Margherita Flore is the founder/director of Flowing Chords and a lecturer at Saint Louis.
After graduating in Classical Piano in 2011 from the “A. Vivaldi” Conservatory of Alessandria, Italy, I began teaching privately to support my studies and had the opportunity to observe different teaching approaches in Pianoforte and Film Music Composition courses. I have worked as an Orchestral Assistant with Vincenzo Presta for some Saint Louis Pop Orchestra productions, and since 2019 I have been teaching Hall Practice For Singers, Live Studio Arrangement and Choral Arrangement, at Saint Louis. In these classes I report work that with the Flowing Chords project, the choir I founded in 2016, giving the opportunity to experiment with real vocal productions by addressing timbres and tempos necessary for the completion of the recording shift. Every day I try to pass on to the students what I had to learn on my own, giving them hands-on experience close to the working world. This transition from student to lecturer was very natural for me, and my former lecturers, now colleagues, will always remain Masters for me.
I have always liked Saint Louis as an environment because of the informal relationship between faculty and students. My teachers, between Pianoforte and Composition, have been many, among whom I remember with great esteem: Gianluca Podio, Pierpaolo Principato, Antonio Solimene, Claudio Mastracci. Between the ages of 20 and 25, I got into work environments that I couldn’t quite understand; I got into difficult situations where I didn’t understand how much I had a say. My teachers were a “beacon” because I asked them for advice on how to behave, and thanks to them I better understood a context that was completely foreign to me at the time.
I work as a Producer with Francesco Sacchini, a singer-songwriter with whom I have been writing for several years and with whom I have produced 2 albums (“Stai Sereno” – 2021, “Andiamo Avanti” – 2024) and worked on several projects, such as Hōrai and Flowing Chords, for which I always follow the music production and writing. Lately I have been working as Orchestra Assistant for Samuele Bersani’s Orchestral Tour, under the Musical Direction of Tony Pujia in the Orchestra conducted by Maestro Giacomo Loprieno. I worked in television always as Musical Assistant to M° Luigi Saccà on the TV program “Il Cantante Mascherato” in 2023, and played in Pierdavide Carone’s last tours as a keyboardist since 2021.
In 2015, I wrote my first arrangement for Chorus of “Scarborough Fair Canticle” by Paul Simone and Garfunkel, I wanted to bring it as my dissertation in Film Music Composition so I asked some singers and choristers from the Saint Louis Pop Chorus at that time in which I also sang, directed by M° Diego Caravano, to see us and record it and then publish it. Then the project took off through concerts and initiatives, and for about 3 years we have been incorporated as a Social Promotion Association. In recent years we have released 2 records,“Flowing Chords” (2018) and “18-22” (2023), and have collaborated with internationally renowned artists in concerts and recordings, the latest among them Benjamin Clementine, Steve Hogarth, Tosca, Margherita Vicario, Noemi, Folcast, Davide Shorty, Serena Brancale, the Nanowars of Steel, Sabaton, and the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio. I follow the writing of the arrangements and the direction, but the collective also goes forward thanks to the board of directors formed by Flaminia Lobianco, Elisa Benedetti, Lisa Fiorani, Francesco Sacchini, as well as the help we get from Saint Louis and its management run by Francesca Gregori, for which we are very grateful. In short, it is a choral work, basically there is a lot of desire to experiment and find new stimuli.
Saint Louis is definitely a home: when I arrived, I had no idea what music could actually give me. I had already been studying for years, but thanks to the people I met within Saint Louis and the meetings while studying the instrument, spaces were created within me that I could not reach on my own. The exchange of ideas, emotions, expectations, dreams and points of view that are created in the classes was a starting point for me to open up to the world. It still continues today, even though I have changed roles and am on the other side, precisely because it remains this informal level between faculty and students. Every day I learn so much from colleagues and students, and I am very grateful.
I participated in several Erasmus programs: in 2024 I attended the Master’s program in Innovative Choral Direction at the RAMA VOCAL CENTER in Aalborg, Denmark. I have attended 5 bootcamps on the training of Vocal and Choral Teaching. I participated in several cross-cutting activities such as Prihme, Aec and the Glomus Camp. Prihme was a 3-year democratic research program to create active policies against gender discrimination, abuse of power and economic access within cultural institutions across Europe. Glomus Camp was definitely one of the most important experiences of my life: it is the coming together of 52 nations with artists in every cultural field; a week in which we share master classes, concerts, live together and make connections that last a lifetime.
Music is an emotional channel through which one knows oneself and speaks to others. As any cultural element unites and creates meeting points, it takes aptitude for listening and communication. Often with my students we reflect on why one chooses to study music, beyond what may be fun or the drive toward a particular musical instrument: it is the need to express something beyond verbal communication; it is the urge to “feel” on a different plane. Music is a dimension within which I feel saved: one must care for it and treat it carefully.
You have to give your best when you study, get used to managing internal resources. The more capable you are, the less tired you become. It is necessary to feel satisfaction with what you do and believe in, to remember to let yourself be amazed, and above all to network. It is important, I would say essential, to help each other among colleagues.
Daniele Silvestri comes to mind, because there is always something in his music and in what he says that disturbs me, that makes me question and recognize myself.
Jeremy of Pearl Jam
