Traditional music
The best way to discover the traditional music of Piedmont is to follow the trail of the region's folk groups, some of which have done work that is close to ethnomusicology. The Ciapa Rusa, for example, has collected and recorded the rural musical heritage and has participated in the safeguarding of ancient dances such as monferrine, alexandrine, curente or sestrine. In 1997, the group broke up, some of its members forming Tendachënt, a new ensemble with a similar ambition of preservation while seeking to modernize the traditional repertoire to pass it on to younger generations. We also find Tre Martelli, whose repertoire is also based on ethno-musicological research undertaken in Piedmont. After forty years of activity and a dozen albums, the group has become a real institution.
Classical music
Italy's reputation in the field of learned music is well established. In Piedmont, the Teatro Regio of Turin is the great Italian reference for lyrical music and without a doubt one of the world's main opera temples. The premiere of Puccini's La Bohème was given here in 1896 in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel II. Destroyed by fire in 1936, only its façade is original and dates from 1738. The musical season is a must for the people of Turin, who go there every year with great enthusiasm. Turin is also home to the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, directed since 2016 by James Conlon, and enjoying an excellent reputation. Also, every year, the city organizes jointly with Milan a music festival called Mito Settembre Musica, which offers high quality concerts at low prices (classical, jazz, rock). In this region, the Musical Weeks of Stresa (on the shores of Lake Maggiore), rich in concerts and chamber music recitals, are also held, as well as the Festival Cusiano di Musica Antica, an important festival of baroque music on the island of San Giulio, in the center of the beautiful Lake Orta.
Popular music
It is also worth noting that the region has been the birthplace of many Italian singing stars. National monuments such as Umberto Tozzi (known for his haunting Ti amo), who is from Turin, and the great Paolo Conte, a figure of Italian jazz and blues, who is from Asti, are worth mentioning.
