In 2010, Jaci and I made an unprecedented trip (for us) to Genoa, guests of Franco Ghisalberti (my Taraffo collaborator) and his fellow philanthropist friend Alberto Basso.  It was part vacation, part harp guitar “work,” and all fun.  Truly as spectacular and emotional a 10 days as I could ever hope for – I hope I captured a hint of that in the special blog series In Search of Genoese Harp Guitars.

Exactly two years later, we got to return for more adventures.  We had actually planned to go anyway, just for visiting and exploring, but it developed that Franco was preparing another big public presentation to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the death of Pasquale Taraffo with a celebration of his art.

According to the flyer, at tonight’s event, I’ll be interviewed by Beppe Gambetta, and perhaps vice versa (“So, Beppe…what’s the deal with the red shoes, anyway…?).  Also speaking will be Giorgio De Martino, author of a lengthy Taraffo appreciation, just published in the Italian Musica magazine (with a more detailed version appearing on Harpguitars.net).  Musical performances will include guitarists Fabrizio Giudice (a well-known Taraffo exponent I met on the last trip) and Jose Scanu, and the Orchestra del Circolo Risveglio.  Sadly, 14-string harp guitarist Christian Saggese recently chose to follow his own path, and will not be a part of this exciting concert/lecture celebration.

It’ll be nice to see old friends and hopefully new ones (I’m writing this on April 5).  Whether I’ll discover any new harp guitar finds remains to be seen…honestly, how could anything ever compare with that first trip?!  We’re planning a quick couple days to Milan this time, however, so hope to see some new sights.

Obviously, I’ve been incommunicado for the last week – hope you enjoyed the last blog post on the Dyer mandos.

And we’re off!