Woman, voja and fronna... by UmbriaEnsemble & Lucilla Galeazzi wins the National Prize City of Loano for Italian Traditional Music, the most prestigious award for traditional music in Italy, given annually to the best musical production in the folk field by a jury of more than fifty specialized journalists and scholars. It wins the Youth Prize, awarded by the jury to the best album by a musician (or group) under 35, Blusanza Of Setak, aka Nicola Pomponi.
The 16th edition of the Prize originally scheduled for July 20-24 will unfortunately not be held. «Too complex to plan such an event in the current situation: we hope to make up for it later in 2020, at a better time. For the same reason,» the organizers continue, "we have suspended the awarding of the Lifetime Achievement and Cultural Reality Awards, waiting for the time when we can deliver them in person, and celebrate them in the right way.
«The City of Loano National Award for Traditional Italian Music,» Loano Mayor Luigi Pignocca and Tourism and Culture Councillor Remo Zaccaria recall, "is one of the leading musical events on the Italian scene. For the reasons we all know, unfortunately this year it will not be able to take place in its usual form. Therefore, the concerts, meetings with authors and musicians and moments of in-depth analysis that have always characterized this review for years will be missing. Despite this, the Prize will equally succeed in achieving its purpose, which is to promote and acquaint the general public (and not only fans) with great traditional Italian music, its performers and its best productions.".
Woman, voja and fronna... by UmbriaEnsemble & Lucilla Galeazzi is a project by Piero G. Arcangeli published later this year by Squilibri. A work of great balance and refinement, it features the Umbrian chamber music ensemble formed by Claudia Giottoli (flute and piccolo) Luca Ranieri (viola), Maria Cecilia Berioli (cello) and Leonora Baldelli (piano) together with the great voice of Lucilla Galeazzi, since the 1970s a profound and original interpreter of the music of Italian traditions (and of her native Umbria, in particular). An album born from an idea of ethnomusicologist and composer Piero G. Arcangeli, who in 1968 had dedicated his degree thesis to Umbrian folk songs collected in 1956 by Diego Carpitella and Tullio Seppilli, a fundamental research for the “rediscovery” of Italian folk music.
Those same melodies, transcribed and elaborated by Arcangeli, are now at the center of this disc, reimagined for “classical” instruments but without anything of the folkloric romanticism of the last century, and with the figure of the woman at the center, as the «“historical memory” of folk music repertoires in the Umbrian peasant civilization,» as Arcangeli himself states.
In second place, however, with the same number of preferences, were the following. Giovanna Marini sings Matteo Salvatore by Giovanna Marini (Note) and Trallalero levantìn By Orchestra Bailam and Canterini Genovesi (Felmay).
It is an original encounter between blues sounds and Abruzzi dialect Blusanza (self-production) by Setak, winner of the Youth Prize. A work far from the most commonly understood “traditional” music, but which tells of the need of a young musician «to synthesize all my musical and human experiences, the relationship with my land and my dialect, all the music I have come into contact with,» in the sign of an open and progressive idea of what “tradition” should be, in 2020.
On the other hand, the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Cultural Reality Award, given directly by the Loano Award organization, have not been awarded for the time being.
The City of Loano Prize for Italian Traditional Music was established sixteen years ago as a permanent workshop on folk music, and promotes and enhances contemporary production of traditional music with Italian roots through the involvement of artists, record labels, journalists and cultural workers. It is organized by the Compagnia dei Curiosi Association in collaboration with the Tourism and Culture Department of the City of Loano and with the contribution of the Fondazione A. De Mari. Artistic direction is by Jacopo Tomatis, with the collaboration of Ciro De Rosa, Enrico de Angelis and Annalisa Scarsellini.
The ranking of the Best Album Award 2019
1st place
Donna, voja e fronna... (Squilibri) - UmbriaEnsemble & Lucilla Galeazzi
2nd place
Giovanna Marini sings Matteo Salvatore (Note) - Giovanna Marini
Trallalero levantìn (Felmay) - Bailam Orchestra and Canterini Genovesi
4th place
Sfueâi (Artesuono) - Elsa Martin and Stefano Battaglia
5th place
Cummeddia (Urtovox) - Cesare Basile
In Taberna (Sound Materials) - Café Loti
7th place
Animantiga (OrangeHome Records) - Roberta Alloisio and Stéphane Casalta
8th place
Blusanza (self-production) - Setak
9th place
Journey to Italy. Singing Our Roots (Squilibri) - AdoRiza
Mistral (Visage) - Filippo Gambetta / Carmelo Russo / Sergio Caputo
The Award Jury
Maurizio Agamennone, Claudio Agostoni, Sergio Albertoni, Giovanni Alcaini, Ricky Barone, Marco Boccitto, Michele Bovi, Raffaello Carabini, Pietro Carfì, Giordano Casiraghi, Daniele Cestellini, Gianni Ciaccio, Valerio Corzani, Giandomenico Curi, Enrico de Angelis, Flaviano De Luca, Ciro De Rosa, Paolo Del Ry, Enrico Deregibus, Salvatore Esposito, Antonio Fanelli, Gerardo Ferrara, Massimo Ferro, Guido Festinese, Jonathan Giustini, Ezio Guaitamacchi, Federico Guglielmi, Marco La Viola, Felice Liperi, Marco Lutzu, Ignazio Macchiarella, Giorgio Maimone, Maurizio Marino, Tiziano Menduto, Giorgio Meneghetti, Gaetano Menna, Marco Miconi, Gianni Montano, Anna Nacci, Alessandro Nobis, Giancarlo Nostrini, Rosario Pantaleo, Riccardo Piaggio, Massimo Pirotta, Piercarlo Poggio, Alessandro Portelli, Ezio Riberi, Alessandro Rosa, Vincenzo Santoro, Annalisa Scarsellini, Stefano Starace, Jacopo Tomatis, Federico Vacalebre, Gianluca Veltri, John Vignola, Antonio Vivaldi, Enrico Zagnagnoli, Paolo Zara, Giorgio Zito.
