ITALIAN FOLKSINGING GROUPS
(and other websites on Italian music)

For the purpose of this list, I have divided the list into Northern and Southern Italy with Toscana and Umbria with the North and Lazio and Abruzzo with the South. To find groups in specific regions, click below.

[General Italian Groups] [Northern Italy] [Piemonte] [Liguria] [Lombardia] [Trentino] [Friuli Venezia Giulia] [Veneto] [Toscana] [Emilia Romagna] [Le Marche] [Umbria ] [Southern Italy] [Lazio] [Abruzzo] [Molise] [Campania] [Puglia] [Basilicata] [Calabria] [Sicilia] [Sardegna] [Musical Instruments] [Other Related Sites] [Home] [Home (italiano)] [e-mail] [IFAFA] [Sign My Guestbook] [View Guestbook] [Folksongs List] [Folksongs by Region] [Folkdances]
GENERAL ITALIAN GROUPS AND PERFORMERS
WE THREE (Traditional Italian) (CD)

THE BLACK IRISH BAND (Some Italian songs) (CD)

CORO SAN MARCO, Choir made up of Italian immigrants living in Toronto, Canada (religious and folk songs) (CD)

CORO "I RAGAZZI DELLA CILIEGIA D'ORO", children's choir that sings Italian folk songs founded in 1971. (CD)

LA COMPAGNIA DELLE STELLE, a theater group with some cultural shows and music. (CD)

Centro Cultura Popolare (CCP), located in Torino it chronicles music through books, music on tapes and videos of music concerts. It offers courses in Italian folksongs.

Taranta, Associazione culturale tradizioni popolari, the most important center for the study of Italian ethnic dance. Offers a wide assortment of CDs for sale of ethnic music throughout Italy. (CD)

LA MATTA, group of 40 men from San Costanzo in the province of Pesaro that dress like clowns and go down the streets of the town singing traditional songs from all over Italy.(CD)

IL QUINTETTO MADRIGALISTICO UDINESE, Rennaissance madrigals

Mama Lisa's World - Italy, Words, music, and sheet music to Italian children's songs. (Sound clips)

Italian Song & Mandolin by Michael, Family from Corleto Monforte in Southern Italy. Hear famous Italian songs and see lyrics. (Sound clips)

California Gold, Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties, (Sound clips)

Egidio Faella plays traditional and popular Italian music on the mandolin in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA area. (Sound clips, CD)

THE RED BAND, Utica, New York, traditional brass band that plays for processions, feasts, and concerts. In existence more than 95 years.

Associazione Culturali Etnostudi, has an archive of over 649 musical instruments, about 6,000 books, 10,000 records, more than 1000 tapes, hundreds of leaflets and other manuscripts from popular music culture from the collection of Roberto Leydi of over 50 years. They put on exhibits in Italy and other parts of the world and are working on books. You can see videos and hear audio tapes on the site.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Mario Salvi, an artist dedicated to the music of the diatonic accordion (organetto) (Lazio and Campania) (CD)

FRATELLI ALESSANDRINI di Tonino Alessandrini & c. snc. Via G. Verdi, 83, 60022 Castelfidardo (AN) ITALY Tel. & Fax: 071 7821025 (accordion makers)

PETOSA ACCORDIONS, 313 NE 45th St., Seattle, Washington 98105 (accordion makers)

www.organetto.it, The diatonic accordion in Italy. The site includes the anatomy of the instrument, history, a list of players, news, and where to purchase one.

Tom Torriglia's All Things Accordion, find sheet music, new and used accordions, book musicians.

International Town Museum of Accordions (Museo Internazionale della Fisarmonica), Castelfidardo, Le Marche, Information about the history of the accordion.

GRUPPO FOLKLORISTICO FIRLINFEU "LA PRIMAVERA", from Sovico Brianza. They play the traditional panpipes called "firlinfeu" and dance traditional songs of the region. The page explains the history of the use of this instrument. (Lombardia) (CD)

BARABAN, ethnic music from Lombardia. Book about popular musical instruments from the Appennines and other interesting subjects on Italian music.(CD)

COMPAGNIA STRUMENTALE TRE VIOLINI, popular violin music from Northern Italy. Wrote book "Manuale di Violino Popolare" on traditional violin folk styles from Northern Italy. (CD)

SONUS DE CANNA - Sardinian society to promote the playing of the ancient musical instrument of Sardinia called the launeddas

THE LAUNEDDAS PLAYERS, Profiles of the most famous Launeddas players from Sardegna. (Sound clips)

CRC (Centro per la Ricerca e la Conservazione delle tradizioni popolari) Information on the tammorra and other ancient musical instruments of Italy.

Museo Cultura e Musica Popolare dei Peloritani, museum in Messina, Sicily that features instruments from the area. The website shows pictures of the instruments and describes how they work. (CD)

Folkitalia, L'Associazione Culturale denominata Centro per la Ricerca e la Conservazione delle tradizioni popolari (C.R.C.) collects information about folk traditions from the Naples area in particular and Italy in general. There are many interesting articles available on the site.

We're Talking about - Hurdy Gurdy, Everything you need to know about the hurdy gurdy.

Marcello Bono's Homepage. La Pagina della Ghironda (The Hurdy Gurdy Italian Home Page) Everything you need to know about the hurdy gurdy in Italian.

Matthew Szostak's Hurdy Gurdy Page, hurdy gurdy player and maker, General Information from the MHN Instrument Encyclopedia. (Sound clips)

Alden and Cali Hackmann's Hurdy Gurdy site, Hurdy Gurdy makers (the most beautiful ones I have seen) plus great links to other hurdy gurdy sites.

La Ghironda: curiosità e notizie - Information about the hurdy gurdy (in Italian).

House of Musical Traditions, store that carries exotic musical instruments from around the world.

LARK IN THE MORNING, PO Box 1176, Mendocino, CA 95460 USA. For a 100 Page Catalog send $3.00 in the US, $6.00 elsewhere. They carry Tyrolian many belled trumpets, alphorns, jaw harps, zampogne (Italian bagpipes), organetti abruzzesi, a wide variety of accordions, concertinas, hurdy gurdys, and bowl back mandolins.

The Early Music Shop, (England) The largest single source of early musical instruments worldwide including panpipes, ocarinas and hurdy gurdy kits.

Kelichek Workshop and Susato Press, Custom instrument making to your specs including violins, violas, lutes, hurdy gurdys, ocarinas and many more. Music typesetting and folk and early music sound studios.

Musicmaker's Kits, Inc., Accoustic instruments you can build including hurdy gurdys, lutes, and guitars.

Hobgoblin, catalogue of unusual folk instruments including used instrunents for sale.

Museo Virtuale Degli Strumenti Musicali Italiani, pictures of various musical instruments

Museo Nazionale delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari in Rome, has musical instruments, folk costumes and other objects from popular life. You can take a virtual tour on the site.

net instruments.com, classified ads for musical instruments, buy or sell any kind of instrument.

Narada Suoni del Mondo, imports, builds, sells, and repairs traditional musical instruments from around the world.

Gianni Perilli's zampogna page with information on playing the zampogna (Sound clips)

ASSOCIAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE CALAMUS, from the town of Picinisco in the province of Frosinone, have an ethnic dance group,an accordion orchestra, ethnic music quartet, wind quintet and coro polifonico. Nice information about the history of the zampogna.

Circolo della Zampogna, located in Scapoli in the province of Isernia.(Sound clips and video)

Homepage of Ilario Garbani. Music of the zampogna and church bells. (CD)

Zampogne, un universo da riscoprire. Everything you'd want to know about the zampogna or Italian bagpipe: its history, its anatomy and traditions. (Sound clips and CD)

Sebastiano Nanè, Zampognaro in Sicilia. He plays the zampogna and other wind instruments.

OTHER RELATED SITES
Ethnosuoni (Managers of Italian folksinging groups)

Sottosuono, Management for folk and rock bands in Bari. (CD)

Sognando e Ballando Edizioni Musicali, Music Publishers of dance music

Suoni dal Mondo Management, Manages folk groups from around the world including Italy.

ITALIAN FOLK ART FEDERATION OF AMERICA, INC. (IFAFA), organization of Italian folk singing and dance groups

FOLCLORE.IT, an organization whose purpose is to publicize Italian folk groups.

International Council of Organizations for Folklore Festivals and Folk Art (part of UNESCO)

Folksy Links, Links to Folk bands and musicians around the world.

Tullia Magrini, EOL article "Ballad and gender: reconsidering narrative singing in Northern Italy"

FROG, The Folk and Roots Online Guide, links to folk groups, concerts and festivals around the world.

Folk Music Resources on Internet

Rootsworld, internet magazine for world music with articles about Italian music and reviews of groups and albums.

Il Manifesto, 11 July, 1997, several good articles about music from Southern Italy.

Primo Tema Edizioni Musicali, Sheet music for accordion and piano.

The Italian Music Homepage: Italian music radio, TV, recording companies & music publishers, Links to the companies listed.

Italian Oral History Institute (IOHI)organizes conferences on Italian folk music, dance and culture and documents oral history.

Folkitalia, links to various Italian folk groups, explanations of instruments, dances, bibliography of books.

Bibliografia generale: musica tradizionale popolare italiana, bibliography of books on Italian traditional music.

Bande in Rete, (Bands on the net), an organiations of Italian bands.

Musica dal Vivo, a database of bands and musicians in Italy.

Cori Italiani On Line - List of Italian Choral Groups by region.

CantinCoro, a non-profit organization devoted to finding resources for Italian choral music.

Federazione Italiana Tradizioni Popolari, Government organization to help promote Italian popular traditions. Lists folk groups from all over Italy.

Associazione Nazionale Bande Italiane Musicali Autonome, an association of bands, choral groups, and groups that promote popular music.

Tutte le bande d'Italia, a list of bands from various regions in Italy.