Main Projects / Activities

Today, Tavola Tonda delivers a rich weekly program of 5 traditional dance classes and 8 traditional music instruments classes: frame drum, guitar, mandolin and accordion, engaging and training around 200 people, between youth and adults. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, we also offered music instruments courses of flute, violin, Arab oud, and the traditional singing and vocal technique and training course, reaching more than 400 people. The health crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the entire global cultural ecosystem. The mobility restrictions and confinement measures drastically curtailed access to culture and have disrupted the cultural sector as a whole. By March 2020, our inperson classes, events, concerts and performances were cancelled or postponed. Building on the impact and considering the still challenging context post-COVID, we are still recovering and implementing our activities and complementarities. In 2022/23 our classes have been complemented by 10 intensive workshops and seminars of traditional dances, vocal technique, frame drumming techniques and drum making workshops led by many of the icons of the Italian and international traditional and ethnic music scenes, engaging more than 300 people. 4 Since 2017, Tavola Tonda has been organising Sponde Sonore Festival, one of the most relevant festivals dedicated to traditional, ethnic and folk music in Italy, hosting live music featuring national and international artists as well as art installations and workshops. Over 6 months, more than 2100 audiences, as well as visitors from other parts of Italy, Europe, and beyond, take part in 17 festival’s concerts and other cultural activities. Before the Covid pandemic, Balfolk dances events in Tavola Tonda were started with our first big ball in March of 2011 and since then many people have contributed to the development of this community based event. In 2022/23 we organized 8 Balfolk dances events with live bands, sometimes visiting from out of town, often focusing on a specific regional music and dance, and open to all to participate. More than 700 people attended them. Over the last 2 years we also organised 10 Milonga (Tango) evenings reaching over 1200 people, we also hosted 8 book launch events attended by 800 people and 10 Stand Up Comedy evenings more than 1000 people. Tavola Tonda is also active in production work to create a cohesive and entertaining experience for the audience, while raising the necessary funds to finance the production. Several theatre and music performances were produced along the year. The Choròs project, an all female frame drumming performance collective, is also a produced performance, a workshop incubator and spearhead into new research projects. One such project is the Euro Mediterranean Frame Drum Map. A google map powered collective project born to gather all the known documents and evidence of female frame drumming from the proto and prehistoric periods until present times in the broader Mediterranean area, the project complemented by a growing bibliography provides a great starting point to anyone interested in the frame drumming traditions of the area.