19 Feb Popular drums and percussion
Andrea Ruggeri
He began playing the drums at the age of 11, mainly improving himself as a self-taught artist.
Participating in various seminars and master classes of drums, Senegalese and Arabic percussion and musical research with Roberto Pellegrini, Elio Martusciello, Ettore Fioravanti, Batch Morris, Airto Moreira, Paolo Sanna, Ellade Bandini, Bathie D’Agne, M’Bagnik Niang and others.
After taking his first steps with pop rock and dance groups, he discovered popular music, jazz and free improvisation. He has played and plays with numerous national and international artists including Elena Ledda, Mauro Palmas, Andrea Parodi, Luigi Lai, Lucilla Galeazzi, Enza Pagliara, Dario Muci, Pippo Kaballà, Enzo Avitabile, Nando Cittarella, Mario Brai, Bruno Lauzi, Gualtiero Bertelli, the Concordu ‘e su Rosaiu choir of Santulussurgiu, the Concordu e Tenore choir of Orosei, Savina Yannatou, Antonio Placer, Paolo Fresu, Antonello Salis, Furio Di Castri, Stefano Battaglia, Gramelot Ensemble, Ralph Alessi, playing in Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Norway, Russia, Morocco, and recording over forty albums.
He is among the best new talents and his ARE Andrea Ruggeri Ensemble among the best groups of Top Jazz 2023, a referendum called every year by the magazine Musica Jazz.
His research, made at the same time of synthesis between assimilated languages and of the continuous desire to experiment with new ways, also makes it a passionate and stimulating educational path focused on bringing out the unique and unrepeatable talent of each student. He has held and holds workshops and courses in drums, ensemble music and improvisation at various public and private institutions, music schools, retirement homes, hospitals, in Sardinia, Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont.
He has been part of the jury of the Andrea Parodi Award since its foundation.
Enza Pagliara
Enza has performed in the most important theaters in the world such as the Barbican Center in London, the largest theater in Europe; the historic Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the Esplanade Theater in Singapore, the Gran Teatre Liceu, the oldest and most prestigious in Barcelona; the Cairo Opera House – Egypt, the Teatro San Martin in Buenos Aires – Argentina just to name a few, bringing Italian and Southern Italian folk singing to Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Jordan, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, United States, Thailand, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Greece, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, France, Portugal, France, Spain, Russia, Kuwait.
With over 20 years of career, Enza Pagliara is the most important voice of the Salento peninsula, a key international exponent of traditional music from Southern Italy. Enza is a leading figure in the revival movement experienced in recent decades by this musical repertoire: her voice, so strong, fascinating and captivating for any audience, renews, reinvigorates and updates ancient popular songs.
Raised in Torchiarolo, a town on the border between the provinces of Brindisi and Lecce, the singer passes on and innovates the musical culture of her land beyond the natural social and family context where, through direct transmission, she spontaneously learned it. Her background and long experience as a music researcher and actress make her the ideal artist to delve deeply into the great cultural wealth that has its roots in ancient times, making it a precious source of knowledge.
In 2000 he studied at the University of Saint Denis in Paris, the course on “traditional oral modes of Italian peasant singing” held by Giovanna Marini. He continued his training at the Ernesto De Martino Institute in Venice, following a course for field researchers led by Ivan della Mea, Ignazio Macchiarella, etc.
He participated in several research campaigns promoted by Marini and the University of Saint Denis, and carried out valuable research work in the Salento area, monitoring the songs and stories of oral tradition through tireless research. With Dario Muci, he founded the publishing house NAUNA Cantieri Musicali which deals with the distribution of sound documents and their reworking.
Dario Muci
Popular singer and musician from Salento.
He began learning popular sounds and songs at a young age with the barber Luigi Stifani, and alongside his concert activity he also carried out passionate and in-depth research on oral traditions. He is the producer and co-founder, together with Enza Pagliara, of the Nauna Cantieri Musicali label, created with the aim of preserving and valorising the popular traditions and oral culture of Salento through the documentation of sources and their re-elaboration.
He has published a documentary and a collection of “dance songs” on the barber musicians of Alessano, two audio CDs on “vocal polyphony” in Nardò and a CD of ethno-musicological material entirely recovered in Otranto, giving new life to a corpus of songs and music that had long been forgotten. He has been part of jazz, world and electronic projects and thanks to numerous collaborations he has taken part in the creation of soundtracks for films, documentaries and theatrical shows.
He is the artistic director of the Nauna Festival and creator of cultural projects that enhance, promote and transmit the traditions of the Salento and Apulian communities.
Fifteen years after his first solo recording project (published by Anima Mundi Edizioni) and after 5 albums characterised by careful research, discovery and valorisation of popular musical heritage, the singer-songwriter is putting himself to the test with an album of unreleased songs entitled Talassa. The project includes 8 songs in which the storyteller/songwriter from Salento, taking a break from the world of popular tradition, gives voice to a series of humble characters, those new last ones, very often foreigners, left on the margins of our society.
Portoscuso, 24-29 June 2025
Seminars - the courses
of folk music, song and dance
Portoscuso, Tonnara su Pranu h 10:00/13:00 – 16:30/19:00
Popular drums and percussion
Diatonic accordion
Instrumental and vocal repertoires of the Val d'Aosta, Savoy and Piedmont
from the mines of Cogne to the Western Alps in music and songs - workshop for singers and instrumentalists
Vincent Boniface