Summer with Orsini Virtuosi (a.k.a. Little Roads Plays Music!)

Matt playing in a Chianti vineyard

Aside from our work creating itineraries for travelers, we’ve been busy organizing and performing concerts in our corner of Italy: from Narnia in Umbria, to Chianti in Toscana, to concerts at castles in our own region. We’ve formed a duo called Orsini Virtuosi - the name is a nod to the Orsini castle that rises on the hill at the top of our town of Soriano nel Cimino. This duo (as well as other ensemble configurations) is a part of our dual careers here in Italy, as musicians and as travel writers.

Setting up for the concert in Narnia Cathedral

In July we performed a handful of concerts at the prestigious Narnia Festival in the ancient hill-town of Narni. Playing the early Baroque harmonies of a piece like Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and hearing them spinning through a cavernous medieval cathedral, is one of the most profound experiences a classical musician can have. The fact that we get to do this on an increasingly regular basis is fantastic.

Narnia Fest Director Christiana Pegoraro Introduces Our Country Blues Act

The Festival also asked us to return with our duo show of American country-blues; we did this show for the first time last summer, with Matt playing guitar and singing, and Zen playing “ fiddle”. This year we added a few new songs, including Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and the Allman Brothers’ “Ramblin’ Man”, and even a new instrumental arrangement of Clapton’s “Layla”! If someone had told us two years ago that these would be our (vastly diverse) experiences upon moving to Italy, we would have said they were crazy - but here we are, playing blues and Baroque music in small Italian towns.

Matt and Students at Narnia (… no explanation for Matt’s closed eyes!)

Matt also enjoyed the unique opportunity also to teach cello lessons for the week in Narni. He conducted these lessons entirely in Italian - his speaking skills increased tremendously in this short period, thanks in part to the patience of his two young students.

Under the identity of our newly formed duo Orsini Virtuosi, we recently presented our second concert at a Chianti winery, playing a wide range of music before a fantastic dinner for 50 people beautifully set under the stars in the vineyard. We’ve performed two of these events so far at this particular (and particularly stunning) venue, and we are laying plans to make this a regular event.

Meanwhile, closer to home: Our little castle town is surrounded by even smaller towns, some of them with castles of their own. Last week we played at one of these castles - another Orsini Castle in fact.) We appeared here as part of our other ensemble, Cari Musici, with our friend and colleague soprano Floriana Carnevali. We played our own arrangements of several famous Italian opera arias and Neapolitan songs, along with a couple of Baroque vocal pieces and several instrumental duos. The sounds of birds and wine glasses clinking accompanied our music to create a magical setting in this Renaissance castle garden.

We also performed our country-blues show here in Soriano, at a park beneath the historic Palazzo - part of a week-long cultural event that highlights local artists of all types. We were honored to be included and to be considered as “locals”. A day earlier we played the same set up the hill at our local retirement home, for all those who were unable to get out to the park event.

Matt setting up to perform at Soriano’s retirement home

While not directly travel-related, these concert appearances do illustrate who we are - experienced professional musicians who love to play diverse types of music. And they do connect to our travel philosophy: Every time we go somewhere to perform, we learn a little something - about the venue, or the town or region, or about something we come across on the way there or back.