Romano Picutti

ROMANO PICUTTI, Conductor and Accompanist of the choir (Niños Cantores de Morelia), brings an extraordinary enthusiasm and skill to his work. To understand the choir, one must know something of the handsome young idealist and superb musician who has built it.

Born in Venice, the son of a theatre architect, Maestro Picutti grew up in the center of cultural life in Venice and Vienna. He studied piano and oboe as a boy, and at eleven went to Vienna to enter the Academy where he studied piano, composition and voice. At 21 he became the conductor of the world famous Vienna Choir Boys, and during the next ten years toured Europe with them in over a thousand concerts including those given at the famed Salzburg Festival.

In 1949 Don Miguel Bernal Jimenez, artistic director of the College of Roses, went to Vienna deterimined to secure Maestro Picutti as the leader of a boys' choir which would be second to none in the world.

Maestro Picutti has built the Singing Boys of Mexico into a magnificent choral instrument upon which he plays with stunning effect. Now the proud father of two daughters, he believes that "children can do great things if we show them how. When the boys began to sing they were tired after five minutes. Now that we have shown them how to use their voices they can sing four or five hours a day and feel better at the end than at the beginning."

The questions most often asked the Maestro are: "How do they do it? How much of the music they sing - such as the Brahms Requiem - can they really understand?" Maestro Picutti's reply is that "much depends on the sensitiveness and responsiveness of a boy.

"It is this way: art is love - translated into tone and form. Children respond to love, especially to something beautiful. The first inspiration comes through the composer. The teacher-director sees a light and reflects some of this. The singers feel something, and follow. They do not know where they are going, but they follow in love and trust. As they respond, they send something out to the audience. They feel something from above, and the finished work is love translated into form.

"This experience goes deeply into the boys' life, and they never forget it. It is the basis for a whole education."

In addition to appearing as guest conductor with the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra of Mozart's Requiem, he has conducted the same orchestra in an all-orchestral program. Last July he again appeared as guest conductor with the National Symphony in the outstanding musical event of their season, a performance of Verdi's Requiem with the Niños Cantores and over fifty adult voices.

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