What are doing on the same stage a violin of the eighteenth century, a Gibson Les Paul of the ’73 and an accordion of Stradella? They mark the new Rhapsodija Trio’ course. It is an ensemble of immediate impact, more electric, more swing, even more passionate, overwhelming. The violinist is Maurizio Dehò, a great musician of the East-European popular tradition in our country, charismatic person and endowed with inexhaustible enthusiasm and communication skills, who once again and - happily - is looking for new expressive paths. The guitarist is Luigi Maione, a musician of great personality, who here presents a new version of himself, even if the artist has always claimed the “electric” origin of his sound.
Although the Trio does not deny the warm inspirations of manouche, gipsy, flamenco, today it dedicates itself to the building of a new project completely made of energy, reminiscences, coup de théâtre, perfect transgression. The new accordionist Nadio Marenco is the third author of the ensemble. Tango stress, pulsating soul of the group, solid supporting basis for the virtuosities of his companions, he is in his turn melodic inspired in the alternations of accompaniment and singing, solos and groove. Coming from important musical experiences, he accepted enthusiastically the challenge, bringing his rich background, a deep sensitivity and a great wave of energy in the group.
The Trio formation, in its concentrated essence, encourages the extreme roles - and a mutual exchange - where everybody is always in the foreground, favoured and constrained in a soloist function. And when they achieve the sharing, then it is music, enjoyment, the ears turn on, the eyes shine, the hands fly, it is pure effervescence. In this new version, the three artists present an overview of their wide production, since the ‘95 to the present day, from their own pieces to the kletzmer and gypsy pieces, from the Argentinian tangheade to the new interpretations of the great classical pieces. By maintaining a well-recognizable stylistic mark, they present themselves in a version determined by the new technical and expressive potentialities, which regrets nothing of the past, but it completely implies the future.
 

MAURIZIO DEHO'

Coming from classical and composition studies, in the ‘70s he became part of the historical Gruppo Folk Internazionale, by performing in hundreds of concerts and recording the two LPs Festa Popolare (1975) and Daloy Politzei (1977). He collaborated with various popular musicians and singers, among which Hana Roth, the greater living interpreter of the repertoire of traditional songs and of the Jewish East-European struggle (1978), and he composed and performed the music for Le mille e una notte, staged by Teatro dell' Elfo and produced by Gabriele Salvatores. He deepened his knowledge about Tzigane violin school in Budapest and studied Hindu and raga violin techniques at the Benares Hindu University (India) under the guidance of Purnendu Battacharie. In 1986 he started again his collaboration with Moni Ovadia, which in the ‘80s was interrupted with the dissolution of the Gruppo Folk Internazionale: he curated the elaborations and the arrangements of the music for the show “Dalla sabbia, dal tempo”, produced by Mara Cantoni (1987), and together with Pietro Marazza, “Golem”, produced in ’91 and staged with great success in numerous international places. He continued collaborating with Moni Ovadia, the Theaterorchestra, the CRT Artificio and the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in the following shows: “Cabaret Yiddish”; “Oylem Goylem”; “Dibbuk” (1995); “Taibele e il suo demone”, with Pamela Villoresi, “Madre Coraggio di Sarajevo”, created by Giorgio Strehler, with Giulia Lazzarini; and “Ballata di Fine Millennio” (1997), both as arranger of the majority of the music performed by the Theaterorchestra and as interpreter of the Klezmer and Brechtian repertoire proposed in those shows. For the theatre he also composed and live performed musical scores for various shows among which, with the electric violin, “Creatura di Sabbia”, the Ben Jalloud’s piece, staged by Teatro Due in Parma and produced by Daniele Abbado, and he took part in the show “Ultima forma di libertà, il silenzio”, created by Moni Ovadia for the Orestiadi of Gibellina. As he has always been interested in contemporary music, in the ‘80s he participated in the project of Democratic Orchestra in Milan, the first Italian formation of avant-garde music, comprising 25 members and conducted by Dino Mariani; later he collaborated with Riccardo Sinigaglia and the group Correnti Magnetiche (LP Correnti Magnetiche and Virtual Dimension); in the last years he cooperated in the concerts of the group Shams, musique de le rencontre Orient-Occident, with Ruggero Tajè and Ahmed Ben Dhiab; and lastly with Alzek Misheff in the performances presented at the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan and at Venice Biennale in September 2000. After an in-depth study on Argentinian music and a lively cultural exchange with the groups of Tango Nuevo of Buenos Aires, in the ‘90s he took part in the Arrigo Cappelletti New Latin Ensemble’s project which took on concrete form in the CD “Pianure” and several jazz-tango shows together with Arrigo Cappelletti, Giulio Visibelli, Gianni Coscia. M. Deho’ collaborated with researchers of traditional music and singer-songwriters such as Luigi Maione, Claudio Sanfilippo, Alfredo Lacosegliaz, Ivan Della Mea, Claudio Sambiase, the pop group Madreblu, the trumpeter Mario Fragiacomo, the composers Carlo Boccadoro, Alessandro Nidi and many others. He participated as soloist guest at the edition of 1999 of La Notte della Taranta, in the orchestration created and conducted by Piero Milesi; and at the edition of 2000 with the final concert conducted by Joe Zawinul, and with Manolo Badrera, Richard Bona, Lelo Nika and the Orchestra della Notte della Taranta. Both the shows are recorded in the homonymous CDs. In addition to the concert activity, he taught in various courses of violin instrumental practice, among which, in Milan, those ones organized by Cooperativa L’Orchestra, the Centro Sociale Leoncavallo, the Circolo ARCI Bellezza, the Teatro Officina, as well as the courses of violin and klezmer music, held in Salento in the summer 2000, organized in the context of the festival La Notte della Taranta and supported by the European Economic Community.
 

LUIGI MAIONE

Composer and arranger, autodidactic guitarist, he improved himself in harmony and composition with Filippo Daccò and in guitar with Giorgio Cocilovo, Gigi Cifarelli, Gaudenzio Gazzola. Author of pieces, he gained many recognitions both as poet (Rome 1982, Premio Internazionale di Poesia C. Capodieci Poeti del ‘900)  and as singer-songwriter (Sanremo, Teatro Ariston, Tenco 1995). During his long professional activity, he participated in various television broadcasts (RAI, Mediaset, TMC, Videomusic, Telelombardia), he recorded in the light music area, he created and realized advertising jingles (Oscar Mondadori, L’Unità), musical contributions for soundtracks (he played in “Pane e Tulipani”, “Agata e la tempesta”), theatrical and musical shows (“Zingaro Incanto”, “Sentiero Color Cenere”, Harem 2009 with KesiaElwin, Walid Hussein, Mohamed Antr). He recorded with Mamud Band, Massimo Cavallaro (for Antonio Albanese). Already from his youth, he took part, before as singer and then as singer-songwriter and electric guitarist, in several shows, folk events and rock-festivals in Vesuvius area, developing a solid live background. Moved in Rome and later in Milan, he kept on improving his musical path, by embracing new genres and by performing as musician and arranger in various ensembles in Italy and abroad, in particular in salsa music context (Stockholm, Latino-American Festival, 1987; Milan, Palatrussardi, 1988). In the meantime he continued his activity of singer-songwriter: the beginning of his first project of musical contamination dates back to this period, that was the Latin-rock-Mediterranean group Partenope Latina (seven members among which trumpet, electric guitar, drums and percussions), with whom he presented only pieces of his own composition (1988-91). After a brief digression in the light music’s world, he came back to deepen his personal musical context up to the encounter with the Balkan, gypsy and klezmer sonorities, by marking the beginning of the second collaboration with Maurizio Dehò and Gian Pietro Marazza, since ’95 onwards.

 

NADIO MARENCO

He was born in Savona and as he was six years old began the accordion studies with the M. Roger Spinetta. His musical education enhanced with the Professors Eugenia Marini and Sergio Scappini (accordion teacher at the Conservatory in Milan and accordionist of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra). In 1994 he began a career dedicated to different musical genres: from jazz to folk music, from classical music to Argentinian tango by Astor Piazzolla. He was on various tours in Italy and abroad, he participated in radio and television broadcasts of Rai, Mediaset and different private stations. He collaborated with the jazz accordionist Gianni Coscia, the Icelandic soprano Halla Margrait Harnadottir, the Manasco Quintet, the Ensemble Oblivion, the Fisorchestra Pattaccini (first accordionist), and with personalities such as Bruno Gambarotta, Cochi and Renato, Iva Zanicchi, Memo Remigi, Enzo Jannacci, the singer Claudio Rossi. He stably collaborates with the Teatro Stabile in Turin and from 2001 with the Turinese singer-songwriter Gipo Farassino (theatre tours in South-America). He formed a stable duo with the guitarist Alessio Nebiolo with a repertoire oriented to the music of the twentieth century, with particular reference to Astor Piazzolla. With this duo he held many concerts in Italy and abroad (Switzerland, France, Sweden, Germany), by recording for Arpeggio and Classica Viva labels. Noteworthy are also: the duo with the accordionist Michele Marenco; the collaboration with the Orchestra dell'Associazione Lirica e Concertistica Italiana in the Project Tour Opera Domani (“L'Amore delle tre Melarance”, Sergej Prokofev’s work conducted by Dmitri Jurowski, theatre tours all over Italy); “La Bella e la Bestia” work, music by Marco Tutino on Giuseppe Di Leva’s libretto (Ensemble of Town Theatre in Modena); the collaboration with the Chorus Turin Vocal Ensemble in a project dedicated to the contemporary music. As soloist accordionist N. Marenco performed at the International Accordion Festival in Erbezzo, Verona, the International Festival Armonjkaer in Aarhus in Denmark and the International Accordion Festival in Monza. With the Rhapsodjia Trio he performed in the international show Aqua held in Laikipia in the Rift Valley, Kenya. He teaches at the Vivaldi Conservatory in Alessandria (Seminar “Quando la fisarmonica sostituisce…” in the Guitar Symposium Master: “La guitarre actuelle”, supported by the Maestro Alessio Nebiolo of the Conservatory in Geneva). N. Marenco held the Experimental Course of Accordion at the middle school Robecchi in Vigevano. He teaches accordion at the town School Luigi Costa and he is in charge of the course Il Coro at the Primary School De Amicis and Negri in Vigevano.