English 
French As part of the podcast series, “ArtsAbly in Conversation,” Diane Kolin interviewed Riccardo Baldini, a pianist, innovator, and entrepreneur living in Edmonton in Canada.
This post presents the resources that Riccardo Baldini mentioned during the conversation. The episode will be published soon.
Riccardo Baldini
Riccardo Baldini is a pianist, innovator, and entrepreneur pioneering accessibility in music with Resonate Adaptive, a mouth-operated damper pedal system that enables pianists without lower limb function to fully control the instrument. Prior to his injury, Riccardo trained as a classical pianist and holds a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from the G. Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro in Italy. Now a T6 paraplegic, having lost leg function in 2019, he has spent the last five years developing Resonate to reclaim his ability to perform and advance inclusive design. His journey was featured in the CBC docuseries PUSH and AMI’s Mind Your Own Business, showcasing the impact of his innovation. Beyond music, Riccardo is an advocate for accessibility and entrepreneurship, using his platform to challenge perceptions of disability and drive change in inclusive technology.
Visit Riccardo Baldini’s website
Resonate Adaptive
Resonate makes it possible for disabled individuals to press the damper pedal without the need for lower limb function. For a person with limited lower limb function who cannot access the piano pedals, playing the piano as it was intended becomes impossible. Since 80% of all music for the piano requires the use of the damper pedal, everyone who wants to play should be able to access this feature, regardless of lower limb mobility. Resonate removes this barrier through the use of a mouth splinter.
Visit Resonate Adaptive’s website
Strathcona Microgreens
Located in Old Strathcona, their microgreens are produced right in the heart of the city of Edmonton and delivered to local restaurants and private homes. Consequently, transport costs and CO2 emissions are greatly reduced. Strathcona Microgreens uses vertical farming techniques, which promote the creation of a sustainable urban environment. This farming method minimizes water usage, doesn’t need any chemical or pesticide and improves biodiversity by not causing land surface disturbances (e.g. forest fragmentation, monoculture). They exclusively use highly efficient LED lighting to consume the least amount of power per unit of light emitted.
Visit Strathcona Microgreens’ website
PUSH (CBC)
Streamed on CBC Gem, PUSH is a Canadian television documentary series, which premiered on February 24, 2023. The series profiles the “Wheelie Peeps”, an unlikely group of friends and wheelchair users in Edmonton, Alberta, bonded by their shared experience of navigating life on wheels. Two seasons have been released.
Mind Your Own Business (AMI TV)
Hosted by entrepreneur Kevin Shaw, who is blind, each episode of Mind Your Own Business takes viewers into the life of a business owner in the disability community as they share their journey of how they came to run their own company and to take their businesses to the next level.
Watch Riccardo Baldini on Mind Your Own Business on AMI TV
Watch other episodes of Mind Your Own Business
Krystian Zimerman
Krystian Zimerman is a Polish concert pianist, conductor and pedagogue who has been described as one of the greatest pianists of his generation. In 1975, he won the IX International Chopin Piano Competition. Following the success at the Chopin Piano Competition, he began his collaboration with the Berlin Philharmonic and has since performed with leading orchestras around the world as well as many prominent conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and Simon Rattle. He is especially known for his performances of compositions by Mozart, Chopin, Brahms and Beethoven.
Learn more about Krystian Zimerman
Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich is an Argentine classical concert pianist. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of eight before receiving further piano training in Europe. At an early age, she won several competitions, including the VII International Chopin Piano Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni Competition and has since recorded numerous albums and performed with leading orchestras worldwide. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time.
Learn more about Martha Argerich
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was an Italian classical pianist. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. According to The New York Times, he was perhaps the most reclusive, enigmatic and obsessive among the handful of the world’s legendary pianists.
Learn more about Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Maurizio Pollini
Maurizio Pollini was an Italian pianist and conductor. He was known for performances of Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, and the Second Viennese School, among others. He championed works by contemporary composers, including Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Benjamin, Roberto Carnevale, Gianluca Cascioli and Bruno Maderna. Several compositions were written for him, including Luigi Nono’s … sofferte onde serene …, Giacomo Manzoni’s Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse, and Salvatore Sciarrino’s Fifth Sonata. As a conductor he was instrumental in the Rossini revival at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, conducting La donna del lago from a new critical edition in 1981. He also conducted from the keyboard.