We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Antonio Mandosi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Antonio below.

Alright, Antonio thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success, in my understanding, is to be cherished and means a bit more than the very result itself. It is not just about big objectives but about the journey we go on and the smaller-scale victories achieved on our way. Success is an end result of many factors that include setting short-term goals, perseverance, determination, facing challenges with the courage to overcome those intimidating us.
Success for me is about reaching an achieved goal, be it big or small. For instance, during my musical experience, the most meaningful successes have not been about major concerts or the opportunity of playing with famous conductors. Those were merely fruits of other successes that meant far more to me: to have overcome the fear of auditioning, to be able to tell my inner message through playing in front of people who actually came there to listen, or just to earn one’s living by doing what I love most-to play, to travel, and to communicate with people from different countries and cultures.
Success for me is the possibility to face and overcome one’s limits, to live in tune with what we have passion for, finding the joy of every little accomplishment.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into music at 3 years old when my mother got this Mozart CD with a magazine. I started listening to it, and every time I heard it I was just struck by the beauty of that music-something very unique for a child of that age. Then, I started to get formally involved with music when I was 9 years old in the music school of my small town. At the age of 12, I started attending the Conservatory, and with time, I came to understand that I wanted to become a musician.
The kind of musical styles I was studying went from classical to contemporary, from baroque to jazz. It was a big fortune for me because I had become a versatile musician, a trumpeter. My greatest love is opera, although I usually work with opera houses like Teatro dell’Opera di Roma or Teatro San Carlo di Napoli. In any case, I am deeply fond of symphonic music!
One of the biggest childhood dreams ever was to be able to play with Maestro Ennio Morricone. That dream came true when, starting in 2015, I had the great chance of working for five years with him. It is such an honor to bring his magnificent music touring around the world, conducted by himself!
I was also the first European trumpet player to participate in a world tour of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, performing as the first trumpet! It was a magnificent experience that lasted nearly two years, taking me around the world to places like Munich, Paris, Dubai, Mumbai, Dublin, and more.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

For those who aspire to be musicians, resilience is a fundamental component, perhaps the most important one. It’s precisely thanks to resilience that we can make progress and stay on our feet despite the difficulties, anger, and frustration that affect us when, for example, a concert, an audition, or any other type of performance doesn’t go as planned.
I’ve often felt down after an audition didn’t go well. The last time this happened was about two years ago when I auditioned for a very important orchestra in Italy (I prefer not to specify the name). I walked out feeling very disappointed because my performance was, in my opinion, far below my capabilities, and I couldn’t understand how that was possible. I felt like I was regressing instead of moving forward, and the fear of facing auditions, just like when I was starting out, began to creep into my mind.
Reflecting on the fact that this was a fear I had already managed to overcome, I decided that the only way to fight it was to get back to work and prepare for the next audition. And so I did! The next audition happened to be for West Side Story, which went very well and allowed me to join the world tour.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Immediately after graduation, I started teaching. I was 21, very young and full of eagerness to get started. It seemed as though I had achieved my greatest fulfillment-finding a job in the field of music. I taught trumpet for 6 years in the Music High School in my city. Meanwhile, my musical activities started gaining more and more ground, where I felt that my attention was directed more that way rather than teaching. It did make me feel fuller, so in the end, I really had to leave my teaching career and fully dedicate myself to performing. I left behind the certain for the uncertain, though better for me. It was a braver act, out of the desire to be constantly challenged.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @antoniomandosi
• Facebook: Antonio Mandosi

Image Credits

Maurizio Sabatini