Piano City Palermo 2024: 40+ concerts in historic and marginal venues

The seventh edition of Piano City Palermo takes place from September 20 to 22, 2024, with over 40 concerts across three days, from dawn to dusk. The free festival, directed by composer Marco Betta and musician Francesco Taskayali, aims to connect the urban and social fabric of Palermo through international music. Notable venues include Villa Tasca (where Richard Wagner wrote much of Parsifal), Palazzo Mazzarino (opening its Sala della Minerva with butterflies painted by Damien Hirst), Villa Wirz, and Palazzo Raffadali. Concerts also occur in marginalized areas: the Danisinni rural borough and the Sperone district, where a concert on Sunday at 18:30 in a disused service center (in collaboration with Sperone167 by Enrico Morsillo) symbolically draws institutional attention, leading to planned renovation and a new mural. Dawn concerts include Taskayali at Molo di Sant'Erasmo and neoclassical pianist Nik Sheva at Quattro Canti on Sunday. International names include Raphael Gualazzi at GAM. Other venues: Maison Bocum (jazzist Mike Mazzari), Ostello Bello near the restored port, and the Botanical Garden (neoclassical and jazz by young musicians from the Fondazione Teatro Massimo di Palermo). The festival emphasizes original composition and genre contamination, encouraging young pianists.