Diego Parrella

“Refractio” is a project that generates a dialogue between the performance of a work and an improvisation in response. Just as light transforms its appearance when it changes medium, the musical work is also diluted within the improvisation, which in a certain way deconstructs what the listener has just heard and builds it up again using a contemporary language.

Songs of love and loss by a trio of early 18th century Spanish composers, showcasing the vocal art of a distinguished early-music soprano.

Diego's Umbrella is an American gypsy rock band consisting six male members from San Francisco, California, celebrated as San Francisco's Ambassadors of Gypsy Rock. The members of the group include Tyson Maulhardt a.k.a. the Facehorn, Vaughn Lindstrom a.k.a. the Juergistador, Jason Kleinberg a.k.a. the Gypsy, Benjamin Leon a.k.a. the Token Ecuadorian, Jake Wood a.k.a. the Samurai, and Red Cup a.k.a. the Animal. Diego's Umbrella describes their own music as "a blend of eastern European gypsy traditional stuff, Spanish flamenco, polka/ska rhythms, and good ol' pop and rock from the west. It sounds schizo to describe it, but it all comes together as dance music. It's a show for getting drunk, sweaty and making bad decisions." Their matching outfits are homemade, and they are known to perform shows without set lists.

Diego's Umbrella is an American gypsy rock band consisting six male members from San Francisco, California, celebrated as San Francisco's Ambassadors of Gypsy Rock. The members of the group include Tyson Maulhardt a.k.a. the Facehorn, Vaughn Lindstrom a.k.a. the Juergistador, Jason Kleinberg a.k.a. the Gypsy, Benjamin Leon a.k.a. the Token Ecuadorian, Jake Wood a.k.a. the Samurai, and Red Cup a.k.a. the Animal. Diego's Umbrella describes their own music as "a blend of eastern European gypsy traditional stuff, Spanish flamenco, polka/ska rhythms, and good ol' pop and rock from the west. It sounds schizo to describe it, but it all comes together as dance music. It's a show for getting drunk, sweaty and making bad decisions." Their matching outfits are homemade, and they are known to perform shows without set lists.

On her second PENTATONE album Maria & Maddalena, star soprano Francesca Aspromonte explores the Two Marys in oratorios by Lulier, Bononcini, Leopoldo I d’Asburgo, Caldara, Perti, Handel and Scarlatti, partly in new editions, documenting the extremely bloom of the genre in the years around 1700. She performs these works together with violinist Boris Begelman as well as the seasoned players of I Barocchisti under the baton of the eminent Diego Fasolis. Traditionally seen as two feminine opposites, with far-reaching moral implications, Aspromonte brings the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene together as two beautiful and strong women who turned their lives upside down by making the choice to dedicate themselves completely to an ideal. Her interpretation of these exceptional pieces explores all the emotions of the Two Marys, constituting a fascinating and profoundly moving portrait of what it means to be a woman.