Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino

Please note: Dance floor is General Admission standing room only. If you would prefer seats, please select a different level for this show.

With “few peers in contemporary world music” (New Yorker), Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino has been bringing the uproarious music and dance of Southern Italy to new audiences for over four decades. Founded by journalist, author, and Salentine musical scholar Caterina “Rina” Durante in the mid-1970s, CGS spearheaded a revival of the ancient folk music form pizzica tarantata that was born in Puglia’s Salento region, infusing it with a contemporary sensibility and rambunctious energy. Violinist and percussionist Mauro Durante, nephew of Rina Durante and son of founding bandleader Daniele Durante, has performed with the band since age 14 and took over as leader in 2007, enlisting a new crop of prodigiously talented young vocalists and instrumentalists to take the legacy of CGS and the pizzica tradition into the 21st century.

In 2010 CGS was awarded Best Italian World Music Group at Italy’s MEI confab, and most recently, the band was crowned Best Group at the 2018 Songlines Music Awards in London. The group has also collaborated often with Ludovico Einaudi, including most recently on his highly-acclaimed 2015 Taranta Project.