Tongue-twister of the day
NewsAn artists agency informs us that its violinist Giovanni Guzzo is now Professor in Graz.
Try saying that fast.
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As a child he studied with Gonzales (Luis Miguel Gonzales), and he plays a 1751 Gennaro Gagliano violin.
It does not become us to make fun of people’s names used in other countries. Not bothering how to pronounce those names properly, or commenting on how difficult it is, could be part of the broader context of racist thinking.
zelda you are right. there was a
jazz musician in america.
Sharky Bonano. nothing to be
ashamed of. that was his name.
Who made fun?
Giovanni was one of the early recipients of the LSO String scheme. Years later he led the LSO under Rattle. Bravo.
While I do agree with the above comments about his accomplishments and racism in general, it is still a guilty pleasure to refer to him as der grazer Guzzo.
Mr Guzzo’s name is not especially difficult to pronuntiate or malicious associations in other languages. However, there are names that can be very inconvenient in other languages, like when trombonist Jimmy Knepper played in Denmark in the late 50’s as part of Charles Mingus’ group. A radio talker said “Yes, folks, that’s his real name!”