Piano City Lecce Festival

It is an 'infinite keyboard', a 'diffuse piano' that spreads the beauty of music and moves from classical notes to contemporary melodies, passing through jazz and pop. Piano City, after last year's preview, returns to Lecce for three days, transforming the city's fascinating and unusual locations into large open-air stages. The international piano festival, conceived by Andreas Kern, a pianist internationally acclaimed for his ability to innovate music, in Lecce has the artistic direction of Andrea Mariano, producer, sound designer and keyboardist of Negramaro, and will see 40 of the 180 pianists who sent in their applications by 15 July perform for three days. The solo piano performances are divided into three different sections: City Concert, Street Concert and Educational, reserved for youngsters.

The venues where the concerts chosen for this edition come to life are special and unprecedented, some of them specially reopened for the occasion: from Villa Mellone to the Sala degli Specchi of the Circolo cittadino, from the Carlo V Castle to the former Hospital of the Spirito Santo Church, all the way to the 'Vito Fazzi' Hospital and the 'Torrino dell'Acquedotto Pugliese' (Pugliese Aqueduct) in Via Diaz.

The opening event is at 4 p.m. with a city concert at the Scuola Ufficiali Cavalleria Centro ippico miliare "Cap. Federigo Caprilli" (east ring road exit 8b), followed by an educational with Gioia Barbera, Camilla Curti, Anna Rizzo, Alessandro Sambati and Matteo Isaia Suffianò.

At 6.00 p.m. a new city concert, again at the Cavalry Officers' School, with a performance by Stefano Guarascio (classical music with music by Granados, Liszt, Prokofiev, Ravel) and at 7.00 p.m. that of Artem Yasynskyy (classical music with music by Bach, Brahms, Karanits, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Skoryk).

At 9.00 p.m. we move to the Acquedotto Pugliese reservoir in Via Diaz with the city concert by Andrés Barrios (contemporary with music composed by the artist), while at 10.00 p.m. the Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation (Piazzetta Baglivi) hosts the street concert in jazz by Roberto Esposito and then, at 11.00 p.m., the talented Apulian Serena Brancale.

It closes at midnight with a special event with the jazz of Toni Tarantino's 'Piano Eclettico' on the SGM M1 line (Foro Boario piazza Carmelo Bene).

The event is organised by Piano City Lecce and Icon* Radio, with the patronage of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Municipality and Province of Lecce, the Archdiocese of Lecce, the Lecce PugliaSalute Asl, the Order of Architects, the WWF, and the FAI Lecce delegation.

Free admission. House concert, special event and final concert require booking on the festival website.

Info: www.pianocitylecce.it