The genius of
Alexandre, scientist and musician
who “came in from the cold”
The soundtrack of his life is
composed of numbers and musical notes
SYMPHONY
Alexandre Rodichevski (49) has today produced
four CDs whereas two others
are about to be released.
©
Photo Il Giorno
|
Il Giorno Sunday, 21st August, 2011
DESIO
CURRICULUM
Degree in physics
Former professor
and researcher
HIS CHOICE
IN LIFE
He came to Italy out of love for Gloria and works today as
a manager
He is a scientist by education,
manager by profession, and musician by hobby. Almost like
a “three-in-one” phenomenon,
Alexandre Rodichevski, is 49 years old
and a Desio citizen, by adoption.
He graduated in physics at the State University of Novosibirsk
where he also taught.
Alongside this, he conducted research activities in the Institute of Automation and Electrometry, the Siberian branch of the Russian
Academy of Sciences. To this day he has published
scientific articles and has patented a method of surface
tension determination.
Also an informatics specialist, he works in Milan and lives in Desio.
His home is a “house of culture” teeming with old
books, paintings, a piano
and an ultra-modern PC, thanks to which
he composes his experimental music. Furthermore,
he delights in writing non-scientific articles, stories and poems in Italian.
And lastly, he
is the cofounder of a portal for
art and culture: www.morfoedro.it.
«How did
I arrive in Desio from Siberia? – a smile breaks out here – Out of love: I had visited Italy for a brief period, I met Gloria, and we fell in love... Then I returned to Russia, but we kept
in touch, and she came to visit
me twice.» Then came the final decision: we married
and settled down here in the Brianza region where she lived.
«I feel very much at home in Italy, I am happy – he continues
- I do not miss my country particularly. I used to
work as a scientist, but work was scarce
and so I decided to move here, form
a family and change my life
completely.» A few months after he
married, he immediately found a good job in a service company in
Milan, and in his free time,
cultivates his life-long passion: music. He strings along
melodies, CDs and great satisfaction, in a “sound track” that is just beginning
to take shape.
Being a scientist, you
never know what he may
conjure up one day…
© Photo Il
Giorno
|
Who knows,
this could be the person who
will finally succeed in making equations and square roots a trend, appreciated even by those
students who stomach maths less
than red peppers at breakfast. And this person
is Alexandre Rodichevski from polar Siberia, one who transforms
cold numbers into warm tunes.
No wonder he is thinking of
creating a laboratory on
the genre, for the high school students of Brianza. A scientist
and musician, this 49 year old
culture chest who has been living in Desio for 14 years now
with his wife Gloria Chiappani, could be defined
as a sort of “pi” musician, given that precisely
the renowned decimal number used to
measure circles was the object of his first cocktail experimentation.
«I started
in 2009 - says Sasha, with his gentle and refined tone and in almost perfect Italian - and also thanks to
my training as an IT manager in a service company in Milan – I do all my compositions
at the computer. I naturally tend
to experiment and this leads me
to explore new musical worlds.» I inherited this
passion from my father who
plays classical guitar, and which I developed in school in Siberia, studying the piano at the age of seven. This
was cultivated with continuous listening to music
of all kinds,
folk, jazz, rock, pop, or classics: his ears are like
radars that capture and send signals to the
mind, which he then re-elaborates even when he
is asleep. «This happened and often occurs – Alexandre explains – I dream
of music pieces, and awake to write them
immediately on the computer; or else I hum or whistle them since they
get impressed in my head and are later transformed into notes. At a certain point
I realized that at times, I was not
reproducing in my mind things I had already
heard, but was creating original
music.»
IN MY MIND…
«I compose my
works on the computer
Experimentation is part of my
character, and leads me to continually
explore new worlds
The CDs take up various themes: nature, man,
work and time
I entrusted
them to important musicians who have given
positive feedbacks
I really do not
miss any particular aspect of my
country
Back home I worked as a scientist, but work was scarce so I decided
to move to Brianza where I married and changed my life»
ALEXANDRE
RODICHEVSKI
©
Photo Il Giorno
|
As to nocturnal notes, like those of Paul McCartney which inspired the mythical song, Yesterday, «he dreamt of
the melody - Alexandre recounts – and was convinced
he had heard
it somewhere. Instead, it was
his own tune
and it became Yesterday.» This Brianza-adopted
scientist still has not had
a similar intuition, but has compiled
in a few years,
four CDs and other two are on the way: one inevitably is entitled Ars mathematica a compilation of his experiments,
a mix of test tubes, teeming with notes and numbers («The aim of this work – he underlines – is to help his
listeners to regard maths not
as an arid
subject or for experts in the field, but as a source of beauty, from which it comes
to merge with the musical art.»); the others
are entitled, Minutes, Cosmologies, and The elements of Quietness.
«Various themes are taken up – he says - nature, man and his daily life, work, and time. I entrusted
them to various
important musicians who give me their
feedback; fortunately, all have been positive. I would like to
work together with some of them to
do some projects.»
In his personal projects, are two other CDs (one
even transforms Chinese ideograms into music) and the transformation of
his "ars mathematica"
in a book on theory and practice.
«I have spoken
about this with some artists who showed great
interest - he continues - I
gave some lessons on the relationship between the two subjects, also
here in Desio, as a complementary activity to an exhibition
by my wife.»
Precisely together with Gloria, to
integrate the passion for
culture and art, he has planned courses in music, mathematics and poetry in schools, which could be
implemented concretely next year. And the return to dreams
which Alexandre Rodichevski
could very clearly experience with eyes wide open, meant to «compose music for a theatrical
work, films or even ballets.»
Translation by
Yolanda Rillorta