I was delighted to recommend two of my students as performers for a gala at which Dianne and I were invited guests. It was a fabulous evening, with singing, dancing, celebrating, and enjoying the Abruzzese food we’ve come to love so well when we travel to Sulmona each summer. Charles Sy [B.Mus., (Perf., year 3)] and Claire de Sévigné (Mus.M. ’11) were featured soloists last night at an event sponsored by Toronto’s Abruzzo Federation, honouring the musical contributions of conductor Sabatino Vacca, who hales from the Abruzzo Region in Italy. Charles and Claire have both performed in the Abruzzo Region, as part of the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy program in Sulmona. Charles Sy performed songs of Abruzzo composer Paolo Tosti: “Non t’amo più,” “Ideale,” and “L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra ” with members of the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra (Sabatino Vacca, conductor), and Claire de Sévigné, with collaborative pianist Kimberley Bartczak, offered opera favourites, “Quando men vo’,” “O mio babbino caro” and “Caro nome.”
The event was emceed by Francesco Ventresca, and celebrated the many Abruzzese who emigrated to Toronto, the families they have raised here, and the cultural legacy and ongoing vitality they bring to life in our city today. The audience numbered about four hundred, and was appreciative and welcoming.