Biography
"a musical collective that travels convincing communal pathways between disparate cultures... The group's performance was a mesmerizing display of beyond-boundary music making." - Los Angeles Times The idea of creating an orchestra of twenty-some musicians from different countries and cultures grew out of a larger ambition: to prevent the early twentieth-century theatre, the Apollo Cinema, in Rome from becoming a Bingo hall and create an international laboratory of cinema, music and writing. Each musician brought to the orchestra their instrument and personal background of popular music, creating a fusion of cultures and traditions, old and new sounds, unknown instruments, memories, distant yet universal melodies, and voices from around the world. The orchestra was conceived by Mario Tronco of the Italian group Piccola Orchestra Avion Travel, and produced by Apollo 11. The Orchestra represents a unique experience, perhaps the first of its kind and, for this reason, something of which Italy can be proud. The project has already been welcomed enthusiastically by thousands of supporters and national and international media. University professors and researchers have also written about the orchestra, and have held conferences and meetings with students. The Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio represents a unique reality in Europe. This is the first Orchestra founded on the support of people trying to provide meaningful employment and residency for 25 professional musicians.
These musicians are living proof of the different ways in which music, cultures and religions work together and their on-stage performance delivers the powerful message of brotherhood and peace in a way that no declaration, rally or television debate could. But beyond its political and social value, our Orchestra has astounded many, if we can be so bold, for the musical and artistic levels it has reached.
The Orchestra hopes to promote interest in their plight and to integrate these varied musical repertoires that are often unknown to the Italian public and to improve the conditions of cultural and social isolation which the musicians often have to deal with.
In this sense, the Orchestra has obtained an important result: the creation over time of a continuous collaboration that guarantees a minimum salary for the musicians. Our long-term objective is to create a permanent multi-ethnic orchestra. The Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio is also a film. A film-diary that narrates the genesis of the Orchestra. Directed by Agostino ferrente and distributed by Lucky Red. An extraordinary multi-ethnic blend of individual stories, humanity and music that for many isn’t just a dream come true, but a life choice, a job, a family.
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