My experience at Unika has been wonderful and rewarding both professionally and humanly. I have had the good fortune to work here for 10 years where, as soon as I arrived from Latvia, I was welcomed like into a family. Having had the opportunity to teach not only piano but also theory and to supervise the choir of the school I had the pleasure of passing on to my students – through music – something of my culture and receive so much of Italian culture in return. If I have felt truly integrated in this city, it is precisely because of the affection and warmth I have received from all colleagues and students in this school. I wish you all to be proud of your culture and to spread it as much as possible.

Is Unika a family? Yes, it is a rainbow family because it has all the colors of the spectrum, it welcomes every droplet of water that reflects its dreams. It is a rainbow that breathes sweat, sometimes tears into the iris of all of us teachers for whom the act of education is always an act of love. Although sometimes we would like to crush the students and they would like to crush us. Breaking us apart, we reassemble colors. Yes, it is the most extended family there is.

It was 2003. I wanted to study singing, but then at the Unika secretary’s office I find out that you can also study acting and dance there. I decide to enroll in the academic course to study all three disciplines. My teachers ( Clarizio di Ciaula, Rocco Capri Chiumarulo and Anna Garofalo for acting, Cinzia Eramo for singing, Sabrina Speranza and Domenico Iannone for dance and Giampiero Doria for music) guided me in a growth that was fundamental for me, nourishing and feeding day after day the artistic fire inside me, giving me technical notions, and not only that, that still today after 20 years continue to be fundamental in my work. After 3 and a half years of Unika came my first professional commitment, it was 2007, and from that moment my artistic life became my job, my life: working in so many musicals with Massimo Ranieri, Bianca Guaccero, Lorella Cuccarini, Malika Ayane, Manuel Frattini, the Pooh ( just to name a few) in important theaters all over Italy ( Teatro Sistina, Brancaccio, Fenice in Venice and many others) has been and continues to be a dream, as well as a source of pride. Unika is always with me, it is in my heart, with its teachers and coordinators, whom I will never stop thanking for what they have given me! And I know that I continue to fill them with pride as well, because they have inevitably become part of my life, have followed me, always with enthusiasm and continue to do so! Thank you teachers! Thank you Unika!

The Academy has been and still is my artistic home. Not only did it train me technically, the teachers made me grow personally and professionally to help me make my passion and that of my peers a job. They helped me to explore new avenues, to try new styles, to not stop in the face of difficulties. I still ask Teacher Sabrina Speranza for advice and to this day she does not hesitate to offer me her professional and personal support, and to welcome me whenever I am in Bari, as when I was in Unika every day! I am still in touch with my comrades and we cheer for each other whenever a new success is achieved. And the classmates who have not pursued artistic careers always explain to me how the formative work done in the academy contributes strongly to their achievements in any field of work. The masters have always pushed me to fly high, and to set myself ever more ambitious goals, despite the fact that this would take me away from them and the academy to explore new horizons. Twenty years have passed since I first set foot in the Academy, and I never imagined that one small step in such a magical logo would one day lead me to live my passion. I have been working of the musical field in the United States for ten years now, and my dream has begun to materialize within the walls of the Unika Academy in Bari, and for that I will be forever grateful to be an integral part of this wonderful family!

Unika non è stato solo un luogo della mia adolescenza in cui ho camminato accanto a qualcuno e dove ho conosciuto le basi dei linguaggi artistici. Unika è stato il luogo. Del parlarsi profondo; del togliere i veli alle parti nascoste della mia vita per riconoscermi e riconciliarmi con me stessa. Unika è stato il ponte della mia trasformazione, sul quale ho imparato a chiamare ‘rabbia’ la rabbia e ‘amore’ l’amore. Perché c’era sempre una spalla, una mano, una parola ad abbracciare la mia inquietudine. I miei maestri avevano la passione negli occhi e, guardandoli, giorno dopo giorno, il mio ago interiore si posizionava in una direzione nuova: ogni lavoro può essere un’arte, ma è vero anche che l’arte può essere un lavoro. Che per me ha significato ritrovare il gusto delle cose. Ridisegnare i miei progetti in una prospettiva nuova. Unika non è chiusa nei recinti del passato, perché se ricordare vuol dire riportare la storia al cuore, allora la nostra storia si mescola continuamente nel tempo, che resiste fra ieri, oggi e domani.