IBLA Grand Prize Winner Nogi Nariya (CHINA), his teacher Sensei Bao and IBLA Bellini Special Mention recipient singer/songwriter Aleijuan King (USA)

Aleijuan King

What is it about music that makes it soulful?  What are the qualities that makes one song breathe with life while another grips the spirit in suffocation?  Some believe it is simply the nature of all music to inspire emotion, or, it is only those individuals that create from a place of sincere joy-pain or love-hate that translate to the listener.  Still, others insist that it’s the mind state of the audience that dictate if rhytms and melodies are felt in a deeper, or perhaps, a higher place.  At the end of the day, night, and sometimes the dawn, most can agree that one must posess a great mastery of passion to truely appreciate the musical process.

The IBLA Foundation hosted it’s 13th annual IBLA Grand Prize Piano,Voice and Baroque Music Competition in Sicily, Italy, in the town of Ragusa Ibla from June 27th - July 6th.  The Ibla Foundation is a not-for profit organization founded by President and Iblean born pianst, il Maestro Dr. Salvatore Moltisanti.  From Tokyo, Lady Dewi Sukarno is the chairwoman of The IBLA Foundation and the IBLA Grand Prize, competitions that tour IBLA, New York, Toyko, Amsterdam, and the many other well respected representitives from around the world.

The IBLA Foundation helps to cultivate an environment in which musicians and singers of  different ages and ethnicities around the globe can converge not only to perform and compete, but to influence and inspire through music that has been considered classic throughout the centuries.  Dr. Moltisanti himself is an ambassador of music and passion.  His, and his volunteer staff’s butterfly style of orchestrating internationale performers, distinguished jurors, ladies, and guests, with travel and lodging, harmonize into a presentation joyfully absorbed in the Ragusa Ibla community.

Nogi Nariya, a Japanese born- Peking, China raised, 14 yr. old solo pianist was my 1st choice from the minor 3rd note.  He arrived with many other soloists and duos that would be difficult to judge.  Nogi was accompanied by his teacher, the honourable Sensei Bao, whose affectionate strength is that of a diciplined master of passion.  A mom cool enough to have allowed her own son’s rock band to practice in her living room.

Peking takes the stage with a humble presence.  Then begins with a breezy touch that can be as easily a soft rain, or, a tempestuous monsoon.  His performance was immediately greeted, by contestants and Ibleans present within the hall, with Bravo!  Bravissimo!  (yeah, they really say it), in a country  breast-fed on Euro-Classical works.  As he plays he appears lost in el mare di musica; where the listener is intoxicated by waves of  potential, and, I’ll dare to whisper- a level of mastery.  Nogi Nariya moves as if he has studied in a prior time, and plays pieces guided by  lifetimes of experience.  He rocks like a Shroeder. With Ms. Bao as his Lucy, Nogi is often prompted to give bows, between songs, to the overwhelming applause of the crowd.

Other impressive contestests were violinists like Brazillian-born Bruno Montiero, or, Kanae, a Japanese young lady, living in London.  Her mother is a Harvard graduate with a specialty in Black Women’s Literature.  Then, there is the precocious Vietnamese pianist, and her mom, whose only other languages were French and German.  Also, traveled women from Portugal and Russia bathed in song for our voyeur, aspiring to deliver a unique and artistic statement.  At times, jurors heads and hands bob and sway unconsciously; pulled from impartiality by a magnetic performance.  In il fine, Nogi Nariya, from Peking, took the IBLA Grand Prize!


Events of the competition were televised throughout Ragusa and ensured participation, with a packed piazza on the final night of the competition.

“The real Ragusa,” begins a 21 yr. old native, “is craving creative and social stimulation.”  Hence, the super social presence of “Buena Sera!”, a greeting often heard late in the day throughout this intimately ancient town.  Some hold dear the words and beats  of Eminem & Dr. Dre’s, “I’m Sorry Mama”, as poetry; requesting it sung  repeadtly for breakdown of lyric and meaning.  Italian car systems expand to make room for the soulful croone of Carl Thomas’s “I’m Emotional”, India.Arie’s “Brownskin” ,or, 112’s “Peaches ad Cream”.  There are Ibleans that search for a brand of soul that has always come from Urban America, or, the styles fondly known in historically black music.   The teller at the bank whispers, “Ella Fitzgerald, si?”  “Si, si”, I say.  In considering what is classic and will be classic, we find ourselves at a crossroads.  We can paint ourselves into corners of limited movement.  Or, recognize the diversity of the human struggle through the music and rhythms of that struggle.

I was fortunate to have stayed both in the Ibla house, and in the country where handmade stone walls and vodka, or, cows are a common sight and scent. I risked breaking the rule of rarely debating politics in a “foreign country” when a college student from Planet Hector suggested that native cultures needed to stop “whinining” about their situations, and get over it -end of story.  Apparently, the sweeping away of cultures at the whim of “progress” is a process of life that we must “just accept”.

We finally could agree that the process was systemic, and he is a budding biologist, so I forgave him ‘cause I got love for the redhead clan.

Living with 7+ travelers from countries from around the world can feel like family, or, sweeps week on a classical MTV reality show, but, Dr. Moltisanti is a gracious host and knows how to captain the storm.

Mild mannered Columbia sophmore by day and super whistler by night, Michael Barimo blew out rave performances at Carnegie Hall and the David Letterman Show, and was also a guest of the house as a previous Ilba winner. His whistling rides of Summertime gave the audience a freshness of expression that seems yearned for within evolving classical music communities. He’s also proud to recite a few lines from one of his favorite Florida female hip hoppers- MC Trina.

I walked the approximate 3 miles back from Ragusa to the concert hall twice: first on the highway, and once through the town of Ibla.  The people were tolerant of my reverently passing through.  Saints that surround the small labrinth city in paintings, sculpture and shrines, give a watched over feel, beneath infinite  cool-colored shutters and balconies.  The children react curiously and sometimes are unable to not point, which in my experience, happens everywhere.  I particularly liked the PD’s of Affection exchanged between parents and children, teacher and student, boss and employee, men, women and friends.

They live as family.  There are no perfect situations and birds die everyday. The sun speaks to u early in the day and kisses a quiet suffering during the summer and early fall.  U must just beware to respect the people, the land, and the culture and u’ll find Ragusa Ibla ur friend.

-Aleijuan King, May 2004