On the occasion of the celebration honoring the Italian Saint Padre Pio, the President of the San Padre Pio Society Maria Bruno invited to Los Angeles some students from the Med Music Talent Academy of Bari, Italy, to perform in a three-hour concert organized in collaboration with Casa Italiana.
Maria Bruno, native of the Apulia region, named the long-awaited event A Ray of Sunshine under the Stars of Los Angeles, as she wishes “all these extraordinary young talents to grow into famous music stars at both national and international level.”
Natalia Bartolomeo, Luana Fraccalvieri, Deborah Loizzo, Maria Adele Divella and Benedetta Coccia are five young women between the ages of 13 and 20, all of them coming from Apulia except for the youngest, Benedetta, who is from Rome. They study singing and stage performing at the school Med Music Talent, trained by soprano Ida Decemvirale who has worked for several RAI TV shows and as a vocal coach for actors, pop and opera singers. Many of her students, including Luana Fraccalvieri, have taken part in renowned Italian music contests such as Amici or Ti lascio una canzone.
Med Music Talent, founded and managed by Ms. Decemvirale, is meant to be “not only a music academy but also a cultural association deeply rooted in its territory and traditions, as the Mediterranean is an important protagonist of the Italian history and lifestyle.” By building on this heritage and these values with strong commitment, perseverance and determination, her students will be able to keep alive the world’s interest in Italian traditional and contemporary music.
This “amazing and exiting experience” – as vocal coach Ida Decemvirale defined it – represented for these young singers a unique opportunity to make themselves known to an international and exclusive audience by reinterpreting with their clear voices some great songs by celebrated Italian artists like Mina, Domenico Modugno, Lucio Battisti, Patty Pravo and Adriano Celentano.
On a starry background, they performed for a selected Italian American public of 260 people, including the Consul General of Italy in Los Angeles Giuseppe Perrone, the President of the Federated Italo-Americans of Southern California Ann Potenza, the President of the Associazione Pugliese del Sud California Vito Mike Foschetti, representatives of the Italian American Lawyers Association, and many other leading figures from the local community.
In his introductory remarks, Consul General Giuseppe Perrone underlined the importance of this kind of initiatives, especially in the framework of 2013 -Year of the Italian Culture in the United States, and he said he “enjoyed very much an evening of singing memorable Italian hits by such promising talents.”
The event was opened by kids from the Benjamin Franklin Elementary School of Glendale, accompanied by teacher Yolanda Lella Wardeh, dancing a cheerful Tarantella and wearing traditional clothing from Apulia and Southern Italy. “It is nice to see young generations sharing their grandparents’ sense of community and cultural identity”, commented comedian and master of ceremonies Riccardo Tursi.
As a sign of gratitude for her outstanding effort in promoting Italian music and culture abroad, Maria Bruno received a hand-painted ceramic gift from the City of Gravina in Apulia, and she has already announced a second edition of A Ray of Sunshine under the Stars of Los Angeles in 2014: the initiative may become an annual appointment for the Italian American community of Southern California, which is “very happy to have a little bit of Italy come and sing for us”, as attorney at law and IALA public relation chair Margherita Underhill told us.
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