Greek Italian Music from Apulia

Saturday, March 28 @ 8PM - Sage Hall Atrium @ Cornell

Admission: Free ($5 suggested donation)

Crossing Borders 2007 and CU Institute for European Studies Presents Greek Italian Music from Apulia March 28th at Sage Atrium

Crossing Borders Radio Concert Series (WVBR) teams with a special Cornell initiative to present Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, a performance of Greek-Italian music from the Apulia region of Italy. The March 28, 8 pm event is free and open to the public, with a suggested donation of $5 at the door, and will take place at the Sage Atrium on the Cornell campus. It is sponsored by The Italian Studies Program, Mediterranean Initiative of the Institute for European Studies, Music, S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, and the European Union Commission to the USA. The performance will also be broadcast on Crossing Borders, Saturday, April 14 on 93.5fm WVBR at 8pm.

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino has been since 1975 at the forefront of the revival of what is widely known as the tradition of tarantismo salentino, the music of the Apulia region of Italy, the homeland of a number of small communities who speak a distinctive Greco-Italian dialect and whose musical tradition is a fascinating and unique amalgam of Greek and Italian folk music. Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino's approach deviated from conventional trends at recovering and preserving the past and aimed more at infusing the tradition with new life and at prolonging its vitality into the present.

The band's leader, Daniele Durante, is an accomplished musician and a scholar in his own right, who has published a full-length study of the tradition entitled "Musical Score: History and Songs of the Popular Musical Tradition of Salentino". The musical style performed by the group is currently integral to the ritual ceremonies of the feast of San Rocco in Torrepaduli. The definitive recognition of the musical movement spearheaded by Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino achieved international recognition in 1997 with the organization of a series of concerts in August under the general names Grecia salentina (Greece of Salento).