MTDD: At a certain point in
your life, for personal reasons, you can explain that if you so wish, you opted
for a career as a soloist, leaving the choir you were part of.
Tell us about these
different experiences and how both have enriched you humanly and
professionally.
PC: Well… I will give a taste of all this to leave a pinch of
curiosity in those who read the interview and also to arouse curiosity in the next reading
of a possible novel about my life. I define myself as a volcano in full flow; I
need to throw out, not hold back, or be, let's say, "driven" by
something or someone. Choirs have taught me a lot, in addition to my parents,
who made me understand that the greatest gift is humility; even the experience of a choir makes you understand
that we are part of a whole; drops of
an ocean, the ocean cannot do without all its drops, even if small, all of
them, none excluded, make the entire ocean! We are all important, but each of
us has talents to develop, more or less different from each other; well, I felt
that I had to make the volcano in me "explode," so I chose to do
concerts as a soloist. The vicissitudes I faced were many; at only 33 years old, precisely the age of Christ, my daughter's father
flew to heaven in just three months because of a tumor... But that was only the
beginning of so much suffering! In any case, the lion in me, with courage and
patience, showed its claws, so I went forward, without looking back, with a few
fixed points, and sure of myself. First of all, I thought about the well-being
of my daughter, about raising her, and educating her; as they say, "I rolled up my
sleeves." Unfortunately, my eyesight, already so delicate and compromised
by congenital glaucoma during those years, got much worse, but I held on; I didn't say anything to those I loved so as not
to worry them more than they already worried about me and the child, so I lived
frenetic, exhausting days, days that I barely remember. Love was the engine of
my heart. I have always listened to it, and it has never been wrong! Together
with my second love, second in chronological time sequence, because it arrived
two and a half years after the death of my daughter's father, with Mario, my
husband, since December 2016, we have been through a lot; he was close to me
during a dark period, dark in every sense, because, despite the many eye surgeries,
in the end, I lost my sight. Anyway, I'll stop here, another story in the following episodes... However, I can say that
internally, I would never change myself with the Patrizia I was. Suffering has
made me mature, and as I always say...: "I see more than others because I
use the sight of the soul!" After the death of my father, which occurred
in May 2022, the inner voice, what is called the true SELF, the deep Mind,
began to speak, or rather, I began to listen to it.
MTDD: From your biography, you have also participated in various
tours and events and received multiple prizes and awards.
What can you tell us about it?
PC: Everything is life
experience; even what we do wrong is essential baggage. Many competitions have
been events to make me known, but competition is not for me; those who make art
express themselves and their emotions; there is no one better than another, so
I can say with certainty that competitions are not for me, also for other
reasons that I do not want to address now. A beautiful experience was undoubtedly that of the CET of the great Mogol in
Umbria, a school that only for its fantastic
location immersed in nature, isolated from the noise of the city, makes you
connect with the beauty of simple things, especially with silence, the true and
only teacher of knowledge of ourselves! I want to emphasize that those who make
art usually cannot invent anything; they must always be themselves!
MTDD: Your passion for Music
and Singing is accompanied by that of Writing. We want to
remind our readers that you are, in fact, the Author of your texts.
How did your interest
in Writing come about?
PC: My interest in Writing is innate! As I learned to write, I
began to compose the first things; I remember, as if it were yesterday, that my
elementary school teacher would make all the other teachers read my thoughts;
they were always very impressed, especially for their depth, given my very
young age. I remember my two writings that represent my childhood, very long
stories; the first one was written by
hand, the pen was a friend, I wrote speaking out loud to her, and the second
one I typed; I still remember the
titles, "Long Tress," the first, and "The Idol for Life,"
the second.
MTDD: What are the
biggest obstacles in the professional field that you have encountered as a
singer-songwriter?
PC: I don't know any real
obstacles as a singer-songwriter, except for making yourself known. For me, who
can put my thoughts and emotions into music, being an author means being free.
Doing covers, or rather singing other people's stuff, which I've done for a
long time, even if it's true that personal interpretation is fundamental,
making the words your own, transmitting to excite with a different voice, is certainly
more difficult than doing my own stuff, the public is used to listening to the
original. Then clearly, as for an orchestra, the complicity with the musicians
who work with me represents the perfect partnership for a project that has to
be born.
MTDD: Without revealing
too much, do you have any projects you would like to realize soon or are
already working on?
PC: Yes, indeed, even if music remains a great passion and
not my job, also because you can't live on art in Italy, for me, it can't be a
job because it is so valuable that it would have an inestimable value, but
unfortunately for how most people are educated, art is a game that according to
many everyone can do. I can only tell you I am starting a new project; the
volcano has erupted again after years!
MTDD: Your songs' lyrics are
particularly significant. They make you think, and even for those who don't
have a physical disability, such as visual impairment, they open their eyes and,
even more so, their minds. However, we will talk about this in-depth in our following interview.
I therefore invite all our readers to follow us.
Before leaving, we
would like to remind those who wish to contact you or stay updated on your
activities to use the following methods to do so:
Email pat@patriziaonmusic.it (directly to Patrizia) or
info@patriziaonmusic.it (general information) or
mario@patriziaonmusic.it (Mario
Lorenzini)
Is there anything else
you would like to add to what has already been said, perhaps to inform the
public on how to purchase your CDs?
PC: My music is on leading
platforms such as Spotify, Amazon music or
YouTube: Patrizia Carlotti Official
Follow me on my social channel!
MTDD: Patrizia, it was a
pleasure having you as my guest. I wish you great success in all your
initiatives.
PC: Thank you very much,
dear Teresa, for your invitation.
I look forward to hearing from you again about other things. In
the meantime, I will warmly hug you and the entire audience who will read this.
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