"What Makes It Italian?" is a music listening and discussion group that meets online on the Zoom platform and is open to everyone.
Participation is free.
The group is led by Gina Crusco, who has also guided listening at Bard LLI and Riverdale Y; acted as maestro del coro for opera in Italy; instructed music at The New School; and directed Underworld Productions.
Please email [email protected] to confirm your attendance and receive an invitation link.

Fall 2023 Schedule

Whatever the purpose of a garden – pleasure, contemplation, practicality, or botany – it is the artifact of someone taming chaos into a recognizable form. When garden forms share underlying aesthetics with music, they make the unseen tangible. In this series, we listen to works by composers associated with Italian gardens, including Leonora d’Este, Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo), Francesco Veracini, and Federico Campana.

Like a gardener, the composer “weeds out” unwanted sounds and manipulates others into preordained forms. We explore parallels between gardens – nature organized in space – and music – noise organized in time. Just as some garden designs, like the labyrinth, defy geography and era, so music speaks an international language. Let’s listen.

Tuesday, October 10, 6:00pm
Outside Florence, Outside Rome

Tuesday, October 17, 6:00pm
Rome Environs

Tuesday, October 24, 6:00pm
Tuscany

Tuesday, October 31, 6:00pm
Bellagio, Early and Late

Tuesday, November 7, 6:00pm
The Veneto

Tuesday, November 14, 6:00pm
The Modern World

Tuesday, November 21, 6:00pm
From Sicily to the Tyrol