Maestro Arturo Sacchetti

Former Director of the RAI Chamber Choir, professor at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Artistic Director of the "G. Carisio" International Academy of Music of the "Civico Istituto di Musica" of Asti, Artistic Director of the "Ente Perosiano "of Tortona, Professor of organ at the" Regia Accademia Filarmonica "of Bologna, Professor at the Academy“ L. Perosi "of Tortona, honorary inspector of the Ministry of Artistic and Historical Heritage, Academic by distinguished reputation from the" Regia Accademia Filarmonica "of Bologna

It is not easy to write about a person for whom you have first had a deep esteem and then kept an affectionate and admired memory. In doing so, you always have the impression of writing too little and, at the same time, something rhetorical or conventional. First and foremost, Maestro Bellandi was the one who taught me Organ, who helped me to "fix" an unsteady piano technique and introduced me to a refined counterpoint technique and organ composition. It may be argued that this might be considered "normal" in a didactic relationship and, I am sure, the same holds true for many of his students, given the seriousness and professional honesty of our Master.

Looking for something else that can honor his memory, I would like to underline his rare merit of knowing how to live Art while at the same time being the guardian of secular traditions. For example, he was a profound connoisseur of counterpoint and its most sophisticated techniques and equally convinced and interested experimenter in anticipating the perilous paths of research and innovation. This applied both in his musical compositions and, I am sure, in other fields of his knowledge and in the more "practical" things. This is demonstrated by the courageous undertaking for an organist to build a large pipe organ at home, full of brilliant and innovative technological solutions, especially when compared to the means at that time.

Another, albeit small, example of open-mindedness was the time he accompanied me to try one of the very first and obviously limited electronic liturgical organs - the much more advanced examples today are still censored by most no matter what, even for daily study - “Please take it. Anyway, it will be extremely useful!”.

Even today, almost forty years after our last lesson, after having attended courses, seminars, masterclasses around Europe in my youth, after so many vicissitudes in my life as a musician, teacher and then director of the Conservatory, sometimes I happened to go back in a dream and pass that glass door, enter his study, the organ on the left, the shelves full of books and scores, the upright piano next with photos of his very parents on it, the table between us. "I'm happy that you have decided to continue your composition studies!", with his bold attitude and with his slightly retro habit of using the third person “Lei” with his students. “No, unfortunately no, dear Master, this has never happened! And I still regret it."

Maestro Giandomenico Piermarini

Concert Organist. Appointed organist of the Patriarchal Archbasilica of San Giovanni in Lateran in Rome, Professor at the Conservatory “A. Casella “of L’Aquila, former Director of the same

I preserve the dearest memory of an affable and generous man as well as of a musician of high value.

Maestro Bruno Aprea

Internationally renowned conductor and pianist, winner of the Koussevitzky Prize in 1977 in the United States, former Artistic Director of the Palm Beach Opera, USA

I knew Maestro Bellandi very well. I studied with him and I highly esteemed him. I prepared the fourth year of composition with him and I was very enthusiastic about it. For me, the work I did with him on Bach's chorales and on the construction of the fugues was very constructive; the setting of the various harmonic possibilities to construct the counter-exposition and imagine all types of strettos; the fact that he was an organist and had a real, not just theoretical knowledge of Bach's great compositions. I remember his enthusiastic tales of his relationship with Maestro Bustini. I also remember his craftsmanship in arranging musical instruments that he knew like few of his colleagues.

Maestro Sergio La Stella

Conductor of the Rome Opera House

The teaching of Nazario Carlo Bellandi, although dating back many years, have remained well impressed together with his rigorous but human cordiality.

Maestro Martino Faggiani

Chorus Master of the Teatro Regio di Parma, Chef des Choeurs at the La Monnaie Theater in Brussels, former Director of the youth choir of Santa Cecilia

I was a student of harmony, counterpoint, and composition of Maestro Bellandi from '77 to '84, when I graduated in the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia where he taught. I have particularly good memories of the Master, both as a teacher and as a person. He used the third person “Lei”, and this made me feel a little uncomfortable, but it was a sign of respect some might say in the old days, but at the same time this instilled a sincere and warm humanity into me. With his musical qualities, his visceral love for the great music of the past and for counterpoint as a sublimation of compositional writing, he gave me a solid basis to face a musical path that allowed me to make of music my profession for life, with honesty and sincerity, as he showed himself with his teachings. As I write, I realize that I am about the same age as Bellandi was when I met him and my life experience makes me feel even more what an extraordinary and humble person he was, as profound as he was modest. His compositions were remarkably interesting, certainly linked to the great historical tradition, but at the same time modern and refined. I remember his self-made organ built in his house, fascinating and mysterious.

Maestro Leandro Piccioni

Conductor of the Piazza Vittorio Orchestra, winner of the David di Donatello 2020 as "Best Musician" of the film The Magic Flute of Piazza Vittorio, pianist, composer, and director of famous soundtracks, since 2001 collaborator as pianist and keyboard player of Ennio Morricone, Teacher Griffith Academy of Film and Television

I am moved by the memory of my Maestro Bellandi. He is a person that I constantly carry in my thoughts, for his figure as a composer, teacher, and example of life.

Maestro Giovanni Clavorà Braulin

Professor of Organ and Organ Composition at the Conservatory "Luigi Cherubini" in Florence, former Organist in San Pietro, Artistic Musical Director of the Church of S. Marcello al Corso in Rome, organist and choir Director in the Churches of SS. Gioacchino and Anna in Rome, winner of the "Flor Peeters" International Organ Competition in Mechelen (Belgium) in 1988, international concert performer

I was lucky enough to have been a pupil of Maestro Bellandi at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. It is difficult to describe my thoughts of gratitude in a few words, because what I am today, as a musician and as a person, I owe it to him, who was more than a father to me. Every day I carry him with me in my heart.

Maestro Alessandra Albo

Conductor and violinist, Lecturer at the "G.Verdi" Conservatory of Milan, Permanent Conductor of the Orchestra of the Bergamo and Treviglio Academy and of the Musical Corps of Ranica and Montello (BG), Director of the Musical Corps and Artistic Director of the "Don Sennhauser" music academy, winner of the absolute first prize at the international conducting competitions of Varenna and Casarza Ligure

Dear Master, 

since you left this world I felt more and more your absence, because you were always willing to give me advice and ideas, which surely came from your teaching experience and your wisdom. 

I certainly owe it to you if, in the several hours of lessons you have dedicated to me, I know how to play the organ with competence, as the journalists say. 

To you, and not to others, I owe the effective use of the pedal board and the wise use of the organ's registers. 

Even if in the course of the eighth year of "Organ and Organ Composition" the Director of the Conservatory of St Cecilia, Director R. Fasano, moved me from your class to the class of Master F. Germani, I to all respects consider myself your creature. 

Dear Master, in you, in addition to the great didactic preparation, I have always appreciated your remarkable human qualities and your availability. In fact, I can’t remember how many times I came to your house for free lessons, always warmly welcomed by your children and your wife, because you weren't satisfied with what you said to us students during the hours of lessons at the Conservatory. 

Before concluding my tribute, I must talk about you as a concert performer: impeccable performer, very interesting for what you were able to convey, worthy of being taken as a model by students and teachers of the Italian conservatories, even when you were performing your own organ compositions. 

So, thank you, Master, for everything. 

With true affection Giuseppe Di Mare 

Maestro Giuseppe Di Mare

I remember Maestro Bellandi very well for having studied with him for a period Harmony and Composition. Behind the appearance of an austere man there was a person passionate about his work, enthusiastic, idealistic, free, and unconventional, a true artist. Always ready to help you, advise you and encourage you, he saw teaching as a mission to foster a deeper understanding of music, and thus to gain access to what for him was a transcendent world that sublimates universal brotherhood in the name of God. Although we have seen and heard each other occasionally, we have always had an excellent relationship. I well remember our last telephone conversation before his disappearance. He told me he was incredibly happy and satisfied, despite the great hardships of old age, because he had completed an onerous project which he had always mentioned to me without telling me precisely. On that occasion, he told me that it was the Rosary in Music, with a particularly massive staff. That satisfaction was of comfort to me when, a short time later when I learned that he was gone. A great artist, a genuinely nice person.

Maestro Fabio Renato d’Ettorre

Chair of Guitar at the Francesco Morlacchi Conservatory of Perugia, former Professor at the Bonporti Conservatory of Trento and Riva del Garda, concert performer and composer, member of the Guitar Trio of Rome, critic and musicologist in conferences, newspapers, and periodicals

I studied with him privately for some time and I greatly appreciated his human qualities, as well as his professional qualities already known to all. Today it is important to pay homage to a great Musician and Teacher who lived his mission with deep dedication and humility at the service of future generations.

Maestro Laura Manzini

International pianist, collaborator of Salvatore Accardo, professor of Chamber Music at the State Conservatory of Music "Ottorino Respighi" in Latina

I was a pupil of Maestro Bellandi for several years. I consider much of what I can do and have done in music as the result of having been one of his students, in all respects both for the solid training received, the artistic orientation, and the mental and spiritual approach to the profession. Coming from a previous high-profile but completely different teaching experience, which ended prematurely, at the beginning of my path with the Master I had to face a rather painful period of adaptation in which Bellandi represented with infinite patience and wisdom plus a beacon that illuminates the musical universe all over than a simple dispenser of technical rudiments. Some of his other students and I have often remarked, well beyond the times of the various courses of study, that kind of aura of genius and mystery that enveloped the Maestro when he went deeper into musical questions. Our impression was that his knowledge, not simply of any musical expression, from the cultured to the popular, from the oldest to the most recent, went far beyond the already high degree of didactic preparation, and all his students have been unreserved beneficiaries. I am sure that these talents have inspired and motivated all those up-and-coming musicians who had the good fortune to cross their destiny with that of Maestro Bellandi. It may sound almost like a kind of hagiography, but the plain and simple truth is that Bellandi, if not an angel, was at least an incredibly special and unique person. I went to his house in Rome, the one with the famous pipe organ in two rooms; I followed his teachings as well as his suggestions on recipes and restaurants to visit! In my course of studies, I was lucky enough to be guided by excellent and renowned teachers, but even today, techniques and knowledge aside, I like to consider Maestro Bellandi almost like a second father as well as a life teacher. Obviously, a musician of such a caliber cannot be evaluated only on the didactic level. The entire corpus of his works is of the highest standard. The sharing and enjoyment of this precious legacy is warranted to be pursued in all forms.

Maestro Giovanni Luisi

Music composer for films

I remember Maestro Bellandi very well, as well as the lessons I took with him for a couple of years. Among other things, everything that related to counterpoint, of which he was a profound connoisseur, was remarkably interesting.

Maestro Luca Signorini

Cello teacher at the "Nicola Sala" Conservatory of Benevento, First Cello of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, former First Cello of the RAI Symphony Orchestra, of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, of the Orchestra of the Teatro dell 'Opera di Roma, former chair of Cello at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella, composer and writer

I studied Composition under the guidance of Nazario Carlo Bellandi in the late seventies and early eighties of the last century. For many years I have exercised the activity of Choir Direction (which I had deepened under the guidance of Mons. Domenico Bartolucci and Maestro Marcel Couraud), while working at RAI. I remember Bellandi with great affection, thanks to whom I fully understood the musical language, its structures, and its laws. In this, I must say that Maestro Bellandi's lessons have really been useful to me, throughout my whole life.

Maestro Massimo Di Pinto

Former Professor of Choral Practice at the “N. Piccinni "in Bari, formerly responsible for programming the Fifth Channel (Radio5 Classica) and the Quarto (light music) Radio of RAI, former Music Consultant at the RAI TV Production Center in Rome, concert performer, Director and founder of several choral ensembles

I was a student of Maestro Bellandi with whom I achieved the average completion of composition. I always have a fond memory of him.

Maestro Roberto Iantorni

Former Professor of Theory of Harmony and Analysis at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Complementary Professor of Harmony at the Conservatory of Latina

I would like to express an affectionate memory of Maestro Nazario Bellandi, whom I had the good fortune to meet at the end of the 1960s, in the preparation of my Complementary Organ and Gregorian Chant exams for the Composition course. A person of great sensibility and musical culture, he allowed me to deepen important musical realities that I did not know well and that have then influenced my artistic path, even if different from his on a stylistic level. In the life of every musician, few are the people who get to leave you a profound trace of their teachings: this is only the prerogative of great Masters, and for me, among them, there is also Maestro Bellandi to whom my great gratitude goes for what I have been taught.

Maestro Bruno Biriaco

Conductor, drummer, jazz composer, collaborator, and curator of music columns for RAI, former director of the Abruzzese Symphony Orchestra, former Siena-Jazz drums and ensemble teacher

He was a great Master of Composition, counterpoint, and a very cultured person. I remember him with affection and esteem.

Maestro Filippo Rizzuto

Conservatory Professor of Classical Guitar, former Professor at the Conservatory of Vibo Valentia, of Campobasso and of L'Aquila, concert artist and composer, collaborator in soundtracks of Maestro Ennio Morricone, winner of the first professional prize at the National Guitar Festival of Ancona and of Castellammare di Stabia

Maestro Bellandi was one of the most important didactic figures of my life, whose teachings are still a constant reference in my lessons at the Perugia Conservatory. I studied with him for the Harmony and Counterpoint exams at the DAMS of the University of Bologna. The foundations he gave me were extraordinary, so much so that I was even able to work out my degree thesis in this discipline, which was quite rare at the time. Beyond his incredible teaching power, he also possessed the gift of a character of rare sweetness and enthusiasm, so it was impossible not to become so fond of him, considering his lessons an opportunity for immense joy.

Maestro Marco Albrizio

I studied Composition with Maestro Bellandi until the 5th year of Composition in 1989, when he retired. Thanks to him, I immediately understood the importance of counterpoint from the very first lessons and I got so passionate about it that, sometimes, I spent whole nights solving counterpoints with seven and eight voices that I couldn't finish during the day. I also remember how easily he managed to get me to do improvised counterpoints on the piano. Counterpoint was for me real gymnastics for a composer's hand.

Maestro Luigi Francalanza

Pianist and composition Professor at the "Alfredo Casella" Conservatory of L'Aquila. Former teacher at the Conservatories of Rodi Garganico, Campobasso, and Cosenza.

I have a beautiful memory of Maestro Bellandi, he was an exquisite person, not only for his competence but also for his great humanity.

Maestro Alessandra Ramacci

Piano Professor at the Nicola Sala Conservatory in Benevento, former Piano teacher at the Conservatory “F. Venezze” of Rovigo, composer and concert player, winner of numerous prizes in piano competitions

It is a pleasure, as well as a duty, to remember Maestro Bellandi; after a long time, the amount of debt I contracted with him is even clearer to me.

Maestro Mario Carrozzo

Chair of History of Music at the Conservatories of Campobasso and Salerno, musicologist, winner of various piano competitions

I had the good fortune and the honor of meeting Maestro Bellandi and becoming his student during the early 1980s. For me, it represented a fundamental and precious stage in my training. Through his fascinating "counterpoint" lessons, I discovered, for the first time, a deeper "reading" of musical language. With immense gratitude.

Maestro Mauro Assorgia

Teacher of Musical Pedagogy for Didactics of Music at the Niccolò Paganini Conservatory in Genoa, author, and musicologist

I remember that Maestro Bellandi was very much appreciated At that time, especially as an expert in counterpoint.

Maestro Alberto Meoli

Chair in Composition at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, composer, pianist, and conductor, including in the USA and Japan

I was a pupil of Maestro Bellandi for a couple of years, and I have an overly sweet memory of him!

Maestro Gaetano Stella

Pianist, musicologist, choir and orchestra director, teacher of music theory and musicology and piano specialization at the AIDA academy, former Professor of historical music at the Conservatory of Bari

An extraordinary Master. Music was not only a precious subject to be explored, known, taught, and served with the utmost devotion that distinguished him, no, Music was the proven meaning of Life itself, placed at the center of the revelation of all the meanings of the Universe. His lesson was a journey into infinity, in the dream, in the time and in the spasmodic search for that lightning reason that is the pleasure of hearing, certainly not only with ears, but with the whole soul. And that feeling was the certainty of us being first soul, and then body around with adherence and participation. And mathematics and physics met in his explanations in an enchanted abstraction, in an unfathomable magic and they led together to the writing and construction of a personal method. The invention, he explained to me, does not only concern us who hungry look for it, but all those who expect it and will therefore exalt it. If this happened even in a basic exercise of a fugue, there was happiness ... In an interval of a few hours of a class, everything stopped on reasoning in full light, around a bass or notes that were to be found, to meet fully, in absolute harmony, in an irreplaceable, ineluctable interlocking, as the only correct answer to be found, in a movement that is right and perfect for the earth, the air, the research ...! … He said to me: “The solutions are many but the most beautiful are unique, and they are the ones for which a composer must overstrain himself first and be happy later”. So, we used to talk about everything, from philosophy to science, without being afraid of being distant from the subject that had brought me to him to understand, because to utterly understand it I had to access that "everything", that "core" with my learning which contains every truth and of which music is the explaining voice. One afternoon he said to me: “... wait a minute Miss, I'll show you something, you deserved it! ". He got up and revealed a whole other part of the room to my eyes. In the background there was an immense pipe organ. "I built it, piece by piece !!!” He said to me, with the glint in the eyes of those who see their conquest again!”.

I studied composition with Maestro Bellandi for a short but intense period. His lessons had no time limits, they went on until questions were completely dissected and those questions enriched by other questions. The depth of his teaching, and in particular his enthusiasm for counterpoint, made each meeting a special occasion, as well as a form of human enrichment. I remember the Master with great affection and gratitude, he was a figure like there are probably no more. Will there be any in the future? Thank you, Master.

Professore Roberto Scoccimarro

Musicologist, Berlin State Library, Department of Music, Author and Researcher, former Lecturer, Cologne University of Music and Dance, Germany

I was a student of composition of Maestro Bellandi. Musically speaking, he was the most important and formative figure for my career and my musical thinking. His moral and professional righteousness and his vision of the Music phenomenon have been and will always be a fundamental point of reference for me.

Maestro Pierluigi Morelli

Where is the place to learn art? Who is responsible for passing on the technique that opens doors and reveals hidden places? The first question can be answered with a now obsolete word: an artist’s workshop. This was, or perhaps still is today, the studio of an artist where the disciples learned, in proportion to their capability to be curious and amazed, the technique that only the Master with his experience, his knowledge and the gift of an innate communicative ability could teach them. For me, that Maestro was Nazario Carlo Bellandi, of whom I want to recall an aspect that goes beyond his enormous musical culture and his great quality as a performer and composer. This aspect is typical of very high-level teachers irrespective of the subject of their teaching. I am talking about a warning that Maestro Bellandi addressed with his example to me, and I believe to all his students: the alert read "Gnothi seauton". It is a know yourself suggested through music and it is in this exhortation, offered with grace and without impositions during my passionate study, that I tried to understand who I was and what my limits were. A Master who is able to indicate this field of research is a great Master and his teaching precious and imperishable.

Maestro Renzo Frati

Piano teacher, composer, and pianist