Italy is a land of a thousand voices, sometimes harsh and painful, sometimes extremely archaic. None of them corresponds to our idea of Bel Canto, yet a local culture and an ancient sense of beauty has arrived, in every Italian region, up to our time."  A. Lomax

Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915 - July 19, 2002) is a very famous American ethnomusicologist and music collector. Between 1954 and 1955 Alan Lomax traveled to Italy with his colleague Diego Carpitella. He recorded with his tape recorder hundreds of songs from the Italian peasant world. An extremely varied and complex culture that would soon be swept away by the exodus to the city and the factories.

Valentina Volonté offers a singing workshop based on these original recordings and on the story of this journey, told by Lomax in "The Happiest Year of My Life. A trip to Italy".

The workshop includes vocal and physical warm-up times, an ethnomusicological discovery of the songs through listening to the collections and learning a repertoire. No scores, lots of listening. Through exercises, games, and a little vocal improvisation, we will try to create a non-judgmental atmosphere where mistakes are a natural part of the learning process and the pleasure of singing together is fundamental.

Polyphonic singing is a popular art form in which the human side of things is at odds with the musical. Singing is an affair of the heart, a question of understanding and conviviality. Around a table or in a café, with family or friends, polyphony appears as soon as there are two of us. This "singing" responds to rules inherited from the "savoir-vivre" ensemble of peasant societies where one voice must not prevail over the other and a solo could be frowned upon: singing together speaks to us of how we live together. Of course, today we no longer live in that world, but the spirit we want to transmit is the same!