Join us for a multisensory experience tasting Sardinian wines before a performance by Grammy-Nominated Guitarist Paulo Angeli! His wildly original pieces are suspended between traditional music of Sardinia, free jazz, flamenco, arabic suggestions, post-folk and drone on a 18-string hybrid instrument of his own invention.

Doors 7pm, Sardinian Wine Tasting Begins 7:15. Concert Performance begins at 8pm.

ARTIST BIO:
Born in 1970 in an extremely stimulating musical environment, Paolo Angeli grew up in Palau, a small port in northern Sardinia, which looks out on the 12 islands of the Maddalena archipelago, a rugged scenic area of turquoise lagoons, national parks and pristine beaches. Paolo started to play guitar when he was nine. The guitar and the voice of his father (his first mentor), the rock bands of the village, his experience at concerts in village squares, and carnival evenings, all pointed him in a direction that eschewed stylistic barriers in music. Paolo Angeli has a degree in ethnomusicology and has digitized the Archivio Mario Cervo, the most important collection of Sardinian records and traditional music.

Angeli composes and performs on a Sardinian prepared-guitar: an orchestra-instrument with 18 cords, a hybrid between guitar, baritone, violoncello and drums, gifted with hammers, pedals, some propellers at variable speed. With this singular instrument, constructed by the craftsman Francesco Concas, Paolo elaborates, improvises and composes beautiful and unclassifiable music suspended between free jazz, folk, post-rock and minimal pop. Paolo Angeli has sold out Carnegie Hall and in 2022 he was nominated for five Grammys: Album of The Year; Best Alternative Music album; Best Alternative Performance; Best Global Music Performance; and Best Instrumental Music Performance.He has collaborated with Pat Metheny (who uses Angeli’s guitar in Orchestrion), Fred Frith, Hamid Drake, Iva Bittova, Butch Morris, Ned Rothenberg, Jon Rose, Antonello Salis, Evan Parker, Takumi Fukushima, Louis Sclavis, and Paolo Fresu, among others.

ABOUT THE WINES:
For those wanting to explore more Sardinian culture beyond the music of the amazing Paolo Angeli, we are offering a guided tasting and presentation of two reds and two white wines from the island led by our in-house wine expert and Board member Rob Forman before the performance. We will taste wines from the one of Sardinia’s best producers called Vigne Surrau, specialists of the remarkable dry white wine Vermentino, at its finest in their region of Gallura in the northeast, and two reds based on the Canonau grape (a.k.a. French Grenache, Spanish Garnacha), which are vibrant, spicy and full of flavor. During the tasting we will discuss Sardinia’s remarkable history, culture and geology. In addition to the wines, we will have Sardinian cheeses such as Pecorino Sardo to snack on. Come enjoy some of the finest wines (and values) Italy has to offer!

CRITICAL ACCLAIM:
“Guitarist Paulo Angeli is a musical conjurer, an artist whose imaginative leaps defy gravity. A composer, ethnomusicologist and instrument builder who draws on his deep knowledge of traditional Sardinian music, he inhabits a timeless zone as a soil-rooted master and brash experimentalist. While suffused with Mediterranean cadences, Angeli’s original pieces encompass flamenco, jazz, Baroque, post-rock and new music. He plays a prepared Sardinian guitar of his own invention, a fantastical 18-string hybrid combining elements of guitar, cello and drums.

A feast for the eyes as well as the ears, Angeli in full flight is an astounding sight, as he bows, strikes, hammers, plucks and strums an instrument with strings going in all directions and foot-pedal-controlled motorized propellers. With sympathetic strings creating shimmering drones, he adjusts tunings on the fly to create exquisitely lapidary, orchestral music using electronic effects in real time (he eschews loopers, creating every sound in the moment). Angeli’s music may be unclassifiable, but it takes no expertise to recognize its strange and extravagant beauty.” -San Francisco Jazz Festival

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