There’s much about music this week as festivals and performances fill fascinating spaces all over Florence and surroundings. Here’s your best events of the week line-up for July 21-28.
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Here’s our round-up for July 21-28
There’s much about music this week as festivals and performances fill fascinating spaces all over Florence and surroundings. Here’s your best events of the week line-up for July 21-28.
23 July 2022 - 31 July 2022
The 23rd edition of the international festival sets up in Florence, Rome and Arezzo for the big brass affair directed by maestro Luca Benucci, first horn player of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. This year’s edition is titled The Secret Craft of the Musical Artwork: from Body and Mind to Heart, and is in tribute to Antonio Canova on the 200th anniversary of his death. Masterclasses, concerts and an international competition make up the programme, with top class musicians bringing the best of brass.
The 34th edition of the remarkable music fest commences in Florence’s Teatro Verdi at 7pm on July 21. Orchestra della Toscana, conducted by Paul Watkins, will perform with pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, violinist James Ehnes, and flautist Emmanuel Pahud. The programme includes works by Mozart, Francis Poulenc and Tchaikovsky, with tickets costing 15 euro (purchasable up until one hour prior to the concert). The rest of the encounters take place in and around Siena with concerts on July 23, 25, 27, 28 and 29. The festival was formed by cellist Antonio Lysy and his mother Benedetta Origo in memory of Antonio Origo and his wife Iris, the well-known Anglo-American writer.
The Joven Orquesta de Cuenca perform a fascinating repertoire that varies from Bach to Drake’s Fortune, taking place at 8.30pm on July 22 in piazza della Signoria. Playing as part of the Florence Youth Festival, the 70 young musicians from Castile-La Mancha in Spain will be conducted by the composer and arranger Manuel Murgui, with Charles Gounod’s Ave Maria, Antonio Vivaldi, Karl Jenkin’s Palladio, Bernstein’s West Side Story, and a Cole Porter Medley, finished off with the Uncharted Theme by Greg Edmonson from the soundtrack for the Drake’s Fortune videogame for Play Station 3. Free admission.
Florence Folks Festival is an urban folk fest formed to spread love for the city, territory and local community. The universal languages of music, food and fun bring together local, national and international artists and audiences, with a selection of local food and wine, a crafts market, book presentations and workshops for children alongside the performances.
The arthouse cinema screening series returns to Museo Novecento, with showings of films, documentaries and deep dives into artists’ lives, in collaboration with Spazio Alfieri and M.Arte. Running from July 20 to September 6, films will be shown at 9.30pm with a fascinating programme that features a tribute to Pasolini and Ascanio Celestini. With seats to accommodate 130 viewers, the historic Spedale delle Leopoldine in piazza Santa Maria Novella is the spectacular setting for the unmissable screenings. Admission costs 8 euro, 6 euro reduced for Unicoop members. Subscription of 25 euro for 5 screenings.
Graphic Knits organizes a free Knit Club every Wednesday from 6-9pm at via Guelfa 114, Hailey Hodge’s art studio. All languages and levels welcome, with majority speaking Italian or English. Bring a snack or drink, maximum 20 people, message @artisthaileyhodge to reserve.
Villa Bell’Aria in Sant’Angelo in Colle is a magnificent example of late 16th century architecture, and is home to a summer festival featuring music from around the same age. Held in the courtyard of the villa (where, on a calm night, one can hear a pin drop), the Argiano Baroque Music Festival transports attendees to another era with evenings dedicated to the performance of music by great Italian composers such as Antonio Vivaldi and Claudio Monteverdi by top musicians on the international scene.The Argiano Baroque Music Festival has four concert dates this year: July 21 and 23, August 19 and 26. From 7pm, there will be an aperitivo with Argiano wines and Champagne from the independent house Thiénot, included for all concert guests. Concerts start at 8pm and last approximately 1 hour. Argiano is open for tours at 6pm on concert days (available to book on the festival webpage) and at other times upon request, email: enoteca@argiano.net. Guests can also stay on the property at Argiano Dimore.
Students of the Masters in Management of Entertainment Events at Palazzo Spinelli have organized an event titled LunƏ NuovƏ – Nostalgia dell’interezza, taking place from 7.30pm on July 22 at Serre Torrigiani, focusing on the theme of gender fluidity. Starting with Aristophanes’ reflection on art of the past, as told by Plato, the multidisciplinary event includes a performative exhibition of clothes inspired by a gender fluid aesthetic, in collaboration with two young fashion designers from Polimoda, Nynke Moens and Taiga Sato. This will be followed by a performative reading by a group of actors from the I Nuovi association, inspired by the myth of Aristophanes, in a contemporary key. Music will be by DJ Katia Giuliani, with free admission.
More than 400 shots from the 80s cover music, style, fashion, rebellion and identity through two series of images collected together for the first time. The black and white series was started in Rome in 1982, with those in colour taken in Florence three years later at the Luisa Via Roma boutique that have never before been exhibited. The show at the Marino Marini Museum is curated by Matteo Di Castro and Bruno Casini, with 10 euro entry, 6 euro reduced. Free entry on the first Sunday of the month.
Classical music returns to the medieval village of Lucignano in Valdichiana with the Lucignano Music Festival for the second edition of the festival. Organized by Quinta Season APS and under the artistic director Irene Abrigo, this year’s programme is titled Fables, transporting audiences into the world of fantasy, beauty and childhood memories, with music by the likes of Schubert and Schumann