TO FRANCO MUSSIDA
THE DANIELE DURANTE AWARD
OF THE POPULAR ORCHESTRA NOTTE DELLA TARANTA
Cover images and interview Mussida
FRANCO MUSSIDA is the first artist to receive the DANIELE DURANTE PRIZE established by the Notte della Taranta Foundation and awarded by the POPULAR ORCHESTRA during a concert in Cernusco sul Naviglio (MI).
During the evening, which was attended by thousands of spectators at Parco Trabattoni, Franco Mussida, founding member of PFM - Premiata Forneria Marconi, was a guest of the Orchestra, giving with his guitar an atmosphere with Celtic references to the famous song written by Daniele Durante: "Fuecu." Instead, the rhythm of the pizzica colored Mussida's song "È tutto vero."
This is the motivation for the prize: "Extraordinary and multifaceted artist with his unmistakable sound has expressed unprecedented musical suggestions always enhancing the encounter and has continued to do so throughout his career by always going to discover new compositional talents in the young Italian levers."
The Daniele Durante award does not include parchments or statuettes but the collaboration between the award-winning artist and the Popular Orchestra following the value of popular music, expressed by the artistic director who passed away in June 2021, that "it is everyone's heritage, popular culture must meet others, recontextualize itself, interact with the world, because if it is not renewed, popular culture becomes museum-like and is destined to die."
"I am truly moved," Mussida said upon receiving the Award, "it is a great pleasure to be with so many friends of music who live it with their hearts and with the knowledge that they are carrying an important history with them, they carry it around the world, a history in which Daniele was a fundamental witness and I by the way met him the year before he left and it was a fantastic meeting, we had promised each other to do things together.
I played his song with great pleasure, the Cernusco stage welcomed the joyfulness of the Salento pizzica. The great musicians of the Notte della Taranta are hailed by all, they are welcomed by the hardest hearts, like the people of Cernusco who have hard hearts and they broke them, there were all hands raised, everyone singing, it was the music, the music of this extraordinary Orchestra. I really hope that this wonder that happened to me can bring me to Salento. Let's stay in touch, hurray for the Orchestra, hurray for Daniele who will always remain in our hearts."
The Popular Orchestra Notte della Taranta was welcomed by Cernusco sul Naviglio (MI) Mayor Ermanno Zacchetti and Pro Loco President Silvano Ambrosoli.
The Popular Orchestra's 2023 tour after Milan, Vicenza, Novi Sad, Singapore, Sant'Agata Bolognese, and Teramo continues on June 30 in Alberobello for a special concert with MAX GAZZÈ. In July new stages together with APRÈS LA CLASSE for the special project "la Festa Patronale."
#tarantatour2023
FRANCO MUSSIDA was born in Milan in 1947. An artist who has been involved in Music in different fields. Parallel lives: musician, composer, teacher and researcher. He writes, paints, sculpts, experiments and plays. A founding member of PFM - Premiata Forneria Marconi, he made dozens of albums, wrote many of the group's national and international hits, including the Music of "Impressions of September." He has collaborated, played with singers, artists and intellectuals including: Fabrizio De André (he oversaw the artistic production of De André - PFM), Lucio Battisti, Francesco Guccini, Paolo Conte, Lucio Dalla. As a musician he is a symbol and progenitor of a generation that created and enjoyed the musical fullness of Prog in the 1970s, helping to bring that model to the world. In 1984 he was among the founders of the CPM Music Institute in Milan, among the most prestigious Italian music institutes of Popular Music, a teaching field previously little considered and now, thanks in part to his work, fully recognized at the institutional level. Associated with this is his more than 30 years of social work and research in prisons and communities where he uses Music as an educational tool. Among the projects carried out is "CO2," a work in 12 Italian prisons awarded the medal of the Presidency of the Republic in 2017. Since 2012, Mussida has been showing his research on the effects of Music on emotional structure through visual art and non-fiction. In this regard, he wrote five essays between 2013 and 2020. The latest: "The Planet of Music" (Salani Editore, 2019) and "The Gold of Sound" (Nomos, 2021). He also designs and creates experiential exhibitions, permanent installations in prestigious museum venues in our country, including the Triennale in Milan, and the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, where he received the Lorenzo de' Medici Prize in 2015 together with Anish Kapoor. His research work on the Mystery that transforms Music into emotions continues to this day in the prisons of San Vittore, a place he has frequented since 1987, and in the community of San Patrignano.
