In the last week of September I went to Robert De Vito’s studio to record a demo of 1000 for a Canada Council recording grant application.The song is about Garibaldi’s battle in Marsala, Italy that was the catalyst to liberating Italy from the Spanish Bourbon Empire that ruled over mid-to-southern Italy. The people rose up against the ruling class with the belief that with the end of feudalism, freedom and democracy would ensue.

The idea and framework for the new record Risorgimento began while taking a course in Modern Italian Culture at York University in October of 2010. I began to form the idea of the record immediately and began putting words and music down by late 2010, early 2011. The song 1000 was written in 2012 and 2013. Inspiration for this work comes from Roberto De Simone (La Gatta Cenerentola), Ignazio Silone, Giovanni Verga, Professor Giovanni Picchione (York University), my grandparents, parents, my little town in the mountains of Abruzzo, and Italian folk songs.

In this recording: Robert De Vito (engineer), Drew Jureka (violin), Claudio Villa (violin), Carol Gimbel (viola), Carina Reeves (cello), Roberto Occhipinti (double bass), Francesco Pellegrino (colascione and tammorra), me (voice). All music and lyrics © Romina Di Gasbarro.