La Grande Musica al Borgo returns for its eighth edition with a rich program of events that will accompany the audience until Christmas. Concerts, masterclasses, and performances will enliven the Church of Sant’Antonio and the Oratory, transforming them into evocative settings where music meets history and tradition.

The event will begin on Sunday, February 23, at 5:00 PM with an opening concert featuring instrumental string music by G.B. Bassani and G. Bononcini, along with the performance of Salve Regina by Niccolò Porpora for contralto, strings, and basso continuo. This will be the first of 28 musical events retracing the evolution of musical language, from medieval monody to sacred and secular polyphony of the 20th century. The program will include a variety of genres: opera, chamber vocal music, folk traditions, Latin American sounds, and light music.

A special moment will be dedicated to opera singing, with the extraordinary participation of two soloists – a soprano and a bass – from the Bolshoi Theater of the State Opera of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, thanks to the collaboration of the Quintessenza Italiana association from Deruta and the Italian Embassy in Uzbekistan.

In July, as per tradition, the Master Class in Chamber Singing will take place, a specialized course conducted by Marinella Pennicchi, a professor at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan and originally from Borgo Sant’Antonio.

Among the events dedicated to the enhancement of folk musical heritage, the highlight will be the performance of the complete original edition of Umbrian folk songs, transcribed and harmonized by Perugian composer Antonio Bartolini between the 1920s and 1960s. The edition has been curated by Maestro Vladimiro Vagnetti, who worked on the original manuscripts provided by the Bartolini family.