The Chordsmen in Italy
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The Westchester Chordsmen of the Westchester County, New York Chapter
completed a triumphant tour of central Italy in the summer of 2000. We were invited
there by several local governmental groups to be the focal point for the
Italian-American Music Festival week in the County of Abruzzo, which is
the magnificent mountainous region east of Rome, extending to the
Adriatic. Since this is not a prime tourist area, we were able to enjoy
the real laid-back Italian style, while bringing a part of American
culture to a number of Italians that had not experienced our kind of
music before. Our center of activities was the Town of Sulmona, about 100 miles east of Rome and 30 miles west of the Adriatic shore. We gave three concerts there at various locations, plus lots of informal singing throughout the town and in nearly every restaurant we patronized. Although we only prepared one song in Italian, the audiences were very appreciative of all our music. We also traveled to two towns for additional concerts, one at the seaside resort of San Salvo (two hours away from Sulmona), and one at the mountain ski resort of Scanno (one hour away from Sulmona). After our concert in San Salvo, we even got the mayor and some of his friends singing songs and tags. In Scanno, we sang "Sitting on Top of the World" and "Climb Every Mountain" from the top of their ski mountain with a magnificent view of the town below. We also squeezed in a one day tour to Rome and a two day tour to Siena and Florence. These did not include any formal concerts, but we seized every opportunity to sing informally. For example, we sang "Keep the Whole World Singing" in the center of St. Peter's Square. We had some additional free time during the two weeks, allowing small groups to take advantage of the low cost buses and trains to visit many nearby cities, and a few even ventured as far as Pompeii and Venice. Our concerts, directed by Renee Craig, consisted of a wide range of styles and selections, many of which were familiar to the Italians even if they didn’t understand all the words. Our stalwart tour leader, Stash Rossi, taught us Italian words for "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" that brought a great reception wherever we performed them. We even used those lyrics to deliver a singing valentine to our tour guide in Florence, bringing the same reaction as in North America -- first blushes, then a broad smile and effusive thanks. During our tour, we found many Italians that loved to harmonize and seemed to enjoy the barbershop sound. We hope that this brief tour may spark their continued interest in our kind of singing. Phil Richards |