Grosseto. In the setting of the Manzoni theater in Bologna, the choir of the “Salvo D’Acquisto” primary school of the Comprehensive Institute 3 of Grosseto participated in the review of school choirs of the national territory, presented by Professor Gisella Gaudenzi to remember Mariele Ventre, musician, educator, soul of the “Zecchino d’Oro” as well as founder and director of the Piccolo Coro dell’Antoniano from Bologna.
The choir performed with a lineup of around sixty children attending third and fourth grades of the “Salvo D’Acquisto” primary school, directed by Daniela Bilotti, and they also took turns on stage five more choirs coming from schools in Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Puglia.
The event was promoted by the Mariele Ventre Foundation with the patronage of the Regional School Office for Emilia Romagna and the Municipality of Bologna. The event was curated and presented by Gisella Gaudenzi, artistic director of the event and responsible for the educational sector of the Foundation.
There rassign is the final moment of a ministerial project “On the notes of Mariele“, which involved some schools in the national territory through musical workshops for children and training courses for teachers held by Gisella Gaudenzi. The course focuses on the method of the well-known Mariele Ventre, an active method that places the child at the center of learning with a methodological-didactic approach that starts from full immersion in musical practice to get to know the elements and function of musical language.
The Grosseto choir
The cOro Grossetano tried his hand at two songs from the “Zecchino d’Oro” repertoire, challenging both from a musical and textual point of view: “Amico enemy” and “Scuola Rap”. The lyrics convey important messages for children, one is about friendship for “a person different from you, he is a brother you have lost but like you it is a blue drop in the sea, in a sea where you too swim.” The other significant message is about the school that “it becomes true and beautiful when learning is growing, having fun, to open up to new knowledge, it is comparing and above all it is understanding that important, is to do the best you can”; Like this by doing this it becomes lighter and more accessible for everyone. At the end of the program the children dedicated their song from the Maremma to the Bolognese festival,” O gentle Earth“,that with his poetry and delicate description of our land moved the large audience at Manzoni, who responded with warm applause and sincere participation during the performance.
The artistic director of the event, Gisella Gaudenzi, complimented the Grosseto choir and Daniela Bilotti, primary school teacher and music teacher, who trained and directed this great group with skill and dedication. The choir proved to be a compact, harmonious formation, capable of transmitting strong emotions and energy even with the rhythm of “body percussion”.
“This event was a beautiful experience that makes us understand how the choir, even and above all the school choir, needs study, the confident commitment and perseverance of those who believe in it – explains Gisella Gaudenzi -; being part of a choir is a promise made to oneself and to others, in order to feel like a protagonist even in community life”.
The representative Bilotti of the project “On the notes of Mariele” was assisted by a team of teachers from the “Salvo D’Acquisto” primary school: Costantini Cristiana, Santoro Rita, Sammarco Antonella, Donnini Silvia, Gaito Annamaria, Briganti Daniela, Romani Stefania, Volpi Roberta, Mercone Antonietta. Congratulations from director Gaudenzi and the Foundation for teachers, whose team work was important for the participation in this great review of school choirs outside the region.
The “Schools in choir for Mariele” event aimed to surprise the vast audience of children in the room by dedicating to them songs sung by the “Coro delle Maestre d’Italia”, which involved all the teachers who participated in this important project: more than seventy teachers from different regions performed two enthralling songs, such as “Piazza Grande” and “Good night Little Flower”, and the poetry of the song “Se permiracle”, created by the great educator and director Mariele on the music of a song by Chopin with lyrics by Rossi, known as Father Berardo, an important figure in the history of “Gold Zecchino”.
The school principal Maria Natalia Iiriti expressed enormous satisfaction and pride for the result obtained in this great ministerial project which involved the teachers of the participating classes, many pupils and parents who actively collaborated on the trip.
Enormous satisfaction on the part of the children of the Grosseto choir for the welcome and warmth of the Bolognese public in the room; even outside the theatre, walking under the Bolognese loggias, compliments, happy looks and smiles flew from unknown people who had attended the concert. Pleased and even more convinced, the children felt that they had succeeded in their aim; they even recited it on stage in their motto before singing: “All united we will make it!”.
