The Kibbutz is a paradise for kids
Matti Caspi was born on November 30th, 1949, in Kibbutz Hanita. Sometimes, he says, he thinks back on Kibbutz Hanita and its peaceful atmosphere: "I had a very happy childhood in the Kibbutz. I used to enjoy my solitude in natural surroundings. I was very quite. In kindergarten, I used to spend hours sitting on the top of the dirty laundry hamper, banging away to the bit and singing. My childhood in the Kibbutz had been the loveliest in the whole world... The Kibbutz is a paradise for kids. To this day, I still consider myself a Kibbutz native, even after all these years.

Matti with the harmonica

Music was the only thing on my mind
At the age of 5.5, as he attended first grade, Matti began taking flute lessons and then mandolin, but once he had heard Samuel Gogol playing the Harmonica, he insisted on his parents getting him his own, having been convinced of his ability to play the Harmonica himself.
"I've been a bad student in school, I was odd, but a truth telling odd. I used to love laziness and everything about it made me feel good. My parents were always told: "He has the ability but not the will" and I told them that it was true, since music was the only thing on my mind. The truth is that no one has ever talked to me about my situation. They talked to my parents, the teacher, and the school psychologist, but not to me. It never bothered me that everyone thought I was a fool. Before I enlisted in the army, I thought of becoming a teacher of physical education. It appealed to me, back then, more than all those piano practice sessions.

Matti at his first piano concert Nahariya, 10 years old

Matti's father had fought on his behalf for the possession of a piano, and finally the other members of the kibbutz agreed to purchase a piano for Matti. Since the age of 10, for six years, Matti had taken piano lessons in the Nahariya conservatory. "I never liked piano practice. My father used to sit next to me to make sure that I practiced for a full hour each day. That is why I played half willingly and half coerced".
His piano teacher, Draggen, gave him an assignment at one time, to write his own musical arrangement to a written musical piece. Matti has made his first attempt and succeeded. Matti Caspi marks that same musical exercise as a turning point in his path, moving from theory to practice and being introduced to an entire realm. He was only 15 at the time.