Music in the Italian Hills

We are itinerary planners, having crafted small-town trips for travelers for over 10 years now. It’s been so much fun sharing our knowledge and our love for the places we’ve visited, encouraging people to travel with an eye towards appreciating a place - the food traditions, social quirks, art and architecture and history, and the sheer beauty of the places themselves.

But we are here in Italy principally as classical muscians and organizers of cultural events. In the formation of our violin/cello duo, we call ourselves “Orsini Virtuosi” – the name coming from the Orsini castle atop our town.

Here’s just a little snapshot of what our lives are like in this musical identity - our alter-egos, so to speak.

One of the first things we ever played when we moved to Italy in November 2019 was at a local elder-care residence, just a few blocks up the street from our home. We did this at Christmastime, to bring a little music to the residents there (some of whom didn’t have family to visit), and to make ourselves feel better about missing our own families.

Not long after our move here, we connected with a couple of musicians who have since become dear friends: One, a soprano born and raised right here in our own little town; and the other, a violinist from England who has lived here with her husband for 20 years. (They’re now Italian citizens - that’s our dream!)

Together we play concerts as “Cari Musici”, which translates to “Dear Musicians”. (It could also be “expensive musicians”… but we’re not, really!) We’ve played here in Soriano as well as around Lazio and Umbria in various beautiful places.

After the 2020 lockdowns lifted, a summer festival in Narni (another small medieval castle town, about 30 minutes from us in Umbria) invited us to perform a concert of Italian baroque music in a medieval church. But they also asked us, after seeing our Nashville-based CV, if we could play a concert of American country blues. This is not a request that professional orchestra musicians typically receive or typically could fulfill. Luckily Matt is an erstwhile singer-songwriter and guitarist - maybe only a Nashville “3”, but a Soriano “6.5” or so. So we put a program together, with Zen playing as a sideman on “fiddle” (using charts which Matt wrote note for note), and Matt singing and playing guitar - classics by Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Johnny Cash, Elvis, the Allmann Brothers, and more. (Even one song by Queen!) Since that post-lockdown gig, we’ve played this presentation dozens of times - not exactly what we expected to be doing as musicians in Italy!

Of course we want to be a part of our town, and we participate in pubilc events from time to time, ranging from church concerts to playing alongside dozens of kids singing Italian anthems.

More recently, we have connected with a violist to form (along with the other vioinist mentioned above) a string quartet - we call it “Quartetto ZELM”, using the first initials of each of our names. We perform from time to time in beautiful and historic spaces in Orvieto and the surrounding area.

Of course, no freelance musical career is complete without an assortment of wedding gigs. We’ve made a nice little niche for ourselves in this arena, playing weddings in Tuscany and Umbria as well as here at home in Lazio. We get to inject a bit of extra creativity into these gigs by offering each couple a custom arrangement of two of their favorite songs - we’ve arranged everything from Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto to Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”!

Our lives here are very different than what we expected when we moved here over five years ago – but we are so happy that we made all the drastic changes in our life to get to be here, and to make music in the hills of Italy.