Birth of Eros
In summer 2024, then 16-year old Ettore Buzzini was selected to be a finalist in what is considered the most elite competition in the bluegrass genre--the Fresh Grass Festival banjo contest. For this contest, each contestant must present a “classic” tune and and an original tune. Ettore used this opportunity to elaborate a musical concept on banjo which he had been working on for quite some time. On September 21,2024, Ettore presented the classic tune “Dear Old Dixie” and his original piece. This original composition, called “The Birth of Eros”, signaled a new, more complex direction for a traditional bluegrass instrument, inspired by his love of classical music and his experience with a symphonic band at his high school. Ettore explains the composition as a “programmatic” tune much like a short cinematic soundtrack. In it, the listener is falling downward through a dark, purgatory-like tunnel until coming upon a bright light. The blinding bright light is emanating from an egg, from which Love, or Eros, is born. The listener is an observer to the birth of love out of the darkness, and then must continue along the path of purgatory.
Ettore was announced winner of of the Fresh Grass banjo competition 2024 and awarded a Deering Sierra banjo. But the journey of Birth of Eros didn't stop there. While Ettore had been preparing for Fresh Grass competition, he realized that there was more potential to his competition and began working with his high school band director, Joshua Stevenson, to develop the piece as a symphonic band piece. Under Stevenson's direction, Ettore will debut The Birth of Eros as a mini-symphony and will direct his high school peers in a band performance of the piece in spring 2025.