Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino

Formed by writer Rina Durante in 1975, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (CGS) is regarded as Italy’s leading and longest-standing traditional music ensemble, hailing from the Salento, the heel of the Italian boot, in Puglia.

The tens of thousands who often congregate for this Lecce-based band’s concerts in Italy know: Bandleader, fiddler, and drummer Mauro Durante and company can make an audience shimmy with the energy of the ancient ritual of pizzica tarantata, said to cure the taranta spider’s bite with its frenzied trance dances. CGS shows are a life explosion: full of energy, passion, rhythm and mystery, they bring the audience from the past into modernity, and back.

Leadership of the ensemble was handed down to Durante by his acclaimed father, Daniele, in 2007. CGS has revitalized both the rousing and the introspective sides of Southern Italian song and dance. Durante continues to innovate and energize, bringing decades of experience playing with global artists (Ballake Sissoko, Ibrahim Maalouf, Piers Faccini), contemporary classical composers (Ludovico Einaudi), and pop mavericks (Stewart Copeland of The Police).

Critically acclaimed with 19 albums and countless live performances throughout USA, Canada, Europe and the Middle East, in 2010 CGS was awarded Best Italian World Music Group at Italy’s MEI confab.

Line up: Mauro Durante (voice, frame drums, violin), Alessia Tondo (voice, percussions), Giulio Bianco (Italian bagpipes, harmonica, recorders), Massimiliano Morabito (diatonic accordion), Emanuele Licci (voice, guitar, bouzouki), Giancarlo Paglialunga (voice, tamburrieddhu), Silvia Perrone (dance).

Alla Boara seeks to bring recognition and new life to Italy’s diverse history of regional folk music. With modern arrangements variously surprising, playful, mournful, tender, and bewitching, Alla Boara’s dynamic songs move audiences of all ethnic heritages to treasure their musical roots and consider historical songs’ contemporary cultural relevance.

Amanda Powell, soprano, has been praised as “the star of the evening” (Seen and Heard International, UK) and “charismatic and theatrically arresting” (San Francisco Chronicle). A versatile musician, she has toured internationally as a soloist in opera, oratorio, crossover-folk, and jazz. Her notable performances with GRAMMY-winning baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, include Sugarloaf Mountain, Oh Jerusalem, and L’Orfeo, A storyteller at heart, Amanda connects with her audiences through her unique style of invitation and expression. She is a fluent improvisor and has collaborated and studied with artists including Bobby McFerrin and Sheila Jordan. Amanda teaches voice and improvisation at Cleveland State University and is the Community Arts Liaison for the Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church.

Anthony Taddeo, endorsed by “Out of the Drawer Percussion” and “Byrne Cymbals” as a performing artist, is a percussionist, composer, and performer residing in Cleveland, Ohio. He has studied with world-renowned percussionist Jamey Haddad and at The New School’s School for Jazz and holds an MFA in composition from Youngstown State University. Featured on over 30 albums, Taddeo has toured North America and Europe at festivals such as Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Ciclo 1906 Jazz Fest in Spain, and Cleveland’s Tri-C Jazz Festival. His film score for Making Montgomery Clift recently debuted at the LA Film Festival. Currently, Taddeo leads and composes for his groups AlbaTrio and Alla Boara.

Dan Bruce has developed a unique and impressive musical voice on the guitar by embracing the influence of his heroes from the jazz tradition and retaining his own musical personality. Now a resident of Cleveland, Ohio after spending a decade as an important member of Chicago’s vibrant jazz scene, he is active throughout the United States as a performer, recording artist, composer and educator. Bruce has performed on more than forty albums as a sideman and has released four albums as a leader. In 2020 Dan received an Individual Excellence Award in Music Composition from the Ohio Arts Council.