The choir
Komos is a social promotion association that fights for equality through a universal vehicle such as music. Founded in 2008, it was the first entirely male LGBT choir in Italy. He has numerous concerts to his credit, both in Italy and abroad (Munich, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam) and in 2016 he participated in the well-known television program Tu si que vales. Komos is the organizer of the next edition of “Various Voices”, the music festival of European LGBT choirs, which will make a stop in Bologna in June 2022. Since 2017 he has collaborated with the Department of Equal Opportunities of the Municipality of Bologna to offer the city its contribution in the fight against discrimination.
Curriculum vitae of the choir
Komos is the first gay male choir in Italy, founded in 2008 by Paolo V. Montanari, established as an association in July 2012. Open to all, non-partisan and non-denominational, Komos aims to provide musical representation of the LGBTQ community and spread the knowledge of Western cultured music, breaking down the stereotypes surrounding these two realities. The choir’s constantly evolving repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to Romanticism, from opera to the twentieth century to contemporaneity, including rediscoveries (motets by Banchieri), first Italian performances (Love Alone by Ned Rorem) and world premieres (Romeu and eu, written for Komos by Antonio Giacometti, Divo or Mortale, winning piece of the first edition of the International Choral Composition Competition, written by Mattia Culmone), as well as pop songs in original arrangements (from Gigliola Cinquetti to Mia Martini, from ABBA to Queen and much more more …) In its history the choir has collaborated with excellent names of bel canto such as Jessica Pratt, Tiziana Tramonti, Scilla Cristiano, Flavio Ferri Benedetti, Giorgio Caoduro, Alfonso Antoniozzi, and with public figures such as Drusilla Foer, Fabio Canino and Alessandra Spisni . Komos was born in Modena in September 2008 but moved to Bologna a few weeks later, finding hospitality first at the Arcigay “Cassero” club, then in the parish of San Bartolomeo della Beverara, and finally from autumn 2009 in the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bologna. . In 2011, Komos joined Legato, the association that brings together all the European LGBTQ choirs, and in the same year he made his first performance abroad, in Munich. But it is in 2014 that the first major international event arrives: the Various Voices Festival in Dublin, which sees Komos (along with 80 other choirs from all over the world) as the only Italian LGBTQ choir, the first in the thirty-year history of the event. On the emotional wave of this huge event, the dream of contacting other Italian LGBTQ choirs was born to create something similar together. Thus was born Cromatica Festival, which on 30 May 2015 saw its first edition at the Testoni Theater in Bologna, organized by Komos. To support and continue the musical mission of the choir, two initiatives that up to now Komos carries on with pride. In 2013 the International Choral Composition Competition was born, now in its third edition in 2016, created to give a choral musical heritage to LGBTQ culture: the pieces in competition must have texts of clear homosexual inspiration and be written for a cappella male choir or with accompaniment of solo piano. The winning piece is premiered by Komos and published by AltrEdizioni di Cerveteri. In 2011, the musical review Komos & Co. (Music among friends) was created which offers stimulating, varied and unconventional programming from the Renaissance to the present day, with many modern premieres and absolute premieres, and seeks a new form of interaction between musicians and audience, less formal and more engaging. In the awareness of the communicative fracture that was created during the twentieth century between an increasingly rigid and ritualized cultural life and an increasingly lacking musical education of the public, Komos & Co. wants to present itself as a small innovation laboratory where you can rediscover meaning to make / listen to music. Between 2015 and 2016 Komos acquires even more visibility, on an international level with the trips to Paris (June 2015, guests of the Podium Paris choir) and to Amsterdam (August 2016, guests of the Manoeuvre choir, organizers of the AmaSing European Choir Festival in occasion of the Europride), and nationally by participating in the TV program of Canale 5 Tu Si Que Vales. 2017 is a very important year for relations with institutions: Komos signs the “General Collaboration Pact for the promotion and protection of the rights of LGBTQI people and the community in the city of Bologna” (http: //www.comune .bologna.it / news / pact-of-collaboration-for-the-promotion-of-the-rights-of-people in-lgbtqi) together with 13 other citizen associations. This event is the preamble for the beginning of the drafting of an ambitious project that Komos is promoting with the Municipality of Bologna, the agency for the promotion of the Bologna Welcome area and the Cassero LGBT Center: to host the Various Voices Festival in Bologna in 2023. 2018 is the tenth year of the foundation of the choir and Komos changes its structure and statute to become a Social Promotion Association registered in the regional register of Emilia Romagna. Another important event is the birth of Cromatica, the association of Italian Rainbow Choirs, which since 2015 has been strongly supported by Komos, who has been a founding choir since 24 March. On 11 April we debut with an openly anti-fascist show at Teatri di Vita in Bologna: MY FREE SONG is a narrative concert that tells the stories of the homosexual confined in Catania at the time of fascism. In May, the choir participates in the 14th edition of Various Voices, where it officially receives the honor (and the burden) of organizing the future edition of 2023 in Bologna from the assembly of European choirs. In October the choir returns to tread the stage by participating in the production of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” by Orchestra Senzaspine, which will be staged at the Teatro Duse in Bologna.
The director
Riccardo Barbarisi. Born in Florence in 1999, currently a student of Choir Direction at the “G.B. Martini “in Bologna, training with master Diana Federica D’Alessio, he began his studies as a cellist and then moved to the choral scene later thanks to the meeting with masters of clear fame such as Pierpaolo Scattolin, Giovanni Acciai, Mariacarmela De Cicco, Bruno Tirotta , Francesco Aliberti. He has collaborated for many years in the theatrical field as director, actor, costume designer, choir inspector, so as to mature a complete training on issues concerning the body awareness of the individual artist.
He participated as an actual student in the 1st Edition of the Encounter
International Young Musicians “Masterclass” of Cello and Chamber Music organized by the NotoAcademy held by M ° Ulrike Hofmann at the Academy in Noto (SR) in 2015;
In May 2013 He participated in the National Music Competition “Giuseppe Ierna Award for Young Talents 6th Edition – May 2013” organized by the “Giuseppe Ierna” Cultural Artistic Center as a duo and single in the “Flute Traverso” wind section obtaining the second prize with a score of 93 / 100;
On 23 April 2015 he participated in the 5th edition of the “Le Cime della Dante” Culture Award organized by the Syracuse Committee of the Dante Alighieri Society in collaboration with the Territorial School Office with the assignment of the third prize;
On 28 August 2015 he participated in the XXXIII International Band Meeting with the “Città di Canicattini Bagni” Band at the Concert “The music of Jacob de Haan” conducted by Maestro Jacob de Haan held in Canicattini Bagni (SR)
He participated as an actual student in the “Course of High Perfection” of Cello and Chamber Music organized at the Friends of Music Association of S. Cataldo (CL) held by M ° Ulrike Hofmann in Caltanissetta and S. Cataldo (CL) between 2016 to 2017;
He participated as an actual student in the Cello Masterclass organized by the Scuola d’Archi Salernitana held by M ° Ulrike Hofmann at the “Mozarteum” Music School in 2017;
In the two-year period 2018-2020 he won the audition to enter the Sicilian Youth Choir.
He participated as an actual student in the “Masterclass” of Cello organized by the Municipality of Foligno, the Province of Perugia and the Umbrian Association within the “International Courses of Musical Interpretation” XXXVII Edition held in Foligno by Maestro Andrea Cavuoto (PG) from 2019 to 2022;
Between 2018 and 2020 He worked as an adjunct in the orchestra of the Municipal Theater “F. Cilea ”of Reggio Calabria;
In 2018 he won the audition as first cello in the youth orchestra of the “F. Cilea ”of Reggio Calabria;
He participated as an actual student in the annual “Chorus” Choir Conducting Masterclass organized by the Euridice choral association held in Bologna in 2022 (still ongoing);
He participated as an actual student in the “Masterclass” of Choir Direction organized by the “Giovan Battista Martini” Conservatory of Bologna in 2022 held by Professor Geoffrey Jourdains;
In the period between 2021 and 2022 he was assistant director in many choral associations of the Bolognese scene as a concertmaster, vocal trainer, master collaborator.
From 2014 to 2020 he was an active member of the “Giuseppe De Cicco” polyphonic choir. In 2019 he conducted the world premiere of the “Suite Siracusana” by the composer Vito Arena at the Teatro Comunale in Syracuse.
Between 2015 and 2018 he collaborated with the National Institute of Ancient Drama as an assistant.
