Andrea Prencipe (Scholar and Author) and Tommaso Perazzo (Jazz Pianist)
will be in conversation with Claudio Pagliara on
Italo Calvino and Artificial Intelligence
Thursday, April 23 at 6:00 PM
ICI-NY – Conference Hall
How can Italo Calvino help us read the AI age without surrendering to either techno-utopia or techno-phobia? Il Metodo Calvino presents Calvino’s forward-looking thinking as a lens for understanding what AI is doing to the most “jealously human” qualities—judgement, attention, imagination. In a Calvino-like spirit – where meaning often emerges from tension and unexpected connections – the event takes the form of a live dialogue between a jazz pianist and the author, with music as a way of thinking in real time. Short musical passages punctuate the conversation, opening and closing themes, creating “pauses of meaning”, and making the encounter both intellectually clear and emotionally resonant—an invitation to listen, reflect, and join the discussion.
In a distinctly Calvino-esque spirit—where meaning often emerges from tension and unexpected connections—the event takes the form of a live three-way dialogue: the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, Claudio Pagliara, will read selected passages from Calvino’s work, while Andrea Prencipe, Professor of Organisation and Innovation of Luiss University in Rome, and Tommaso Perazzo, Jazz Pianist, will respond to them, the former with words, the latter with music.
Bio
Andrea Prencipe is Professor of Organisation and Innovation and former Rector of Luiss University in Rome. Author of numerous articles and books on innovation, he has built an international career across Europe, the UK, and the US. At Luiss University, he promoted an interdisciplinary vision of education that brought together the humanities, technology, and the social sciences. He is the author of a trilogy on Italo Calvino, in which he draws on Calvino’s thought to reflect on innovation, technology, and the cultural implications of artificial intelligence.
Tommaso Perazzo, born in 1996 in Angera, Italy, is a pianist, hammond organ player and composer.
He has played and collaborated with great musicians such as Buster Williams, Miguel Zénon, Lenny White, Wayne Escoffery, Gregory Hutchinson, Fabrizio Bosso, Flavio Boltro.
He currently lives in New York City, where he moved in 2019 after receiving a scholarship at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. He graduated in 2022, with a Master of Jazz piano.
With his bands and as a sideman he has performed at various festivals and clubs in Europe, including Umbria Jazz and Torino Jazz Festival in Italy, Guimarães Jazz in Portugal and Bimhuis in Amsterdam. In the US he has played at renowned American venues such as Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Mezzrow, Zinc Bar in New York City and Blues Alley in Washington.