Of the more than 20 million Americans with Italian roots, approximately 87 percent are of Southern Italian origin.  This massive dispora from Italy’s south has made southern Italian cuisine, culture and traditions into familiar aspects of Italian American life; yet the wealth of classical music originating in the Italian south has remained a mystery, even to the millions whose ancestors left her shores.

This week’s guest, Alexis Zingale, hopes to change that with The Southern Italian Piano Project. The Southern Italian Piano Project seeks to change the narrative and ensure that the lesser-known composers from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, from both before and after the Risorgimento, attract the attention and respect given other composers in the canon of classical music.

Alexis shares how The Southern Italian Piano project got its start (spoiler alert: the Italian American Podcast might have been an early inspiration), how she worked to uncover and reintroduce composers from all over the south of Italy, which composers are part of her repertoire, including Francesco Durante and Alessandro Longo, and how her overall vision is to expand the canon of western art music to include as many underrepresented composers from the south of Italy as possible.

Alexis also shares a few samples of works she’s unearthed as she prepares to bring them to life in a series of live performances in the greater New York City area in the coming weeks, including:

·       Friday, May 6, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. at the Branford Free Evangelical Church, 231 Leetes Island Road, Branford, CT. Tickets are $20 for general admission or $10 for seniors at the door, or $20 via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/myevent?eid=312023991157

·       Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 2:00 p.m., at the Littlefield Recital Hall at Paier College, 84 Iranistan Ave, Bridgeport, CT. Tickets are $20 for general admission or $10 for seniors at the door, or $20 via Eventbrite:  https://www.eventbrite.com/myevent?eid=312040701137

·       Friday, May 20, 2022, 8:00 at p.m., at Mary Flagler Cary Hall at The Dimenna Center for Classical Music, 450 W 37th St., New York, NY. Tickets are $25 via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/myevent?eid=226211192767

If you’re a devotee of classical music, a proud daughter or son of the Two Sicilies, or just someone who loves to explore new and unique topics, you won’t want to miss this week’s episode!

This episode is sponsored by Mediaset Italia.