Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Coming all the way from Italy, by musical way of Argentina, they landed in Chicago and showed the Windy City how much musical fire can erupt from just an acoustic guitar and violin.
Perugia’s SatorDuo is headed to the area for an ambitious series of concerts near the end of October. Then again, tango music is nothing if not passionate — especially in the capable hands of violinist Paolo Castellani and guitarist Francesco Di Giandomenico. Having played all over Europe (including England and France), they returned to Chicago after several previous visits sponsored by Chiesa Nuova, and arts group led by the Rev. Bob Hutmacher of St. Peter’s Church in Chicago.
A composer and artistic director himself, Hutmacher has praised SatorDuo as “artists of the highest level … one of the most exciting duos in Italy today.” Those raves are highlighted on the group’s official website, satorduo.com, alongside similar notices from London’s What’s on Guide and Italy’s Journal of Umbria.
Musicians of this caliber — who play in style of tango masters such as Astor Piazzolla and Leo Brouwer — don’t get to this level by some fluke worthy of a garage band. A chamber music expert, Castellani studied at Perugia’s Conservatory of Music in Perugia with a degree in violin in 1992, and again in 2006, with honors, in musical disciplines. Di Giandomenico also graduated with honors with a multi-faceted degree — covering guitar, musical disciplines, and instrumental-repertoire teaching for guitar and orchestra. (He’s now studying electronic music with composer Luigi Ceccarelli.)
Of course, all the training in the world doesn’t mean much if the music lacks emotional depth. To that end, Hutmacher was wildly enthusiastic to have SatorDuo back in the area again. “They play very, very exciting music,” he says. “Tango is passionate, rhythmical — the dance in and of it self is sensual — and they really know how to express it with just two instruments. It’s phenomenal.”
The two musicians in SatorDuo teamed up about five years ago and shortly after that, they made their first appearance here in 2011. “This was third time they’ve come to Chicago under our auspices,” Hutmacher says.
