Essex County 2021 Italian Heritage Celebration!

D’Italia Programs will be offering an array of fall cultural activities for all lovers of everything Italian! Join us for a day long celebration of Italian culture with Free activities for adults and children. The celebration is open to the public, and will share the impressive history and cultural traditions of Italians in America with the entire Essex County community!

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Join us at the Verona Library on October 2 at 10am for Festa Dei Bambini!

Music! Dancing! Arts and Crafts, Bocce Ball and more!

Call to reserve your spot for a special morning of Italian culture created just for children! This even is Free, but please register by calling (973) 857-4848.

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Just in time for Halloween! Learn how to escape the virtual spider web and get rid of ghosts the Italian way: By banging on drums!

On Saturday, October 23, we will be partnering with The Montclair Public Library (50 South Fullerton Ave Montclair, NJ) to present a Tarantella Dance & Drumming Workshop led by New Jersey Italian Folk Artist Beth Ann Mastromarino, and The Coro’s own Marylou Romano!

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Special Thanks to our Amazing Performers:

Tamburello: Beth Ann Mastromarino

Accordionist: Phil Passanato

Zampognaro: Charlie Rutan

Soprano: Lucia Tambone

If you are interested in volunteering to be part of this amazing event

please contact us directly at ditaliaprograms@gmail.com

Many hands…

Do you enjoy performing?
We are always looking for new participants to sing, dance, and play music with us!

Our ensemble includes both professional and volunteer performers. Members range from five-year-old Bambini troupers, to eighty-five-year-old great grandparents. Not all members are of Italian descent, but all share a love of Italian music and culture.

The ability to read music is desirable, but not required; Choral Director, Barbara Stasiak, is an ace at arranging music and teaching tunes, Choreographer Celeste Varricchio gets everyone on their feet, and percussionist Beth Ann Mastromarino will help you to keep the beat on a tamburello!

We are looking for offstage volunteers, too! Are you a dab hand at graphic design? Like interacting with the public? Please contact us at xxx@email.com or join us on xx date and yy time to learn more about getting involved!

MVPs…

Most Valuable Paisan!

The 2018-2019 season’s “Most Valuable Paisan award” was presented to the Marzullo family, who have done so much for the Italian-American community.

Brother and Sister team, Rafaelle Marzullo, and Marialena Marzullo, spearheaded the successful effort to keep Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church open by gathering petition signatures, writing op-eds, and reinstating the OLMC Feast!

Rafaelle, who was born in Aquilonia, Italy, was also instrumental in Montclair officially becoming a sister city to the town of Aquilonia, and stood in for the his hometown’s mayor at the official signing. You can learn more about Sister Cities at https://sistercities.org/about-us/

Grazie mille, Marzullos!

You represent the best of what the Italian-American community can do!

Bella Italia… and All That Jazz!

Work is already underway on our new fall production: “Bella Italia… and All That Jazz!” It showcases Italian-American pioneers in Jazz such as Vince Guaraldi, Nick LaRocca, Morgana King, and Louis Prima. It’s an exciting time to highlight the contributions of Italians to American Culture, which has always been a special part of our mission.

This is a subject dear to Artistic Director Marylou Romano’s heart. A true Jazz aficionado, Marylou has curated an amazing collection of songs and has centered, a uniquely American art form, wherein the contributions of Italians are appreciated, from it’s birth in New Orleans, through it’s evolution into standard American radio fare.

It’s an interesting time to contemplate New Orleans and the Italian-American community which settled there in the late 1800s: On April 12th, 2019, New Orleans Mayor, LaToya Cantrell, has formally apologized on behalf of the city, for the most horrific lynching in American history; on March 14th, 1891, eleven Italian-Americans who had been acquitted of murder were then murdered at the hands of a mob. We appreciate that Mayor Cantrell has taken this step. As she so eloquently stated: “At this late date, we cannot give justice, but we can be intentional and deliberate about what we do going forward.”