Episode 44 Michele Sangineto

Michele Sagineto

Recreating Leonardo da Vinci's Instruments

📍(Near) Milan, Italy

You can buy his book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0fOX8gMx 

To learn more, to connect to Michele, or potentially buy an instrument, contact his daughter, Caterina, at: https://www.caterinasangineto.com/ 

Thoughts and Reflections

I had stumbled across some Instagram posts that immediately drew my eye, that of the the ensemble Antica Liuteria Sangineto. Some digging drew me to these wonderful fantastical instruments surrounded by a menagerie of colorful instruments and to Michele Sangineto.  A few months later, found myself in Rome Italy for my wedding, and for a quick travel to the north, we found ourselves in Milan and the perfect opportunity to visit Michele. 

Incidentally, I was able to have a friend Gabri join us, who lives in Milan and is a somebody I know from my other YouTube channel personality, which rarely crosses into this. In this YouTube channel, that I started nearly 12 years ago, I make video essays that appreciate and analyzes the music in musical theatre, essentially to elevate the artform. I make a lot of content on Stephen Sondheim, one of my favorite composers, and Gabri found my videos and wanted to pick my brain as he's writing a thesis on Sondheim. So He as a trade-off of services, he came to help with this filming of the episode, which he proved very useful. 

Michele was absolutely insane. I said this alot, and not for clickbait reasons, but he is legitmately and self-aware of his own madness. He revels in it. For instance, upon meeting and sitting down, (in Italian) he immediately started blabbering. I asked my wife, what he's talking about, and she summarized it as about life, death, and gnomes, and I replied "I see that we already started at a 10". And indeed, it only got crazier from there. 

I get antsy being in a place and with any one person for too long, so it means a lot for me to say that out of all of the makers I've ever visited, he's the one that I wished I could have spent more time visiting, and would come back to visit later. 

It will be interesting to see who watches the video and if anybody is keen on buying an instrument. I'm sure there are people out there. However, Caterina explained that Michele has always been skeptical about selling his instruments, and would need some convincing; ultimately he makes instruments only for himself and for the passion. He wouldn't mind sharing his music, but only if it ensured that the person shares his same curiosity and passions. In his ideal world, he'd like to vet anybody interested.