Manuel Granatiero lives between The Hague in Holland and Rome.
He is part of some important early music ensembles both as soloist and as principal flutist, such as Gli Incogniti and Les Talens Lyriques, just to name a few.
He founded the Accademia Ottoboni, which won the Diapason d'Or as best recording of 2015 for a Boccherini CD, and just released a CD of flute sonatas by C.P.E.Bach, published by Arcana.
He teaches historical flutes in the conservatories of Cesena, Brescia and Vicenza and is regularly invited to teach at the international summer masterclasses of “Paesaggi Musicali” in Tuscany.

www.facebook.com/manuel.granatiero​
The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?
The first thing I do is to connect and listen to my body. I observe how the head is positioned in relation to the neck and shoulders, the shoulders to the hips, the hips to the legs, the legs to the soles of the feet, the feet to the ground, and I try not only to feel the individual parts but also to observe the body as a whole. Then, keeping this look as awake as possible, I bring the flute to my mouth and begin to play. Usually I start with D-E-F-G-A of the second octave.​
Any recurring piece to play every day, and why?​
It really depends on the flute I'm playing. It comes naturally to me to associate the most representative pieces with the flute on which I have to study on a certain day.
If I play a J.H. Rotthenburg, for example, I usually start by playing something by Bach senior  (JS) or some fantasy by Telemann, if I play a Quantz, the solo by Bach junior (CPE), if I play a one-key Grenser, Mozart concertos, if I play a keyed Grenser, Beethoven's Serenade, and if I play a Liebel, it's Schubert. Just to name a few flutes.
I'm not sure why, I think it's to enter the historical sensibility that the flute suggests to me.
Do you have a daily routine?​
Not with the flute, but I practice Yoga every day. I believe that every professional instrumentalist must work on his body, both to restore the muscular symmetry that the time spent on the instrument takes away from us, and to eliminate the harmful tensions that make the body less sensitive and less intelligent, leaving it prey to bad habits.
What kind of goals do you set for your practice?​
The only goal I have when I study is to make the body increasingly sensitive, flexible and intelligent, in order to be able to put into practice all the musical ideas that the pieces I have to play require of me. I realize that I never really stop trying to improve the sound quality. The beauty of the sound is a bit of an indicator of how well you are studying.
Do you do any systematic warm-up?
No, I don't believe much in mechanical repetition of technical exercises. The only thing I've been doing for years is a very simple G major scale. This helps me to put awareness in the body and to develop that part of the brain that observes the movements in a sort of detached way.
In fact, I believe that it is not repetition that makes a musician grow, but observation and listening. And knowing how to listen and observe yourself at the very moment you are busy playing is not easy at all.
I set the metronome increasing the speed from 88 to 120 and I play this scale once tied and once pronouncing a TI on each note. When I play it legato, I try to enjoy the feeling that the air gives me when it passes between one note and another, because in any case the legato remains one of the most beautiful gifts that life has given us. On the other hand, when I play it staccato, I try to educate the tongue (an infinitely complex muscle) to make pronunciation as clear as possible.
Do you have a specific structure for warm-up and practice sessions?​
Not really.
Any distinctive characteristics of baroque flute daily practice vs. modern flute or other instruments?​
The traverso is a particular instrument. It may seem very simple to play at the beginning (and this is the reason why it has always attracted a huge number of amateurs since the eighteenth century up to these days), but actually to reach a high technical level is very difficult. You need intense years of study and above all you need to be lucky enough to meet good teachers along your way.
I haven't played a modern flute in about 20 years, so I don't remember very well how to do it. I think the difference between the two tools can be compared in some way to that between driving on the highway and driving on a winding mountain path.
With traverso, each note is a world apart, both in terms of emission and intonation. In our daily practice, therefore, one must set out to discover these worlds and then bring them closer and make them coexist in an organic and natural way. And to do this, you need to find the resonances in your body, because the instrument is so light that it does not allow any kind of forcing or rigidity of the emission.
Eighteenth-century music is made up of details, of small gestures. So the work that is done every day even on a musical level is a work of chisel.
I prefer to spend a day on a few measures rather than reading pages and pages distractedly.
What are the key elements and unmissable points of daily practice?​
The key elements are aspiration and patience. For me it is essential to aspire to something beautiful with great intensity. Usually when I feel this feeling I easily get all the energy needed to understand the best way to give life to the musical page.
Of course this is a process that can take a long time, so it also takes a lot of patience.
How long and distributed should warm-up and practice be?
I believe Quantz said that an expert flutist must play at least an hour a day to keep fit, and that a student must study two to three hours a day. I agree with him.
In any case, I believe that perseverance in studying an instrument is always rewarded.
Any  specific tip to address difficult technical passages during daily practice?
On a mental and physical level, we must always have the feeling of playing an Adagio cantabile, even when we have to play cascades of sixteenth notes in a Prestissimo.
You have to be able to carry that feeling of extreme ease, extreme calm and control even when there are so many notes to play quickly. And to do this, I believe that the best way is to start studying slowly and increase the speed only when we are convinced that we can do it, that is, when we can manage all the difficulties of fingering, intonation, ornamentation, articulation, etc. without stress.
And then I recommend memorizing the pieces we have to play, to be able to study them without having to read. So that all that energy that is normally lost in reading and deciphering the score can be preserved and brought inside.
Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?
All relevant aids help us when we use them well.
For example, the tuner is better to listen to it by placing a fundamental note and playing an arpeggio above it, rather than looking at the hand that tells us if we are in tune.
An audio recorder is of great help especially when we play with some other musician, in order to have a more exact vision of the piece.
The mirror is also of great help if it doesn't bring all our attention only to the eyes, and therefore out of the body.
How do you advise your students as far as structuring their daily practice?
With my students, there are usually some technical exercises that we use to warm up together.
​Each student is different and, depending on the musical moment someone is experiencing, they need to focus and insist on certain points.
Therefore, it is almost impossible to give general rules.
The only thing I would recommend to everyone is perseverance in studying.
Do you suggest or teach a warm-up routine?
With my students, there are usually some technical exercises that we use to warm up together, as detailed below.
Are there any specific pieces particularly beneficial to be played regularly in daily practice?
The first number of Gammes and Arpeges by Moyse,
some arpeggios from Reichert’s Daily Exercises number 5, or a Gigue by Blavet again to study the legato in the arpeggios, and then the famous G major scale to study the movement of the tongue. These exercises are for everyone, and in doing them one can reach an ever-greater degree of depth. It is the study of a lifetime!