Photos by Maurizio Martorana

Paolo Zanarella is a contemporary classical music composer, who loves improvisation and is on the constant look out for new forms of expression, such as hovering with his baby grand piano 50 feet (15 metres) above the ground at the Sanremo Casino.

His outstanding, poetic performance of the “pianista fuori posto” (out-of-place pianist) was organized to celebrate the up-coming Sanremo Music Festival. Zanarella is not new to performing in unusual places and this one-night-only show took place in front of the building’s façade.

To illuminate the Paduan pianist’s mid-air show, the lighting designer, Gian Marco Maccario from Pico Service, mainly used Clay Paky lights.

Eight versatile hybrid Mythos lights and twelve Glow Ups met all the production team’s requests: three Mythos units illuminated the artist, seated at his piano, with the intensity and sharpness of their light beams. By using the CTO filters to set a 3200 Kelvin white light, the Italian RAI TV technicians had an easy time shooting videos.

Moreover the production team asked the lighting designer to illuminate the Casino entrance and façade with the colours of the Italian flag.

Three Mythos units were used to project a dynamic gobo image onto the beautiful façade of the Sanremo gambling house, while the other two helped form the colours of the Italian flag together with the Glow Ups.

GlowUPs are battery operated, portable, smart dynamic lights. They were arranged freely at the foot of the Casino towers and main entrance to reinforce the final colour effect.

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