BabelebaB a Torino, per la seconda edizione - English Version

BabelebaB is the festival of Italian intercultural choirs: a sharing of musical experiences, music, activism, and social inclusion, a meeting of people of different nationalities.

Coming from all over the country, we meet every two years—17 choirs with over 300 members. The first edition, 2023, was held in Naples, and this September in Turin, to sing together. There will be concerts, musical workshops, and a conference on the theme of choral singing as a tool for participation.

To offer all members the opportunity to participate, all participating choirs are committed to raising funds to cover transportation costs, which are prohibitive for many choir members.
To ensure that no one is left home after months of rehearsals, we need everyone's help.

We ask you to help us provide transportation, even for vulnerable groups.

Your contribution is important: it will go towards 20 travel grants of €100 each.

Intercultural choirs are choirs that live in Italy and blend different musical cultures, depending on their members. They are composed of singers of different nationalities and religions.

Now widespread in many cities, they were born in response to various needs: the educational needs of schools attended by many foreign children, musical curiosity about other sound cultures, the desire to welcome and communicate with new citizens, settled migrants, or asylum seekers.

United by the desire to use music and singing as moments of aggregation and unity, even when languages, scripts, and traditions are different.

Our choirs mix and create new interpretations starting from the proposals of the choir members, always different, without showcasing their differences or conducting philological research into traditions that are often, unfortunately, lost. From this shared desire and diverse experiences, the idea of a biennial meeting was born, each edition held in a different city, to bring our songs to a wider audience, to continue exchanging experiences and initiatives, and to discuss new musical phenomena linked to immigration.

In this way, the initial Babel of languages (we count 15-20 nationalities among us) has become, through our choirs, its opposite: a journey from misunderstanding to unity: a union of voices, the creation of new music, reinterpreted songs, new knowledge of ancient cultures.

This is BabelebaB, a symbolic palindrome of our journey.

From Naples (Millecolori) to Pordenone (Canto Sconfinato and 3d'Union), and Florence (CONfusion) to the Emilian choirs (Coro di Periferia, Coro Interculturale, Bandada, and Mikrokosmos), to the Roman choirs (Coroincanto Voci Femminili Senzaconfini, Romolo Balzani, and Voci d'oro), to Turin (Cantabile and three other guest choirs).

This year's project is organized by Cantabile and supported by the City of Turin and District 1, the Migrantes Foundation, the Impatto Zero Festival, and other local associations.

With biennial events in various cities across the country, we would like to consolidate this wonderful network of solidarity among ourselves and around us, each time focusing on a local leadership/organization, responsible for the great musical, scientific, and organizational work involved.

It is in the nature of our choirs to be inclusive.

As Jordi Savall, a great musician and conductor, writes: "the new citizens are living libraries of cultures."

We are inclusive of anyone who wants to participate in this re-compositional process.

All participating choirs are working to raise funds for transportation costs, which are prohibitive for many choir members.

We don't want anyone left behind for financial or physical reasons: what a disappointment it would be for us, after months of rehearsals together, to have to forgo the presence of someone!

We ask you to help us ensure transportation, even for those in vulnerable situations.
Your contribution is important: it will be used for 20 travel grants of €100 each.
Each choir will report its cases, and the grants will be given directly by the lead choir (Cantabile di Torino) to the requesting choir.
With your help, we want to reach and exceed our goal and create all the necessary travel grants!
No one should be left home!