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For a long time, I believed that my responsibility as a cellist ended at the edge of the stage. Like many musicians trained in the classical tradition, I was taught that excellence was measured by the precision of a shift, the richness of a vibrato, or the silence of a concert hall before the first note. But as my career progressed, a question began to resonate more loudly than any chord: Who is this music for, and what can it actually do when the lights go down?
This question is what led to the birth of My Music Cares. It is not just a project or a series of concerts; it is a manifestation of my belief that music is a fundamental human right and a powerful catalyst for social and environmental change.
Taking Responsibility: The Artist’s Civic Duty
Being Sicilian means being tied to the Mediterranean – a sea that has seen millennia of culture. I believe that as artists, we have a duty to help younger generations increase their awareness of social and environmental responsibility. If we can teach a child to find beauty in a melody and to respect the beach they play on, we are planting the seeds for a more conscious and compassionate society. I truly believe in the power of music to teach people to listen and to embrace diversity, and I believe it is my duty to use my platform of expression to amplify the urgent need for a greener, more peaceful and more caring world.
The Vision: Empowering the Next Generation
The core idea behind My Music Cares has evolved into a mission focused on the youngest members of our society. I am convinced that to build a better world, we must start with the ears and hearts of young generations. This project is structured as a journey of discovery; I meet these students in schools and introduce them to the cello through interactive concerts and seminars. For many, this is the first time they have ever seen a cello up close, let alone felt the vibration of its strings.
However, My Music Cares goes beyond the classroom. It is a project of ’action’. In my homeland of Sicily the sea is not just a landscape, it is our lifeblood. I have a naturally deep love of nature and I feel a visceral pain when I see how our coastlines are being neglected. This is why a crucial part of the project involves taking these same students out to the beaches of Trapani on the west coast of Sicily, where I was born and raised, and where they live.
Together, we put down our instruments and pick up gloves to clean up the shoreline. It is a lesson in stewardship: we protect what we love, and we love what we understand.
Music as a Message: My Planet
The culmination of this journey will be a final, grand performance that embraces art and environmental advocacy. For this occasion I have specifically composed a new work, entitled My Planet. This piece is performed by a cello ensemble made up of my own students (Alessio La China, Luigi Di Cristofaro, Giacomo Landi, Eduardo La Scala, Giorgia Milillo, Miriam Ferrante and Nadia Tagliavia), along with a choir of children playing percussion.
But there is a twist: instead of traditional percussion, the children will play plastic bottles collected during our clean-up activities on the beach. By transforming waste into a musical instrument, we give a second life to what was once pollution. This ‘plastic percussion’ serves as a rhythmic reminder of our responsibility to the Earth. It is a powerful, symbolic moment where the elegance of the cello meets the raw reality of our environmental challenges, creating a soundscape that is both beautiful and thought-provoking. This final concert will take place on 31st May in the stunning Grotte Mangiapane in Custonaci, a place where rock caves, trees, flowers and sea come together in a manifestation of timeless beauty.
The Catalyst: How BBT Enabled the Dream
A project of this complexity, blending education, environmentalism and original composition, requires more than just passion. It needs a partner who believes in the unconventional. This is where the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) has been absolutely instrumental. When I was honoured with a BBT Fellowship in 2018, I was able to realise a dream project.
A Sicilian Traveller is my album released by Rubicon on which I play my own arrangements for cello and orchestra of music by composers from different countries, such Skalkottas, Bartók, Tsintsadze, Coleridge-Taylor and Komitas, who were inspired by folk music. I wanted to focus on the fact that even different cultures have many bridges to bring them together.
In 2025 BBT honoured me with its new ‘Encore Award’, encouraging me to make My Music Cares a reality. The grant allowed me the time and resources to compose My Planet and to organise the logistics of school seminars and beach clean-ups along the Trapani coast (with the fundamental help of local institutions MEMA, Plastic Free and Lega Ambiente) – activities that traditional concert funding rarely covers.
What I Hope to Achieve: Beyond the Final Note
My ambitions for this project are both immediate and long-term. In the short term, I want to spark a sense of wonder in these students – wonder for the music and wonder for the natural world. I want them to realise that they have agency to change their environment, whether by cleaning a beach or by making music together.
Long-term, I hope to create a sustainable model where art and ecology walk hand in hand. I want My Music Cares to be a blueprint for how classical music can stay relevant in the 21st century: not by staying locked in ivory towers, but by getting its hands dirty in the sand and having its voice heard in the streets.
Conclusion: A Symphony for the Future
As I look at my students holding their cellos, and the children ready with their plastic bottles, I realise that this is a wonderful stage I stand on. We are not just playing music; we are composing a better future for our planet, one note and one beach at a time. My Music Cares is my way of saying that music doesn’t just entertain – it educates, it cleanses, it heals, and it protects. It truly, deeply cares.
Alessio Pianelli was born in 1989 in Trapani, Sicily to a family of musicians. He studied in Palermo with Giovanni Sollima and in Basel with Thomas Demenga. His training and development have also been influenced by renowned artists such as M. Brunello and W. Boettcher. Alessio plays a 1921 Evasio Emilio Guerra cello.
Photos courtesy Alessio Pianelli.
