Festival Musikaleidos 2023
Held between June and December 2023, the fifth edition of the Musikaleidos Festival featured a series of workshops and concerts distinguished by a high cultural and artistic level.
On Saturday, June 10, at Palazzo Siotto, a choral concert took place, performed by the Multi Unum choir and the guest choir Over Key (from Guspini), conducted by M° Federico Tuveri. The concert, titled “Musica a Palazzo” ranged from Renaissance polyphony to pieces from the Sardinian folk tradition.
On Wednesday, June 21, at the Il Ghetto Cultural Center in Cagliari, the choral concert “Solstizio d’estate” was held as part of the European Music Festival. The event featured performances by the Hic et Nunc, Multi Unum, and Terra Mea choirs, with much of the evening dedicated to the Sardinian-language repertoire.
On Saturday, June 24, at the premises of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired (UICI) in Cagliari, located at Via del Platano 27, the “Pomeriggio MateMusicale” took place, curated by professor and musician Sonia Cannas, Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Pavia, with a dissertation on Mathematical Music Theory. The event aimed to reveal the mathematical structures and properties underlying music and how these can inspire sophisticated compositional ideas. Throughout the presentation, the audience was actively involved in hands-on activities to experience the deep connection between these two disciplines.
On Sunday, June 25, under the shade of the beautiful ficus tree in the Public Gardens of Cagliari at Largo Dessì, a special event for children was held: the musical workshop “Note tra le foglie”. Around 40 children, divided into age groups from 0 to 8 years old, participated in the activities led by professor and music therapist Stefania Coccoda. Colorful ribbons, Orff instruments, and choreographic elements enriched the musical experiences of the little ones, who were vocally supported by the association’s choirs, Hic et Nunc and Multi Unum.
On Saturday, July 1, the concert “Omaggi d’estate” took place, opening with the Hic et Nunc choir and continuing with the Rossini Choir from Sassari, conducted by Maestra Clara Antoniciello, professor at the Sassari Conservatory and long-time organizer of the International Choral Music Festival “Nella città dei Gremi.”
From July 14 to 16, once again at the UICI headquarters in Cagliari, the masterclass in Renaissance and Baroque singing ‘Cantando vai’ was held, led by M° Federico Fiorio, a sopranist recently acclaimed on stages in Wrocław, Lausanne, Ravenna, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and Lucca. The masterclass aimed to deepen participants’ knowledge of 17th-century Italian vocal repertoire, focusing on works by major composers of the period such as Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, and Giulio Caccini. Open to singers of all levels, the workshop focused on both solo and ensemble pieces, which were performed at the conclusion of the masterclass with harpsichord accompaniment by Francesco Luigi Trivisano.
From September 22 to 24, at the UICI headquarters in Cagliari, the Hic et Nunc choir had the opportunity to participate in a workshop led by Maestra Petra Grassi, a distinguished figure in the national and international choral scene. She was the conductor of the Italian Youth Choir from 2020 to 2022 and has received numerous awards in the choral field. The repertoire explored in the masterclass “Oltre I confini,” which was also open to auditors, ranged from Renaissance polyphony by Monteverdi, De Wert, and Marenzio to contemporary compositions by Sentinelli and Lanaro, passing through Romantic and late-Romantic composers such as Mendelssohn and Parry. The masterclass concluded with a free-entry concert on Sunday evening at the Council Hall of Palazzo Regio in Cagliari.
On October 26 and 27, two concerts of the highest caliber featured an internationally renowned guest, the British ensemble Pro Victoria (Toby Ward, Elisabeth Paul, Fiona Fraser, Humphrey Thompson, David De Winter, Thomas Lowen, James Bramley). The ensemble won first prize at the 2020 London International Festival of Early Music Young Ensemble Competition and was nominated in both 2021 and 2022 among the six best ensembles worldwide by the Scottish label Gramophone. Their program focused on masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance.
Finally, on December 16, the Multi Unum and Hic et Nunc choirs paid tribute to the English composer William Byrd on the 400th anniversary of his death with a Christmas concert titled ‘Byrd 400 – A Renaissance Christmas,’ accompanied on the organ by M° Francesco Bianco.”