Exploring Italy through songs
Additional information
Join us on a journey across Italy, exploring its rich culture and heritage through the lens of music under the expert guidance of the renowned mandolin player and guest instructor, Achille Bocus.
Each lesson is dedicated to a region and its corresponding city, focusing on a celebrated singer and one iconic song.
The choice of songs and artists is thoughtfully, albeit subjectively, curated. Using geography as a guiding principle, you will listen to one song per region, ensuring a diverse representation of Italy through a broad variety of musical genres.
In each lesson, you will be introduced to the region and the city, followed by an introduction to the singer. Achille will provide each student with the lyrics of the song, which you will then listen together. There will be a discussion on the song, exploring its linguistic aspects, idiomatic expressions, poetic licenses, and more. You will also be presented to a curated discography of the artist, highlighting the songs that, in Achille’s opinion, best represent their work.
- Paolo Conte – Genova per noi (Piedmont, Asti)
- Enrico Ruggeri – Il mare d’inverno (Lombardy, Milan)
- Giorgio Gaber – L’illogica allegria (Lombardy, Milan, originally from Istria)
- Fabrizio De André – Il pescatore (Liguria, Genoa)
- Lucio Dalla – Piazza Grande (Emilia-Romagna, Bologna)
- Gianna Nannini – Fotoromanza (Tuscany, Siena)
- Ivan Graziani – Pigro (Abruzzo, Teramo)
- Francesco De Gregori – Generale (Lazio, Rome)
- Edoardo Bennato – L’isola che non c’è (Campania, Naples)
- Carmen Consoli – Confusa e Felice (Sicily, Catania)
You can choose to enroll in the full 10-lesson program or select individual lessons to focus on the song(s) that interest you most.
If you opt for the comprehensive package of 10 lessons, kindly reach out to us at italianschool@sfiis.org.
Alternatively, you can enroll in individual classes from the list provided below.
Let’s embark on this musical voyage through Italy together!
About your teacher
Achille Bocus has spent the last 20 years conducting mandolin orchestras. From 2005 to 2008 he was the conductor of the Orchestra a Plettro Città di Milano, and from 2009 to 2024 he was at the helm of the San Francisco Mandolin Orchestra.
He began playing the mandolin at the age of ten and went on to play several other instruments professionally: double bass, electric bass, keyboards, ukulele, theorbo, and guitar. He has performed with some of the finest classical orchestras of his home country, Italy; in the US, he has played with the SF Ballet and the San Josè Symphony.
He studied music in Milan at the prestigious Civica Scuola di Music Claudio Abbado, earning a degree in String Bass in 1994. Later in his life, he had the opportunity to study at UC Berkeley, graduating in 2021 with BAs in History and Music.
He currently teaches at Oakland Unified School District, offers private music lessons in his own Il Tremolo method, and performs with the mandolin orchestra and his music friends.
10 weeks
Thursday 4:00–6:00 PM PST
ONLINE Via Zoom