MITO Settembre Musica - Torino Milano - Festival Internazionale della Musica

The Gypsies' Musical Journey.
From India to Andalusia

The musical miracle performed by the Gypsies derives from the conservation of their origins - an Orient which is both indomitable and warm.
This prophetic tribe with the burning pupils, as Baudelaire put it, has passed through a multitude of towns and places, from the desert of Rajasthan to Andalusia, from the Valley of the Sind to the Nile and the Danube, from the forests of Himalaya to Transylvania, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic.

Since their earliest migrations, the Gypsies, who originated in India, have not ceased to contribute to our cultural life in many ways. Mocking traditions and fashions, thanks to their versatility and sense of improvisation, these musicians have, over the centuries, adapted their style to the styles they encountered during their peregrinations. What they internalized from previous stops along the way made them singular, foreign among their new hosts. And yet, despite their refusal to integrate, they gradually became the at times exclusive depositaries and the faithful mirror of the culture of the country they lived in - at a time when being a musician by profession was synonymous with being an outcast.
In reality, being a Rom musician means constantly having the choice between two options: On the one hand, there is the dogged supporter of a given musical style, and on the other, thanks to the many cultures absorbed over the course of their history, there is always the opportunity to reshuffle the deck, as it were.
In this, the Gypsies remain the great forerunners of today’s musical osmosis, as seen in styles that range from jazz to world music, while at the same time they have fiercely protected several grand traditions.

Thanks to performances by representatives of Gypsy cultures from India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Central Europe and Spain, MITO audiences will discover the great spectrum of the amazingly rich Gypsy musical expressions…in which the bows, whether they are Turkish, Romanian, Egyptian or Indian, seem to knit a single melody - the melody of a people that to this day continues to allure and fascinate.

A project in collaboration with
The Association Scènes de la Terre
Artistic Advisor: Alain Weber
Coordinated and produced by Chantal and Jean-Luc Larguier
for Interarts Riviera SA