The Demetrio Stratos Archive will be based in Ravenna. Acquisition from region and municipality completed

In Ravenna, at Palazzo Malagola, the memorial space dedicated to Efstràtios Demetriou, aka Demetrio Stratos, the great musician and voice researcher who died in 1979 at the age of only thirty-four, will be housed in the eponymous Center for Vocal and Sound Research.

TheEmilia-Romagna Region and the Municipality of Ravenna have completed theacquisition of the archive consisting of audio and video recordings, letters, documents, posters, as well as personal items, handwritten documentation, notes, photographs, clothing, objects used during concerts and performances, books, and records that say much about the Rebels and Area frontman, experimenter and musicologist.

The entire operation was presented to the press today by Regional Councillor for Culture and Landscape Mauro Felicori together with Fabio Sbaraglia councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Ravenna, Ermanna Montanari (founder and artistic director of the Teatro delle Albe/Ravenna Teatro) of the Compagnia Teatro delle Albe, Enrico Pitozzi (scholar and professor at the University of Bologna) and archivist Dario Taraborrelli.

“The region has a vocation for the preservation of archives, and Stratos’s is also of great value to researchers,” said Regional Culture Councillor Mauro Felicori. “A treasure trove of virtuosity and rehearsals by the great artist, who went from pop with the Rebels to the total music of Area, to the extreme experimentation as a soloist to popularize and share sonorities that drew on very distant traditions. A beautiful operation, conducted in collaboration with the Municipality of Ravenna, the theoretical ideational contribution of Montanari and Pitozzi of the Malagola project, with the fundamental contribution of the family, Daniela Ronconi Demetriou and Anastasia Demetriou, whom we thank, and Demetrio’s friends, Paolo Spedicato, Janete El Haouli, Thalia Istikopoulou, Matteo Belli, who will collaborate in the enhancement of the Archive.”

“Ravenna today is enriched with a very important heritage,” commented Councillor Fabio Sbaraglia. “This extraordinary acquisition, thanks to the work of study and valorization that we will carry out together with Palazzo Malagola and its vocal school, will soon offer many scholars and enthusiasts the opportunity to confront directly with very precious materials that have marked the history of music of the last century. Ravenna- he added- also through operations and collaborations such as these confirms itself as a city that through the languages of music is able to recognize itself in a profile of absolute level and we look forward to being able to open to the maximum usability this exceptional material.”

“Stratos with his voice is able to activate in us the experience of the sacred,” said Ermanna Montanari. “We are building at Malagola an immersive room open to the public so that we can sink down to the point of wounding ourselves in listening to his liberating practices.” “Starting with the valorization of Demetrio Stratos’ audio materials,” added Enrico Pitozzi, “Malagola inaugurates an ’experiential fruition’ of sound materials, destined to change listening modes and practices.”

The Demetrio Stratos archive is a heritage of cultural anthropology research, consisting of his vocal studies, notes, and then books and records. They will find the appropriate place in Palazzo Malagola, the first reality on the national level, and among the first in the European context, to develop on the artistic level a research dedicated to the themes of voice and sound. A place equipped with study and listening rooms, a hub of archives, with rooms for the collection, digitization and dissemination of art sound materials. Thanks to the contribution of the Region on the regional law for the organization of archives and libraries, and the Municipality of Ravenna, it was possible to proceed with the purchase for cataloging, digitization and valorization of the Demetrio Stratos archive.

The Demetrio Stratos Archive will be based in Ravenna. Acquisition from region and municipality completed

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.