Polyphonies “in viva voce” 18

Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
plus NOV, 12 2014

“Migrant” choral singing in Venice

h. 4 : Seminar with Maurizio Agamennone, Giuseppina Casarin, Giovanni De Zorzi and Annunziata Veronese

h. 6.30 : Concert by the Voci dal Mondo choir (Venice)

The Polyphonies “in viva voce” project is one of the most important opportunities in Italy and
Europe to listen to and observe the choral singing practices eagerly preserved in many local traditions.

Since 1997 the singers and instrumentalists invited to Venice have come from various
geographical regions: the large Mediterranean islands, Caucasia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans
and various localities on the Italian peninsula. This has made it possible to hear particularly
exuberant complex, multiform male and female choral singing. Such forms of singing have
often become lively markers of local identities that have become mobile and fragile, despite
being acknowledged by UNESCO protocols as part of the intangible heritage of humanity.

In the 2014 edition the “in viva voce” programme will pursue another objective. In many
European metropolitan areas with large-scale immigration, some musical practices have been
an effective means for dialogue, meetings, mutual knowledge, integration and solidarity. In the
city of Venice for some years now there has been an ongoing administrative, political and cultural
process that entrusts large-group choral singing with the objective and hope of contributing
to the social inclusion of people, families and cultural groups from various regions of the
world, who have found a possible – temporary or permanent – home in Venice.

The Voci dal mondo choir, directed by Guseppina Casarin, is a performing group setting in which people of different languages, cultures and religions or with other differences meet and “spend time together” by combining, mixing and merging contributions and partial musical ideas of multipleorigins in the experience of a large group, which on several occasions has truly enlivened the Venice soundscape, especially in peripheral areas. The political administrative commitment to fuelling this process has come from the ETAM (Animazione di Comunità e Territorio del Comune di Venezia), thanks to the efforts of Roberta Zanovello.

The seminar will be attended by Maurizio Agamennone, Guseppina Casarin, Giovanni De Zorzi, Annunziata Veronese; on the same day there will be a concert by Voci dal mondo choir, directed by Giuseppina Casarin.

Maurizio Agamennone (University of Florence)

Polyphonies “in viva voce” 18 has been organized in collaboration with ETAM – Animazione di Comunità e Territorio, Department of Social Policy (Venice City Council).

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