Illawarra Folk Festival, NSW

Santa Taranta is a Melbourne-based band playing music inspired from the traditional southern Italy music. Their styles include Pizzica, Tammurriata and Stornelli, as well as Polkas from the barbershop and the occasional serenade d’amore. Two of the band members, Salvatore Rossano (accordion, percussion and voice) and Mirko Guerrini (clarinet, sax, flutes) grew up playing the traditional music, jazz and world music, Emiliano Beltzer (guitar, voice) is a fine guitarist from Argentina, joined by Nara Demasson (mandolin, guitar), one of the best musicians of the local music scene. The band has played in several Festival and Cultural Centers, sharing a new way of playing italian music to a wide audience with great response. From the Salento peninsular to Mt Vesuvio they will infect your blood and keep you dancing like a spider and weeping like la Madonna…