On May 11th, 2019 the European Union Embassies and the EU Delegation to the United States open their doors to the public for the annual EU Embassies’ Open House: a day of family fun, culture, food and more. The event offers visitors a rare look inside the embassies and provides a unique opportunity for them to experience the cultural heritage and national traditions of the 28 member countries.
The highlight of this year’s Open House at the Embassy of Italy will be the extended Sardinian guitar of Paolo Angeli, a unique instrument – or, rather, a hybrid orchestra built in a single instrument with strings going in all directions, foot-pedal-controlled motorized propellers and hammers that create shimmering drones and bass-lines as Paolo bows, strikes, plucks and strums while producing rhythm treading on a plastic bag. With this singular guitar, Paolo promises to wow the audiences as he improvises and composes unclassifiable music, balanced between traditional Sardinian music, free jazz, flamenco, Arabic nuances, and post-folk music.
Visitors will also be able to experience Italian fashion, design, innovation, culture, arts, food and more.
Discover Italy, the unexpected country. Where history walks hand in hand with the future, where traditions blend with creativity and innovation, where passion translates into life. Come visit us to experience first-hand the marvels of a country where the extraordinary is ordinary.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED
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New to EU Open House and EUMoC this year is the #EUPix competition, where attendees can post a photo of themselves at any EU Open House or Month of Culture event for a chance to win a big prize: a swag bag filled with gifts from the EU embassies! Use the hashtag #EUPix on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to be entered automatically; winners will be announced on June 4th.
For more information on the European Month of Culture, visit www.euintheus.org/EUMoC.
To learn more about Open House, head to www.euopenhouse.org.
Embassy of Italy
3000 Whitehaven Street NW
Washingon, DC
About Paolo Angeli
Born in 1970, Paolo Angeli started playing guitar at the age of nine. He grew up in Palau, in Sardinia, an extremely stimulating musical environment. The guitar and the voice of his father, his first mentor, the bus with the drums, the chickens, the melons, the ‘diroccati’ rock groups in an old carpentry workshop, playing at concerts and festivals, all directed him towards a sailing without stylistic barriers in the world of music. In 1989, he moved to Bologna and started to play with Laboratorio di Musica & Immagine and other contemporary music ensembles, practicing collective composition and improvisation, unblocking the borders among musical genres and playing in the main European festivals for innovative music. In 1993, he met Giovanni Scanu, the legendary guitar player from Sardinia (who died at the age of 95), from whom he learnt the forms and the modules of the ‘canto a chitarra gallurese e logudorese’.
Through this ‘fighting encounter’ between the extra-cultivated avant-garde and popular traditions Paolo’s Sardinian prepared-guitar: an orchestra-instrument with eighteen cords, an hybrid between guitar, baritone, violoncello and drums, gifted with hammers, pedals, some propellers at variable speed came to life.
Since 1997, Paolo Angeli performed at the most important festivals in Europe, Japan, Australia, USA, Canada, Russia, South America and recorded more than 50 albums. Currently, Paolo lives by the sea alternating between Sardinia and Barcelona.
Paolo Angeli holds a degree in Ethnomusicology and contributed to the digitalization of the Archivio Mario Cervo, the most important collection of Sardinian records and traditional music. As a researcher, he published Canto in Re, a volume of historical analysis of the ‘Canto a Chitarra’ (ISRE 2005). Since 1996, together with Nanni Angeli, he is the artistic director of Isole che parlano, an international arts festival that takes place in Palau leveling innovation and tradition.
This program is part of the 7th annual European Month of Culture.
Find more events at: EUintheUS.org/EUMoC