SIX MEMOS FOR THE NEXT MILLENNIUM

the project

The quintet, created during BACÀN's third artistic residency held between July and September 2023 in collaboration with OperaEstate, offers a performance inspired by Italo Calvino's Lezioni Americane. On the occasion of the centenary of the Italian writer's birth, the musicians reinterpret by transposing into sound the six chapters that make up the essay. Lightness, Rapidity, Exactness, Visibility, Multiplicity and Coherence (designed only) are the values that for Calvino must have the literature of the twenty-first century and that the improvisational language of the ensemble makes its own.

the performance

From the interaction between the musicians comes a flow of sound that develops in close relationship with the place that hosts the performance. Characteristic of the project is precisely that of having site-specific connotations, making the space become a characterizing element for the evolution of the improvisation. Each performance will therefore be unique and capable of connecting Calvin's proposals to its surroundings.

BIO MUSICIANS

Dan Kinzelman - saxophone, clarinet, artistic mentor After early experiences as a soloist and music director with Enrico Rava and Giovanni Guidi, saxophonist Dan Kinzelman has expanded his practice to improvised music, performance art and electronic composition for dance. With the collective trio Hobby Horse and the wind quartet Unfall, he developed the fluid approach to genre boundaries that characterizes much of his work. His long-standing collaboration with choreographer Daniele Ninarello has enabled him to become more aware of the role of the body in musical and non-musical performance practice. His latest solo project Resist/Evolve is a site-specific work that explores the emotional impact of special breathing techniques on the body of the artist and the viewer, situated at the intersection of music, sound art and performance. He is a professor of saxophone and ensemble music at the Siena Jazz University master's program. With his projects he has toured extensively in Europe, North America and Asia, performing at festivals such as Saidance Festival, London Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz, Belgrade Jazz Festival, Fabbrica Europa, Saalfelden 3-Tage Jazz, Roma Europa Festival, Aerowaves, New Italian Dance Platform and others.

Beatrice Miniaci - flute, piccolo studied classical music, specializing at the Amsterdam Conservatory, then continued her studies in Sonic Arts in Rome. Her activity gravitates around various points of attraction: from baroque music, musical theater, collective improvisation to electronic music. She has performed both in classical ensembles varying from trio to orchestra with concerts at Het Concertgebouw (NL), NedPho (NL), Muziekgebouw, Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre and in interdisciplinary projects investigating modernity through music and performance such as "Climate Music and COMMUNE, an experimental work by Maria Magdalena Kozwloska produced by the Frascati Theatre (NL).

Ludovico Franco - trumpet, cymbal, live electronics active in various musical formations and as a sideman for artists such as Orelle, Penny (Do Your Thang), Mòn, Jemma, Ensemble Tabula Rasa. He works in the artistic direction of Ekstasis - an organization of experimental music concerts inside churches in Rome - and is co-founder of the art lab and recording studio Labstract. In 2020, he released his first EP entitled "Rhetorica" on the Berlin label Syrphe. In his solo work he makes use of different instruments for the electronic processing of acoustic sounds - he starts from the use of breath as the most ancestral form of sound externalization and transfigures it into a complex layering from which metallic rhythms and abrasive distortions emerge.

Nicola Traversa - guitar, banjo, vocals is a musician and songwriter who writes music driven by motivation that can externalize a desire for recognizable, sincere and personal expressiveness that can resonate with the listener. Starting in rock bands, he then moved on to delve into American folk music, study jazz at the conservatory, and discover the universality of languages and genres, always preferring songwriting and the special relationship between music and words. He moved to London with the intention of moving away from the comfort zone and thus solidifying a freer (free) and more personal expressive language to finally find himself back in both his hometown, Vicenza, with the project of consolidating his artistic activity.

Nicolò Masetto - double bass has been interested in music in its multiple visions since adolescence. His activity embraces various forms of expression, from 60s-inspired psychedelic songs, through traditional jazz, to improvisation contaminated with electronics. Trained with Stefano Senni and Marco Tamburini, among others, he has since played with some of the most important musicians on the national scene. He was a collaborator of the Tower Jazz Composers Orchestra, a stable big band of the Torrione Jazz Club in Ferrara. At the end of 2018 he founded, together with drummer/producer Tommaso Cappellato and pianist Alberto Lincetto, the band Collettivo Immaginario. In parallel, he pursues his own musical vision.