Margherita Torretta is an Italian internationally renowned solo pianist. She lives in London and performs all around the world. However, before becoming her career, the piano has been her salvation. Margherita’s is a story of rebirth through music. A story that inspired Rimmel, the novel she wrote with Anna Codega for Pendragon, recently published in Italy. A rebirth that, just like the phoenix rising from its ashes, passed through flames.
At the age of eighteen Margherita was a promising classical dancer. She then lived with her family in Bosnasco, a small town in the province of Pavia. And it was there, in her house, that one night a fire broke out. Margherita woke up in hospital in Parma, with second and third-degree burns all over her body. Yet, she had survived.
After months in hospital and several surgeries, Margherita eventually went back home. She weighed 35 kilos, had to wear special pantyhose with silicone pads and could no longer dance. She had lost all her muscle tone and her body, covered in scars, was no longer good for the stage. She didn’t recognise herself anymore. But she didn’t give up and found a refuge in music, her great passion. She started playing the piano, enrolled in conservatory and graduated.
That was the birth of pianist Margherita Torretta, who gradually became an international artist. Music also helped her to rediscover self-esteem, to accept and love her body despite the scars. Or, instead, to love her scars. So much that she even posed for photographer Sophie Mayanne’s project Behind the scars.
