“Concerts at Hangar 44”, this is the title of the concert season that the Italian Air Force Band will perform from Saturday 18 November to Sunday 17 December, at Urbe Airport in Rome, to celebrate – also through music – the Centenary of the Armed Force, which falls in 2023. An initiative that, through the universal language of music, aims to bring citizens closer to the Italian Air Force, its history, and its various professions.
The four concerts – scheduled Saturday 18 November, Saturday 2 December, Sunday 10 December and Sunday 17 December – will all be held at 5:00 PM, lasting approximately one hour, and will feature chamber ensembles born within the wider framework of the Italian Air Force Band.
The initiative was presented this morning in Hangar 44 at Urbe Airport, where the AM Band resides and rehearses when not engaged elsewhere for concerts, with a preview dedicated to over 350 students and teachers from four schools in the city of Rome – the institutes “V. Bellini”, “Don Giuseppe Morosini”, “Guido Milanesi” and “W. Disney” – who were able to witness a musical rendition of the fairy tale “Peter and the Wolf”. “Over the four concerts scheduled by December 17th, each ensemble will present a specific programme designed to highlight the unique timbral and sonic characteristics of the instruments they comprise, with the aim of introducing an ever-wider audience to the different ‘souls’ of the Band,” said Maestro, Major Pantaleo Lanfranco Cammarano. “For this reason too, we have put together a rather varied musical offering, ranging from a musical fable for younger children and their families, to more classical pieces for wind instruments, moving on to clarinet and brass ensembles who will offer a repertoire that is sure to appeal to everyone, with nods to jazz and pop.”.
Saturday 18 November – Peter and the Wolf.
The programme for this first concert in the series includes the performance of Mozart-Haydn's Toy Symphony and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, with a revised libretto in which an actor takes on the role of the grandfather, narrating the events to his grandson, Peter. Both scores have been rearranged by the Bandmaster for a mixed ensemble of wind and percussion instruments and will be conducted by him.
Saturday 2 December – Clarinet Quintet
From classical to jazz, from pop to klezmer, this ensemble presents itself with an E-flat sopranino clarinet, two B-flat soprano clarinets, an E-flat alto clarinet and a B-flat bass clarinet, offering a concert brimming with suggestions. Just to mention a few of the pieces on the programme: Jazz Band by Henghel Gualdi, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Gardel's Por una cabeza, and many other pieces, all arranged by First Lieutenant Carmine Roberto Scura, the group's bass clarinetist. A welcome addition of the piano to the ensemble will introduce us to a composition by Emanuela Chiodi, herself the pianist for the concert.
Sunday 10 December – Mozart's “Gran Partita”
The star of this concert is the celebrated Mozart serenata composed for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 corni di bassetto, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, and double bass, an absolute masterpiece dedicated by Mozart to wind instruments. It will be conducted by Chief Petty Officer Massimiliano Picca, who will also lead the same ensemble in Mozart's Exultate Jubilate, first performed in Milan in 1777 by the castrato Venanzio Rauzini, here interpreted by soprano Maria Emanuela Digregorio.
Sunday 17 December – Brass and Percussion Ensemble
Grand finale of this first musical showcase with the brass band of the Air Force.
In the first part of the concert, the classical quintet – two Trumpets, French Horn, Trombone, and Tuba – will perform works by composers such as Bizet, Morricone, Kompanek, and the popular Frère Jacques. In the second half, the ensemble will be augmented by other brass instruments and percussion to present pieces ranging from the Baroque of Handel with his Fireworks music to the contemporary David Short's Frontier, Ricky-Tick, Put that Hoe Down, via Herbert Clarke, Ernest Gold, Harold Harlen, and Enrique Crespo.
Access to the concerts is completely free, subject to booking on the Italian Air Force website, by clicking on the “Concerts at Hangar 44” banner.” https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/home/noi-siamo-l-am/organizzazione/gruppi-musicali /
The Italian Air Force Band was established on 1st July 1937. Cavour Barracks in Rome, the first in Italy to host an aviation unit at the beginning of the century, was its first headquarters. There, in the presence of Maestro Pietro Mascagni, the Band gave its first formal concert reserved for dignitaries and high-ranking officers of the new Air Force. On 20th September of the same year, with a concert at EIAR (Italian Public Broadcasting Company), the Band officially presented itself to the general public and began its concert and ceremonial activities. The first conductor was Alberto Di Miniello, a composition student of Ottorino Respighi, who won the competition for the director of the Royal Air Force Musical Corps in 1935. He composed the Official March of the Italian Air Force. Disbanded following the war, the Band was re-established in 1944 and by December of that same year resumed its extensive concert activities: Juliard School in New York, Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, Musikhalle in Hamburg, Conservatoire de la Ville in Luxembourg, Ankara, Moscow. Among its institutional duties, the Band renders honour service at the Quirinal Palace, in alternation with other military musical ensembles, and participates in the most significant ceremonies of the Armed Force, joint forces, and NATO. The current staff, established by State law, consists of 102 orchestral musicians, an archivist, the Maestro Director, and the Maestro Deputy Director. The Band is under the dependency of COMAER – Air Force Command Rome, while its deployment is arranged by the Air Force Staff – 5th Department “Communication”.
