Media Release

For immediate release
September 19, 2008
High resolution images available

Traditional songs relive stories of freedom, lost love at The Banff Centre October 4

Fiamma Fumana and The Mondine Di Novi Choir
Saturday, October 4 • 7:30 p.m.
Margaret Greenham Theatre • The Banff Centre
Adult $22, Senior, Student and Child $18, Playbill Special $17
Banff Centre Box Office: 1-800-413-8368 or 403-762-6301
Presented as part of the 2008 Playbill Series

Di Madre In Figlia (From Mother to Daughter) is a multi-generational concert of songs that retell the remarkable stories of women who toiled in the rice fields of northern Italy during World War II. It brings music-makers Fiamma Fumana and The Mondine Di Novi Choir to The Banff Centre’s Eric Harvie Theatre October 4.

The collaboration was created to tell the stories of the women who were assigned to arduous labour during the war, — songs of freedom, resistance, and lost love. When the women were not weeding in the fields during the Second World War, they supported the resistance movement against the Nazis, carrying secret messages to the partisans, or smuggling weapons under shopping bags of onions, cabbages, and potatoes. When the war ended, the women continued to sing together, creating the choir, eventually sharing the songs with their daughters to help continue the tradition.

The Italian folk-pop-dance band Fiamma Fumana learned of the choir’s history, launching a collaboration that led to performances in Italy and appearances at the 2007 Concert of Colours in Detroit and Glasgow’s Celtic Connections 2008. A four-piece group, Fiamma Fumana combines traditional Italian songs and ballads with urban dance grooves and state-of-the-art electronica. Using guitar, accordion, whistles, flutes, Italian bagpipes, and vocals coupled with the loops and samples of contemporary club music, the band reinterprets the songs of previous generations for today’s audiences.