Grammy Award-winning pianist and multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi will bring his new project Vuci to Dublin’s Project Arts Centre on 22 October, marking the live launch of an album that explores Sicily, family, memory and the enduring story of migration across the Mediterranean.
Taking place in Space Upstairs, the one-night performance will combine Turrisi’s original solo piano compositions with archival recordings, poetry and moving images, creating a multimedia experience that goes beyond a traditional album performance.
Vuci is deeply personal to Turrisi, drawing on his own family connection to Sicily and the story of relatives who left the island, while also looking at the more recent movement of people arriving on its shores. The result is a work that connects different generations and experiences of migration through music, language and imagery.
At the centre of the album are archival recordings of Sicilian voices from the 1940s and 1950s, including work songs and recordings of everyday life. These are woven into Turrisi’s original piano compositions, alongside poetry performed in both Sicilian and English.
The album features Sicilian poetry performed by actors Ester Pantano and Nino Provenzano, while English-language poetry is performed by actor John Turturro. The combination gives Vuci a distinctly multilingual character, reflecting the different places, voices and generations that inform the project.
The visual side of the performance is equally important. Archival photographs documenting the traditions of Sicilian tuna fishing are combined with newly created moving-image work by Irish multidisciplinary artist Laura Sheeran, providing a visual counterpart to Turrisi’s music.
Several pieces on Vuci offer a particularly intimate window into the ideas behind the project. The Unanswered Wave reflects on water as both a connection and a barrier between Sicily and Ireland, while Eredita di lacrimi sets the work of 20th-century Sicilian poet Ignazio Buttitta alongside music performed by Turrisi and trumpet player Fulvio Sigurtà. Ninna Nanna incorporates a 1960 field recording of Sicilian singer Maria Bonferraro performing a lullaby, surrounding the fragile archival recording with Turrisi’s piano.
For audiences familiar with Turrisi’s work, Vuci continues his long-standing interest in bringing different musical traditions and cultures together. His career has crossed jazz, early music and musical traditions from across the Mediterranean and beyond, with collaborators including Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma, Bill Frisell, Christian McBride, Taj Mahal, Lisa Hannigan and Rhiannon Giddens.
His collaboration with Giddens, They’re Calling Me Home, won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album, while his most recent solo piano recording, Northern Migrations, was described by The Irish Times as “delicate, wistful and wholly engrossing.”
Following the Dublin performance, Turrisi will take part in a Q&A with cellist and Crash Ensemble Artistic Director Kate Ellis, offering audiences an opportunity to hear more about the ideas, research and personal history behind Vuci.
The album itself will be released on 23 October, with the 12-inch, 180g vinyl edition available to purchase at the Dublin launch. The limited physical edition features a tactile 320gsm reverse-board sleeve with embossed text and a four-page insert of original black and white photographs by Turrisi.
Vuci launches at Project Arts Centre on Thursday 22 October at 7.30pm. Tickets are €22, with concessions available for €20, while a ticket and vinyl bundle is available for €50.
For anyone interested in music, migration, Sicily or the ways personal histories can shape creative work, this promises to be a particularly distinctive evening at Project Arts Centre.
Project Arts Space Upstairs
22 October 7:30pm
Tickets: €22/20
Vinyl: The Vuci vinyl will be available to purchase on the night for €35.
Ticket bundle: Full price ticket + Vuci vinyl: €50
