5:00 p.m.

Castelnovo ne’ Monti: Teatro Bismantova

Ensemble Kuraia (Spain)

Zuriñe Gerenabarrena: Eutsi- (2022)
Flute, violin, cello, and piano

Gabriel Erkoreka: Ametsak (2021)

Félix Ibarrondo: Volutas (2020)
Violin, cello, and piano

Mikel Chamizo: Di lí a sei giorni- (2023)
Flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

The Basque Country (Euskadi in the Basque language) is a model of sustainability and cultural, social, and economic transformation. The political, cultural, and urban planning initiatives carried out in its three capitals—Bilbao, San Sebastián, and Vitoria—have contributed to the transition from an industrial model to true service-oriented cities, where livability, culture, ecology, and sustainability are at the core of deep reflection.

The city of Vitoria was named Green Capital by the European Commission in 2012. San Sebastián was European Capital of Culture in 2016 and, in the same year, was also awarded Best European City by the prestigious Academy of Urbanism in Cambridge. Bilbao received the Best European City award at The Urbanism Awards 2018 and is also home to one of the European branches of the Guggenheim Museum.

Ensemble Kuraia offers a musical vision of these transformations through a program featuring composers from the three regions that make up Euskadi: Biscay, Gipuzkoa, and Álava. The performed works and meetings with the composers will offer a captivating musical landscape.

6:00 p.m. – Traditional

Castelnovo ne’ Monti: Teatro Bismantova

Icarus Ensemble (Italy)

From Waltzes, Polkas and Mazurkas of Emilia (arr. Fabio Codeluppi)

A cycle of compositions originating from the historic Concerto Cantoni, an orchestra devoted to dance music and composed mainly of wind instruments. It was founded by Giuseppe Cantoni in 1861 and represented the main contribution to the popular music of Emilia during that period.

Icarus presents a selection of Polkas, Waltzes, and Mazurkas transcribed and arranged for the ensemble by Fabio Codeluppi, one of the leading experts in this musical tradition.

7:00 p.m. – Experimental

Castelnovo ne’ Monti: Teatro Bismantova

Ensemble Istantanea (Italy)

The repertoire is drawn from the album “Virtual Landscape”, produced in collaboration with Da_sh Music // Editions Recordings & Digital Art, Madrid.

Program:
Salvatore Sciarrino – Due risvegli e il vento, for soprano, clarinets, violin, viola, and cello
Dimitri Sillato – Kòrdax, for viola, double bass, clarinet, and bass clarinet
Gioia Gurioli – Couloir de noir, for solo cello
Alfonso Santimone – Three Pills, for clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and double bass
Livia Malossi – Transhuman[ce], for violin, viola, and cello

Performers:
Istantanea Ensemble
Elisa Prosperi – soprano
Tommaso Ussardi – conductor

Istantanea is a meeting ground between the collective of musicians Istantanea Ensemble—founded in 2018 within the artistic environment of Mercato Sonato in Bologna—and the Tower Jazz Composers Orchestra, resident ensemble at the Torrione Jazz Club in Ferrara.

The creative synergy among musicians attentive to the intersections between contemporary experimental music, improvisation, and the evolving jazz tradition drives a profound exploration of the expressive possibilities of contemporary repertoire.

Istantanea emphasizes the creation and dissemination of original works rooted in a close dialogue between written music, improvisation as a real-time compositional language, electronics, and the visual and performing arts.

The soul of the collective thrives on the osmosis between composers and artists of diverse backgrounds, united in generating cross-disciplinary pathways within today’s artistic landscape—giving life to a protean archipelago of remarkable creative biodiversity.

9:00 p.m. – Spiritual

Santo Stefano di Pineto

María Eugenia Luc presents Figlia dell’Aria
(followed by a performance by Ensemble Kuraia)

It is the Italian language that María Eugenia Luc has chosen to use this week in her brief sound portraits. Italy was the country of her first steps as a musician abroad, when she continued her composition studies—it is a country and a language to which she feels deeply connected.

It is also in this language that she communicates with Mario Caroli, one of her dearest interpreters. The friendship and complicity the two musicians have shared for years are at the heart of Figlia dell’Aria (“Daughter of the Air”).

At the center of this piece lies air—breath (a self-evident theme when it comes to a wind instrument!)—but also the voice within the flute…

10:00 p.m. – Spiritual

Santo Stefano di Pineto

Nicola Cisternino: Grande Preghiera Tibetana per la Pace No. 14

Grande Preghiera Tibetana per la Pace No. 14
for Tibetan instrumentarium and three instrumental ensembles

The Grande Preghiera Tibetana per la Pace (Great Tibetan Prayer for Peace) consists of creating prayers on colored fabrics (silk or other light materials) in the five colors of the Tibetan mythological universe—Yellow, Green, Red, Turquoise, and White. These fabrics, made by the composer together with local inhabitants from various parts of the world, are inscribed with the Sanskrit mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, accompanied by the word Peace written in all the world’s languages.

At the conclusion of the festival’s first day, Nicola Cisternino’s Grande Preghiera di Bismantova, for Tibetan instrumentarium and three instrumental ensembles, will be performed. This work is the culmination of a long and patient process involving two hundred children from the local summer center, who participated both in creating the prayer fabrics and in experiencing the sounds of Tibetan instruments.

The event will engage not only the students but also local residents in preparing and realizing the colorful fabric prayers, forming part of a collective Great Tibetan Prayer for Peace. The concert will thus serve as a ritual of inauguration, with the active participation of all performers.