Following today’s exciting news about the expansion of Diapason’s creative team, here is an interview with Alessandro Schiavi and Paolo Arturo Bandini Tezzon discussing the fusion of two creative and proudly Italian minds—and how this will shape the future of the iconic Italian loudspeaker manufacturer.
Such a marriage of creative minds rarely happens, but you seem to fuse two powerful, creative forces. How so?
Alessandro: If I look at the history of high fidelity, in fact, I can see that – in several cases – companies are built around a single individual, a designer, a genius, a mind that originates all projects. There are also other cases in which companies have based themselves on a different foundation: a strong collaboration between two or more people aimed at achieving extremely ambitious goals. Personally, I have always looked for an excellent working team throughout the life of Diapason and having met Paolo immediately made me imagine the enormous potential of developing acoustic projects together. It is an almost explosive involvement that, added to the other members of the team, gives me the basis to achieve the ambitious goals that Diapason is looking for: empowering its role of main actor of the Italian electro-acoustic industry.
Paolo: I think that, once you reach a certain level of experience and maturity, the value of things like trust, ethic, cooperation and sharing a view become extremely high. While growing older, you also start to clearly and instantly recognize – among people – the ones who share the same approach to things and the same vision of life. When Alessandro and myself got to know each other, we instantly “clicked”, sharing a feeling about all the things that really matters. Then it was natural and easy to join and start working together, because the foundation, the corner stone, so to say, was already there.
How important is Diapason’s connection to the tradition of Italian craftsmanship, and what does it truly reflect?
Alessandro: My generation grew up during an extremely prosperous era, full of artisan companies that were able to shape the value of “Made in Italy” as we know it today. Since I was a child I was lucky enough to learn from the masters of that era (craftsmen in different fields): people of amazing creativity, great talents in finding solutions, capable to give birth to exciting creations, thanks to width of their knowledge. From this point of view Brescia, my hometown, represents a great example: an extremely strong production area. When I was a kid I was following my father dealing with some of these production companies, breathing their culture, learning a lot.
From that times to the production of the first Diapason speakers, it was all about pure passion for music, grown during my years at the music conservatory. I am sure that the atmosphere I grew up with shaped Diapason’s essence: passion and authentic Italian artisan tradition. It was true back in 1987, it is still true today: almost forty years after its birth, these are the elements that allows Diapason to be absolutely faithful to itself.
Paolo: I wouldn’t even talk about a “connection”, I rather would talk about a “membership”, strictly a belonging, instead. Clearly, when it comes to Diapason and the tradition of Italian craftmanship, this membership reflects an attitude, an approach which is made of authentic passion, of a deep care and attention to details. More than everything, it is about creations designed and handcrafted by humans to convey human emotions to other humans, it is not certainly about products designed by machines for “machines”. It is about countless hours spent fine tuning a speaker so that itcan bring an emotion to the listener: this is something that no simulation software or IA would ever be able to provide.
In times when some attempt to eradicate heritage, Diapason, on the contrary, seems determined to maintain a laser focus on its roots.
Alessandro: Over years and years spent in various project’s development, Diapason had always remained very close to its origins. That’s its nature! For instance, one thing that excites me a lot is discovering a large crowd of enthusiasts who keep sending us Diapason speakers built in the late 80s and early 90s for restoration: this wouldn’t have been possible if Diapason had not remained absolutely faithful to itself, always recognizable. To me this has always been an added value. Technical and acoustic evolution, of course, but always in coherence with the initial intuitions! This attitude testifyies the authentic passion for an idea, for a lasting vision.
Paolo: This is weird to me. I mean, I don’t honestly understand why some people or some companies would attempt to eradicate their own heritage, really, I don’t. Having roots, an history and a path always appears like an added value to me. Then surely – as time goes by – things can change, evolve and you might end up being quite different than what you were used to be: this is normal, evolution and improvement (hopefully) are part of life! But, at the same time, being authentic is about reaffirming your identity, no matter the various incarnations: so why would you remove your history and your path? Makes no sense to me.