Today is the time for Music, with a concert of traditional songs from Piedigrotta and beyond, for voice and piano entitled Neapolitan Serenade. Perhaps excavated in the 3rd century B.C. to shorten the route between Naples and Pozzuoli, Piedigrotta is an area of Naples deriving its name from Old or Roman Cave (“Grotta”). The oldest Neapolitan celebrations used to take place in the area, which was already mentioned by Petronius in the Satyricon and later cited by Boccaccio. In the modern age, a military and civil parade that used to take place there on 7 September was later converted (1908) into a festival centered around the pilgrimage to the basilica of S. Maria di Piedigrotta, accompanied by allegorical floats, fireworks on the sea, lights, stalls and above all the “Neapolitan Song Festival.”
In collaboration with Co.As.It., the Italian Cultural Institute will bring this musical event to the Italian Forum in Leichhardt, with a program that includes some of the best pieces of the non-operatic repertoire of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Four well-known figures from the city’s musical panorama will grace the stage: soprano Nadia Piave will be accompanied on the piano by Mauro Colombis. Cesare Popoli and Paola Vertechi will provide their voice for pieces of poetry, interludes, anecdotes and curiosities relating to the pieces presented.
Nadia Piave holds a Masters in Performance from the University of Sydney. Her teaching experience spans more than 17 years and she maintains a busy teaching schedule as well as being a seasoned performer in a variety of musical styles.
Apart from the Open Academy, Nadia’s numerous teaching engagements have included the Bondi WAVE Alternate Music program, classes for Macquarie Community College, AIM, Sydney Philharmonia, North Sydney Community Choir and the Blake Dawson Waldron Lunchtime Choir, the Conservatorium High School and SCEGGS Darlinghurst as well as Parkinsong, a singing group for people with Parkinsons Disease.
Nadia also leads a very full life as a performer embracing all styles of vocal music. In Early Music, Nadia has sung with ensembles Salut! Baroque, Sydney Consort, Richard Black’s Renaissance Men (a guest performer!), Concertato, Fiona Garlick’s La Valentine and her own ensemble Trio Bassano with Tommie Andersson and Matthew Ridley.
As a cabaret and art song performer Nadia has worked with harpist Jacinta Dennet in duo Bliss, pianists Paul Myers and Mauro Colombis performing German and Italian Art Song and cabaret, pianist and arranger extraordinaire Sally Whitwell in chamber duo Une Fois Seule, flautist Jane Cavanagh in chamber ensemble Three Colours, pianist, baritone, raconteur and gourmande Glenn Amer in the comedy/opera duo Cosi Fun Tutti Frutti!, and accordionist Ross Maio and guitarist Gino Pengue in Trio Sedotta e Abbandonata.
Mauro Colombis is a versatile musician who grew up in Pordenone and lives in Sydney. Once he obtained his diploma in piano with top marks and honors, he perfected his studies at the Moscow Conservatory P.I. Tchaikovsky in Russia and at the DAMS of the University of Bologna. After an initial concert activity focused on the classical piano repertoire, Mauro Colombis dedicated himself mainly to the accompaniment of silent films and was a guest at various film festivals in the most important Australian cities, in Thailand and in China, as well as being a member for years of the team of musicians who accompany the screenings at the Pordenone Silent Film Days. Mauro Colombis has taken part in numerous artistic projects, collaborating with the Italian-Australian singer Nadia Piave, with the theater company Fools in Progress (commedia dell’arte) and with the musical group Mocambo Jam, (repertoire of Italian singer-songwriters). In 2022 he took part in the event Traveling with Dante, organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney, composing pieces for violin and piano and for string quartet, inspired respectively by the Inferno and the Paradiso of the Divine Comedy. In 2023 he performed in a piano recital with the project The Infinite Loop – A musical journey into the soul, time and space.
Free event, booking essential HERE