{:en}The City of Loano National Award for Italian Traditional Music, the main event in Italy for folk music and its contemporary declinations, and the only award dedicated to Italian traditional music, now in its fourteenth edition, is confirmed again for 2018.
The Prize (and the festival) will return to Loano at the end of July. The program is being finalized, and the organization is, as always, by Compagnia dei Curiosi, with the collaboration and support of the Tourism and Culture Department of the City of Loano and Fondazione A. De Mari.
The first novelty in 2018 concerns the change in artistic direction: John Vignola, artistic director since the first edition and among the creators of the Loano Prize, is succeeded by Jacopo Tomatis, a young musicologist and journalist who has long been a friend and consultant to the Loano Prize.
The Compagnia dei Curiosi would like to thank John Vignola for contributing to the birth and growth of the Prize, which has developed as a laboratory for meeting and networking with major Italian cultural realities involved in music research, production and information. John's contribution was decisive, from both a human and professional point of view, in weaving these networks and consolidating them over the years, and his contribution remains solid in the history of this project.
“The City of Loano National Award for Italian Traditional Music is a unique event in our country's music scene,‘ recalls Loano Mayor Luigi Pignocca, ’In the last week of July, our city will be transformed into a large stage on which artists and guests of the highest level as well as the best ”products' of our country's traditional music will find space. An unmissable moment for anyone who loves music and especially Italian music, an opportunity to discover and rediscover the best and newest performers of a genre that does not always find the space it deserves and yet represents one of the most important Italian treasures.".
“This year's edition opens with two new features,‘ adds Tourism, Culture and Sports Councillor Remo Zaccaria, ’The first is the change in artistic direction, from John Vignola to Jacopo Tomatis. To John goes our heartfelt thanks for making this event what it is today. To Jacopo our ”good luck' for this adventure: we are sure that he will contribute to the further growth of the Prize. The second novelty is the new prize reserved for the best young musicians, a new category that aims to exalt the new talents of Italian music. With this new category, the City of Loano Prize not only confirms itself as a leading showcase for our country's young musicians, but also and above all aims to be a springboard for emerging artists.".
With new artistic director Jacopo Tomatis, a working group consisting of music journalists Ciro De Rosa, Annalisa Scarsellini and Enrico de Angelis will collaborate, as well as the organization of the Company of the Curious.
The choice of a young scholar (born in 1984) as artistic director is particularly significant for a Prize dedicated to traditional music, confirms Loano's vocation as a “permanent laboratory” and reaffirms the Compagnia dei Curiosi's desire to pursue a discourse on Italian folk musics that looks to new generations of musicians and musical practitioners, able to grow and contribute to the future paths of “tradition.”.
As the first act of this new course, the Loano Award decides to introduce - alongside the usual Best Record of the Year Award - a Loano Youth Award, reserved for the best first or second work by a musician under 35.
Jacopo Tomatis (1984) is a professor of Popular Music at DAMS in Turin. He has published articles and essays on Italian song and folk, in Italian, English and French. Since 2008 he has been editor of the “giornale della musica,” for which he edits the sections devoted to folk and world music.
The City of Loano National Prize for Italian Traditional Music was created with the intention of promoting and enhancing contemporary production of traditional music with Italian roots. The prize focuses attention on musical proposals that interweave research, recovery and valorization of the oldest and most traditional musical culture-that is, that which was a reason for aggregation in religious or other festivals-with the new interpretation of popular music-that is, that which has undergone ethnic contamination and the influence of new instrumental sounds. The Loano Prize is proposed as an opportunity to explore these issues and to propose a comparison between the many musical experiences and productions of the moment. It is a permanent laboratory that records what is happening in the contemporary production of Italian popular music. Each year it awards a Best Album Award (given by a large jury of specialized journalists), a Career Award and a Cultural Reality Award (given by the organization).{:}
