Umbrian Music Festival 2022, the Mother of Umbrian Festivals is back

Umbrian Music Festival 2022, the Mother of Umbrian Festivals is back

An edition that marks the return to normality, with great music once again the protagonist in the most evocative places of the region: it will be held from 2 to 17 September 2022, in Perugia and in other 6 municipalities of Umbria (Montegabbione, San Gemini, Norcia , Torgiano, Scheggino and Montefalco), the 77th edition of the Sagra Musicale Umbra, the oldest Umbrian festival, this year with the title MADRI, theme – common thread that will be explored through concerts and theatrical performances, with great Italian artists and international, the usual attention to the younger generations and a special space dedicated to the most important choirs of our region. “A magnificent festival – began Anna Calabro, president of the Perugia Musica Classica Onlus Foundation – which will offer music for all tastes and for all ages, returning to traditional places, such as churches and cloisters, but also less traditional ones, such as prisons and retirement homes “. Without forgetting “the interest in young people”, which took shape by proposing to the students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia a competition for the poster, with a result, the winning proposal, by Giovanni Zicci, “surprising in terms of quality art and innovation “.

“This 77th edition – said Leonardo Varasano, councilor for culture of the Municipality of Perugia – is that of a return to normality, but also of a relaunch. The first and oldest Umbrian festival combines multiple aspects that enhance each other, such as the beauty of music made by great performers and the beauty of the places where music is welcomed “. To bring the greetings of the regional councilor for culture, Paola Agabiti, was the regional director of the resources, programming, tourism and culture sector, Luigi Rossetti, who remarked “the ability of the institutions to be alongside a great event” which, among other things, reaffirms “the theme of Umbria” through an original cultural proposal and a “great national event” worthy of promotion. Daniele Moretti, member of the steering committee of the Perugia Foundation, present at the press conference with the general manager Fabrizio Stazi, recalled the support ensured by the Foundation over the years, confirming the validity of a program, which, again this year, is ” suitable for a heterogeneous audience of great interest “.

Word then to Enrico Bronzi, artistic director of the Umbrian Music Festival, who illustrated the program starting from the “symbolism of the Mother, which refers to the fertility of the earth and affirms itself as a mediator with the divine, since it provides substance to spiritual ideas. So it was in the ancient world and also in the Christian conception, where Mary is the instrument of the incarnation of the Sacred. The Umbrian Music Festival presents a tribute to mothers, in a dialogue between various musical forms of popular devotion and art music and with testimonies from the repertoire of the past three centuries “.

The program

It starts on Friday 2 September, at 9 pm, in the Basilica of San Pietro in Perugia, with the concert of the Cremona Antiqua Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Antonio Greco (with Giorgia Sorichetti and Cristina Fanelli, soprano, Kristian Adam, tenor, Roberto Rilievi, tenor , Enrico Torre, countertenor, Alessandro Ravasio and Riccardo Dernini, bass). Closing concert on Saturday 17 September, at 9 pm at the Church of S. Filippo Neri in Perugia, with the Perugia Chamber Orchestra conducted by Enrico Bronzi, with Elisabeth Breuer, soprano, Anna Lucia Richter, mezzo soprano, and Fabio Ciofini, organ. With the officialization of the program, it is already possible to buy tickets in advance online (www.perugiamusicaclassica.com – the counter in Piazza del Circo will be activated at the end of August).

Immediately big names, with the recital by Mariangela Gualtieri, accompanied by the Quartetto Noûs with Leonardo Ramadori on percussion, on Saturday 3 September at 6 pm at the Villa di Sant’Egidio, in Perugia. On Monday 5 September, at 9 pm in the Perugian Cloister of San Pietro, Giorgio Battistelli will conduct his “Experimentum Mundi”, a work of imaginative music for an actor, five natural voices of women, sixteen artisans and a percussionist from Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie and Jean Le Rond D’Alembert, with Beppe Servillo, narrator, and Nicola Raffone, on percussion.

Places of Music

This 77th edition also confirms the authentically regional nature of the Umbrian Music Festival. In addition to the Perugia events, in fact, the event will animate particularly fascinating and evocative places in the area. Like the famous Scarzuola, in Montegabbione, which on Sunday 4 September at 6 pm will host the concert dedicated to the soul masonic by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with the Perugia Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Enrico Bronzi, the Choir of the Siena Cathedral “Guido Chigi Saracini”, Alina Wunderlin, soprano, Matthew Swensen, tenor, and Lorenzo Donati, Master of the choir.
Then stop in Scheggino (Thursday 8 September at 9 pm with the trio Metamorphosi), San Gemini (Friday 9 September at 9 pm with Ema Nikolovska, mezzo-soprano and Kunal Lahiry, piano) and Torgiano (Tuesday 13 September at 9 pm with the Quartetto Noûs and Tommaso Lonquich , clarinet).

“Music with a view”, combining exceptional locations, young talents and very large authors, also in the two concerts as part of the homonymous festival promoted by the AMUR Committee with Le Dimore del Quartetto and the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane, in the program of the Umbrian Music Festival, Saturday 10 September at 6 pm at the Villa Valvitiano in Perugia with the Quartet Ruisi, and Sunday 11 September, at 12 at the Museum of San Francesco in Montefalco, with the Venethos Ensemble together with Cristina Vidoni on the cello.

Chorally. The review dedicated to the Umbrian Choirs

Great protagonists of this year’s Umbrian Music Festival will be the choirs, with particular attention to the most important Umbrian realities to which the review of 6 “Coralmente” concerts will be dedicated. Appointment at the Church of Sant’Ercolano in Perugia: Monday 5 September, at 6 pm, with the Libercantus Choir directed by Vladimiro Vagnetti; Tuesday 6, at 9 pm, with Armoniosoincanto directed by Franco Radicchia; Friday 9, at 6 pm, with the S. Spirito Volumnia Choir directed by Francesco Ragni; Saturday 10 September, at 9 pm, with the Accademia degli Unison directed by Francesco Ragni; Monday 12, at 9 pm, with the Ensemble Coristi a Priori conducted by Carmen Cicconofri, with the participation of the Quartetto Ascanio; Friday 16 September, at 9 pm, with the Chorus of the University of Perugia directed by Marta Alunni Pini. The program is completed on Thursday 15 at 18 in the Aula Magna of the University for Foreigners, the concert of the Ha-Kol Choir – Jewish Choir of Rome, conducted by Alberto De Sanctis.

The Mediterranean and the journey into the cultures of the world

“Mother” is also the Mediterranean basin, cradle of peoples and immense living heritage of traditions and voices, at the center of the 2022 edition of the Crater Project, promoted by the Perugia Musica Classica ONLUS Foundation, which will end on the occasion of the Umbrian Music Festival with the concert “KALINIFTA – the sounds of the Mediterranean”, Wednesday 7 September at 6 pm in Piazza San Benedetto in Norcia (with the Perugia Chamber Orchestra, Gabriele Mirabassi, clarinet, Kyriacoula Constantinou, voice, and Enrico Bindocci, musical direction) .

The Perugian Tempio di S. Michele Arcangelo will host three concerts – Sunday 11 and Monday 12 at 18 and Thursday 15 at 21 – with, in order: the Trio Ay Amor (Songs of mystical and secular women in Al-Andalus), Filippo Gorini on the piano (Bach’s The Art of Fugue) and Cuncordu di Castelsardo, sacred songs of the Sardinian tradition and profane songs of the Corsican tradition.

Among the appointments to report, then, also the concert by Gaia Trionfera, violin, and Alexander Voronstov, piano (Tuesday 13 September at 6 pm at the Auditorium S. Cecilia in Perugia), the Ziganoff show, “From klezmer to jazz along the streets della Bessarabia “, with the participation of Igor Polesitsky, violin, and ethnomusicologist Renato Morelli, Wednesday 14 September at 6 pm in the Aula Magna of the University for Foreigners, and the conference-concert by Chiara Bertoglio on the (Blessed?) Virgin Mary , Friday 16 September at 6 pm at the Teatro della Sapienza in Perugia.

Solidarity and listening education, for the youngest and not only

There will also be events dedicated to solidarity and training this year. In the first case, the Wind Quintet of the Perugia Chamber Orchestra will perform a double concert for the guests of the Opere Pie Donini (at 10.30) and for the prisoners of the Capanne Penitentiary Complex (at 15).

For the little ones – in continuity with the constant commitment that the Perugia Classical Music Foundation ONLUS annually sees active in listening education – here is SMU FOR KIDS at the Botanical Garden of the Monumental Complex of S. Pietro, in Perugia, with the musical freely inspired by the tale of the Brothers Grimm I Musicanti di Bremen (Sunday 11 September, at 4 pm, with Giorgio Donati, actor and director, Simone Frondini, oboe, Gianni Maestrucci, Laura Mancini and Leonardo Ramadori, percussion) and the musical show Tan Tan Gram ( Saturday 17, at 16, with Francesca Breschi and Giulia Zeetti, direction, Stefano Olevano, horn, and Ayumi Makita, origamist).

Listening education for adults too – and at the same time enhancement of young musical talents – finally, with a new appointment in the successful series of conferences-concert DIRE LA MUSICA. In the name of Schubert, promoted by the Foundation in recent months: Thursday 15 September, at 12 at the Auditorium S. Cecilia in Perugia, starring Enrico Bronzi, cello and speaker, together with the String Quartet of the scholars of the “Premio Roscini-Padalino & Brunello and Federica Cucinelli Foundation 2021 ”Tommaso Santini, violin, Giulia Cellacchi, violin, Eleonora De Poi, viola, and Lara Biancalana, cello.

Umbrian Music Festival 2022, the Mother of Umbrian Festivals is back