We are happy to introduce the last part of our programme. This year the Italian Fusion Festival hosts, for the first time, a Jam Session.
A jam session is an informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To “jam” is to improvise music without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements, except for when the group is playing well-known jazz standards or covers of existing popular songs.
One source for the phrase “jam session” came about in the 1920s when white and black musicians would congregate after their regular paying gigs to play the jazz they could not play in the “Paul Whiteman” style bands they played in. When Bing Crosby attended these sessions, the musicians would say he was “jammin’ the beat,” since he would clap on the one and the three. Thus these sessions became known as “jam sessions.”
The jam sessions in Dublin started about 9 years ago, organised weekly, to play jazz standards in a relaxed atmosphere and to create a community of musicians in Dublin. The person who came up with the idea is an Italian, Marco Santaroni, who from the beginning involved some musicians in the organization (including Marco Francescangeli who is looking after the session at the festival). It was initially at the Grand Social, later moved to various other places (International Bar, Music café, Bohemian bar in Phibsboro, Hot Spot in Greystones). The jams are free, and very inclusive and accessible. Find musicians of all levels: professionals, hobbyists, and students. There is a Facebook page and a Meetup group to promote/organise the jams.
Here are the musicians who take part in the jam session at the Italian Fusion Festiva: Marco Francescangeli, Luisa Annibali, Riccardo Marenghi, Dario Rodighiero, Graham Wood, Maciej Blizinski, Johannes Aspman, Ken Hall, Andy Smith, Marion Smith, Mary Murphy, Enid Conaghan.
We are happy to present the finalists of the Short Video Competition 2022. All videos will be projected on the 2nd of July during the Italian Fusion Festival. The winner will be announced during the event and will be awarded with a plaque and a small cash price.
The Plait by Chiara Viale
Chiara Viale is an Italian born writer, director and producer based in Ireland. After obtaining a degree in English as a Foreign Language and Literature in Milan, she went on studying screenwriting in Dublin and began making independent films. Since then she has written, directed and taken part numerous short films. In 2017 she started her first Independent Feature Film ‘The New Music’, which has reached completion in 2019. She is also co-founder of the Dublin based independent production company Built To Fail Productions.
Shame by Chiara Provenzano
Born and bred in Italy, Chiara has cultivated a love for cinema since the age of 11, when she first saw The Lord of the Rings, and she was left in awe. After moving to Dublin 5 years ago, she hasn’t stopped editing: from short films to documentaries to weddings, she loves all art forms. Editing is her true passion!
Stage Fright by Giuseppe Mirabella
Giuseppe Mirabella was born in Naples in 1985. He currently lives in Dublin where he plays in two bands Skakki Blues and Locanda a jazz manouche project. He shot ‘Stage fright’ during the KinoD: an event in Dublin during which filmmakers are asked to create a short movie in 48 hours.
A Decent Proposal by Cathal Feeney
Cathal started film making when he joined the Dublin Filmmakers film club in Dublin in 2011. In the intervening period he has worked on numerous short films in various roles, although mainly as a writer and director. The Interview was his first film followed by Oh. Oh was made as part of a 72 hour challenge at the Offline film festival in Offaly where it took first place. His film making style would lean towards comedy.
Uberman by Alois J.L. Steinmacher
Alois J.L. Steinmacher is 37 and grew up in Kaiserslautern. Being a true faustian spirit he set off to study Philosophy and Law but he eventually graduated from acting school and also medical school after living a while in a French monastery. He started writing and directing mostly comedy shorts and won his first award for his slapstick spy shorts “Styler und Gyler”. “Uberman” is his first Drama on screen and was written during a creative break in Cinque Terre, Italy – a pilot version was shot 2021 with an Italian cast in Dublin. The background idea was to artistically explore the growing pressure of capitalism and migration on human relationships. He currently works at ICU in order to complete his emergency physician training this year. After this he wants to go dead serious about the arts once and for all. His dream is to become the German Adriano Celentano. He lives in Berlin whith his wife and their children.
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We’re delighted that this edition of the Italian Fusion Festival has sold out! Thank you to everyone who has bought tickets. We can’t wait to see you at the fifth edition of the Italian Fusion Festival.
We cannot promise to accommodate all requests, but you can request to add your name to our waiting list by sending an email including your name and surname to info@italianfusionfestival.com We will contact you the day before the event to confirm if we have a space for you.
If you want to receive updates and information about the next edition of the Italian Fusion Festival join our Newsletter.
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We are happy to introduce the Ethereal Jazz part of our lineup. This year the Italian Fusion Festival presents Maja Elliott Ensemble.
Maja Elliott’s music takes you on an ethereal journey through Debussy-inspired landscapes infused with classical improvisation, nordic modern jazz, ethnic rhythms and Irish overtones. Maja Elliott is a pianist, singer and composer. Her music incorporates classical, modern jazz, ethnic music and improvisation. She has been featured on Lyric FM on the Blue of the Night. She toured and recorded for 10 years with the performance poet David Tibet of Current 93 and performed alongside Will Auldham and Anohni who wrote, “Maja’s piano playing has touched me. She is so expressive, holding notes in fearless witness to subtle emotions.” She has written music for film soundtracks and co-composed music and played the piano for the film Native with Patrick Bergin.
Ben Prevo was born in Manhattan N.Y. and has been playing gigs and writing and recording songs and sounds for forty-plus years. Guitarist and vocalist Ben brings the integrity and emotional honesty of The Blues to his genre-hopping repertoire of original songs and covers. Known for his quirky style and use of dynamics, Ben has played at many festivals and venues thru the years – The Dublin Temple Bar Blues Festival, Monaghan Harvest Time Jazz Festival, Cork Jazz Festival, The Clifden Arts Festival… and more. Ben has played prestigious venues such as the Ulster Hall, the Gaiety, and the Apollo Theatre; and cities from Munich to San Diego to Woodstock New York. He’s also featured and performed on national and regional Irish radio & TV and Regional New York and Polish TV. He has released four albums—two studios and two lives—and has appeared on several compilations.
Petar Krivitsky is a Bulgarian multi-instrumentalist playing electric guitar, double bass and bass guitar. Currently, he is studying at DCU in Jazz and Contemporary music studies and performing both guitar and double bass.
Maja Elliott (piano, voice)
Ben Prevo (electric guitar)
Isabelle O’Kane (backing vocals and sound effects)
Deep-pan and soft, thin and crunchy, classic or gourmet, with or without a stuffed crust… however it comes, pizza is a true Italian institution and a symbol of the country the world over.
Italians eat pizza on Saturday or Sunday evenings, after doing sports or watching a game with friends, to celebrate birthdays when as a child – in short, pizza is an integral part of life in Italy from the cradle to the grave and it’s part of the 2022 edition of the Italian Fusion Festival.
A woodfire pizza van will welcome you outside the concert venue to keep you going during this exciting evening of music! With an extra 10€ you can have an Italian automatic pizza with 2 toppings. Delight your hearing and your taste with the special festival entry+pizza ticket to make the most from this experience!
A Limited Standard Ticket + Pizza will be available until the 27 the June 2022 or until sold out.
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The Opening of the Exhibition “Fusion – A visual Art Show” took place at the Italian Institute of Culture, Dublin yesterday Thursday 16th June.
The exhibition shows works by Giulio Vesprini and Shane O’Driscoll, both street artists, art designers and urban art curators.
The exhibition was introduced by the director of the Italian Institute of Culture, Marco Gioacchini, the director of Radio Dublin and of the Italian Fusion Festival Maurizio Pittau, the curator of the exhibition Cristina Ciampaglione and the street artists Giulio Vedprini and Shahe O ‘Driscoll were present.
The initiative, organised by Radio Dublino is the third exhibit in “The Art of Italian Illustration 2022” series and is part of the Italian Fusion Festival 2022.
The exhibition will be open to the public until 2nd July, Mon-Fri from 10am to 1pm and from 2.30pm to 4.30pm.
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We are happy to introduce the Mesmerizing Jazz part of our lineup. This year the Italian Fusion Festival presents Antoni O’Breskey – Nomadic Piano Project
Composer, pianist and trumpet player, writer and music educator. Born in Italy with Argentine roots, he graduated in piano at Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini of Florence and introduced improvised-style piano into Irish and Flamenco music during the early 80’s, blending it with blues and creating a positively new and original jazz piano style.
Oliver Sweeney, in the Irish music magazine HOT PRESS, wrote of him: “He is a man for whom the notion of borders means very little, a genius whose music is without frontiers, and whose originality makes him one of the most innovative artists in the varied musical genres of today.”
He has been breaking barriers among many different kinds of music: “The categories of “World” and “New Age” music did not exist when O’ Breskey began his trailblazing journey yet he was the first to combine Flamenco, Basque, Arabic, Latin and Irish elements, his virtuoso jazz-styled piano uniting these traditions in remarkably original compositions.” FIONA RITCHIE, THE NPR CURIOUS LISTENER’S GUIDE TO CELTIC MUSIC, U.S.A.
He also developed a new trumpet sound mixing Irish Sean Nós and blues, as Harry Long describes in his Walton’s Music Anthology: “Breskey’s unique approach […] the playing is superb and his style successfully combines Irish traditional and blues styles” HARRY LONG, THE WALTON’S GUIDE TO IRISH MUSIC
With his work “Orekan: The Ethnic Symphony” (1992) he created a new “symphonic” concept bringing together piano (the top classical instrument which started the new “well temperament” system) with a vast variety of “not tempered” instruments, belonging to many different ethnic traditions.
“Orekan is not only a masterpiece, it is above all a unique social document which gives us a strong idea of our roots, and in addition points out a few possible roads we might take in the future” OLIVER SWEENEY, HOTPRESS
For many years and predating the times he was gathering together extraordinary musicians from all over the world, and recording more than 35 albums which form “The Nomadic Piano Collection”. Among the many collaborators who appear in this collection are: Ronnie Drew (The Dubliners), Máirtín O’Connor (De Dannan), Antonio Carmona (Ketama), Gabin Dabire, José Seves (Inti-Illimani), Benito Lertxundi, Cathy Jordan (Dervish) and many more.
He is also known to be the inspirer of the show Riverdance: “Bill Whelan developed O’Breskey’s synthesis of Flamenco, jazz and Irish traditional strands as a key structure in his Irish music and dance spectacular, Riverdance.” FIONA RITCHIE, THE NPR CURIOUS LISTENER’S GUIDE TO CELTIC MUSIC, U.S.A.
“Well pre-dating Riverdance.” FINTAN VALLELY, THE IRISH TIMES
“Ahead of his time… in 1979 Antóni O’ released a track called “Sunrise”, some of which sounds almost exactly like Riverdance”. VICTORIA CLARKE, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
His classic and minimalist compositions for piano and cello, interpreted by his collaborator Davide Viterbo, as well as his world music, have become soundtracks for cinema, television, theatre and ballet.
His contribution to Irish music and culture was celebrated in the National Concert Hall in Dublin in 2005, 2007, 2012.
[…] O’Breskey’s musical crossovers have an ethical imperative. He seeks to mesh the majority with the minority, the present with the past, and the vocal with the silenced, so as to “deflate the ethnocentrism of classical Western music.” For this musician, musical cultures are not defined by borders, but by historical roots that reach deeply across all areas of the globe.” COLLEEN TAYLOR, THE IRISH ECHO, NEW YORK“
“Mesmerizing. O’Breskey takes a few prisoners in his search for the sublime.“ SIOBHAN LONG, THE IRISH TIMES
Consuelo is a singer, fiddle and bodhran player. She grew up in a countryside house that was a meeting point for many musicians from different cultures and traditions. Her father, composer and pianist Antonio Breschi was working in the 80s and 90s touring with projects Al Kamar and Orekan, blending classical and Jazz with flamenco, Irish, Balkan and African music.
During this time he worked with musicians like Mairtin O’Connor, Steve Cooney, Dolores Keane, Donal Lunny , Ronnie Drew and many others. The house would be a vital meeting point for these musicians and Consuelo’s love and passion for tradition almost certainly began back then. When she was sixteen she began touring with her father as a bodhrán player and singer with The Nomadic Piano Project, traveling to Ireland several times before finally moving to Dublin in 2014 to develop her fiddle playing. She has recorded on several albums for The Nomadic Piano Project, including Dancing Waves (2014) Ready to Sail (2011), Nomadic Aura (2009), Samara (2020) and Blessed Sadness (2021).
In 2014, along with fiddle player and guitarist Eoghan O’ Shaughnessy and Italian multi instrumentalist Matteo Podda, Consuelo released the self-titled debut of folk band The Morning Tree, an international trio that blend the songs and tunes of the Irish music tradition with the folk-baroque, jazz and blues inspired sounds of the British folk revival, particularly of the guitarists Bert
Jansch and John Renbourn (Pentangle) . In 2017, together with fiddle player and singer Lucie Azconaga, she formed the band Varo, a duo who perform Irish traditional songs and tunes with arrangement influences from the Folk, Baroque and Classical traditions, weaving around the melodies with harmonies, drones and countermelodies. With Varo she has performed in the last few years in numerous Festival in Ireland and abroad, including Quiet Lights Festival, St.Patrick’s Festival, Tradition Now at the NCH, and for productions such as TG4’s ‘Samhlú ’ hosted by Tommy Tiernan, ‘Celestial Body’ produced by Sofft Productions. Consuelo has also been a cover-member for Landless since January 2018. She has toured with them in Ireland, Scotland and Slovakia.
We are happy to introduce Shane O’Driscoll the Irish part of our art exhibitionItalian Fusion – A visual Art Show – Shane O’Driscoll e Giulio Vesprini in mostra. Italian Fusion is the third exhibition in the series “The art of Italian illustration 2022” organised by the Italian Institute of Culture in Dublin throughout 2022. Attendance is free. The exhibition will be open from 16th June to 2nd July 2022 on weekdays only (10am-1pm and 2.30pm-4.30pm). More info here and here the booklet .
Shane O’Driscoll is a visual artist who practices mainly in printmaking and murals. The art of balance informs his work. Limited elements ranging from the geometric to the textured are carefully positioned against a fl at back-ground. Each motif is distinctive in its own right but it also enhances and resonates with those around, creating an element of tension or frisson across the composition.
He studied Visual Communications and is a member of Cork Printmakers. He also creates large scale murals in both city and rural settings. He has exhibited his work internationally and throughout Ireland. Shane has work in the permanent collection of The National Gallery of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, Glucksman Museum UCC, and UCD.
We are happy to introduce the Italian and Brazilian Jazz part of our lineup. This year the Italian Fusion Festival presents Luisa Annibali Band.
Led by the talented Italian singer and composer, Luisa Annibali Band is a Dublin-based ensemble with an international lineup. They naturally compound different styles of music, exploring Jazz, Neo Soul, Funky, Brazilian music, and Free Jazz.
Indeed, it is the encounter between people from different cultures that makes this band so unique. The warm and soulful voice of the leader combined with her experience as a jazz singer and performer make her shows interesting and enjoyable every time.
All the compositions are written by the leader, who is the curator of the entire project, and many
arrangements are written with and by the guitarist of the band Johnathan Santos. Luisa Annibali Band is certainly a collaborative team. They are currently working on their first EP, which will be released in July 2022.
At The Italian Fusion Festival Luisa Annibali Band will present a mixed repertoire of original
compositions and some of their favourite Jazz, Brazilian and Italian songs.
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The short video competition has been an integral part of the Italian Fusion Festival since its start.
The aim is to offer a spotlight to international filmmakers in Ireland wishing to showcase their works on our platforms.
Entry open to any short films made by Italian-Irish film productions (they must include at least one Italian and Irish cast / crew/ director / writer / composer / editor / producer). We accept both unreleased and previously released short movies.
Deadline: Friday 24th of June 2022 at 18PM.
Duration of short films: up to 10 minutes.
Submission: send an email to info@italianfusionfestival.com with a short bio and a description of the video. Your email should also include a YouTube /Vimeo or a WeTransfer link to your video(s).
The short films shortlisted by our jury will be screened during the Italian Fusion Festival live and on Facebook and YouTube
The winner will be announced during the event and will be awarded a voucher.
All the videos shortlisted by our jury will also be advertised and made permanently available to the wider public on different platforms, such as Italian Fusion Festival and Radio Dublino webpages and social networks. The competition is curated by Giuseppe Crupi.
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