(all photos here are by Dimitris from Athens)
This past June 2013 saw the team for the Songs of the Soul concerts travel to beautiful Italy.? We gave 5 meditative concerts in 4 cities, as usual, free of charge to the public as a community service.??? The first of which was in the eternal city of Rome in the Teatro Sala Umberto which is right in the middle of the old city.? We were just 1 or 2 blocks from the Fountain of Trevi, for example (which came in handy if you needed to get rid of coins jangling around in your pockets during soundcheck).? It was exciting to play in the heart of this unparalleled city.? Exact numbers for each of the concerts are not available currently but estimates are between 300 and 500 for each concert.
The following day, at the car rental company, we had reserved a “Ford Focus Station Wagon or similar”, but as they were out of Fords, we had no choice but to accept the BMW station wagon that they offered us (at the same price).? As they say in Italy:? La vita e bella (which means something like “life is rough”, I think).? So into the Beamer we went and off to Florence for the second concert.?? As with all our concerts, this was a very nice soft-seater theatre.? We also got a chance to visit this beautiful city.
Padova was probably my favourite because it was a smaller city and the tourism somehow seemed more mellow and spiritual – mostly on account of Saint-Anthony, apparently.? Padova is also a university town so it carries that fresh excitement-with-life-in-general that bright young adults carry with them.? The interest was great enough in this city that we played 2 concerts.? One at 6pm and one at 8:30pm.? The concert hall was in fact held in a university auditorium, the Multisala Pio X.
Finally, we ended up in Milan where our concert was literally across the square from the famous Duomo Cathedral.? I didn’t get a chance to go inside the Duomo, but it sure is impressive from the outside.
The italian audiences were very nice and appreciative.? As usual the masters of ceremony asked that audiences hold their applause until the end of the concert in order to maintain the meditative quality of the evening.
I had the honour and privilege to play with Parichayaka and Christian once again.? Other performers for this tour included: Alap, Agnikana’s Group, Pure Joy (from Italy), Mandu and Visuddhi,? Shamita and Bhoiravi, Paree’s Group and Sahadeva’s Orchestra as the finale.
Grazie Mille Italia!