International Music Weeks

A festival spread across the Oltregiogo villages

The International Music Weeks is a classical and contemporary music festival held from late May to mid-December in the towns of the Province of Alessandria, in Piedmont. Organized by the Musica&Cultura Pentagramma Association and artistically directed by Gianluca Faragli, the festival features around twenty events dedicated to solo piano, chamber music, and orchestral performances, hosted in churches, palaces, and historic halls throughout the Oltregiogo villages. The theme of the 12th edition is "Solo Piano, Chamber Music, and Orchestra in the Oltregiogo region," designed to showcase the artistic and landscape heritage of the area through great music.

The Francavilla Bisio stop

The Municipality of Francavilla Bisio, a small hillside village in the Alessandria Oltregiogo, hosts the festival in the Salone SOMS with a piano recital entirely dedicated to the solo repertoire. It is one of the festival's most intimate stops, where music engages in a dialogue with the cozy atmosphere of a small town and its audience, reflecting the spirit that characterizes the entire event: bringing concerts out of large halls and into the heart of local communities.

"Piano Eras": a journey through time

The concert, titled "Piano Eras", is performed by pianist Roberto De Leonardis, a musician with extensive concert and teaching experience, active within Italy's higher music education institutions. The program traces a historical path spanning over 150 years of musical evolution, from the geometric elegance of the late Baroque to the full maturity of Romantic pianism:

• Domenico Scarlatti – Three Sonatas, blending brilliant rhythms with bold virtuosic passages;
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Sonata in A minor K.310, one of the composer's most intense, somber, and dramatic works;
• Fryderyk Chopin – Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op. 58, considered one of the absolute pinnacles of the Romantic repertoire.

Music and solidarity

Like all evenings of the International Music Weeks, the Francavilla Bisio concert combines culture with charity: admission to the concerts is typically via voluntary donations to support the LILT – Novi Ligure delegation (Italian League for the Fight Against Cancer), turning every event into a gesture of collective participation.

An itinerary through hills and castles

In addition to Francavilla Bisio, the festival visits numerous towns in the Oltregiogo area: Bosco Marengo, Gavi, Novi Ligure, Pozzolo Formigaro, Rocca Grimalda, Silvano d'Orba, Voltaggio, San Cristoforo, Capriata d'Orba, Lerma, Carrosio, and Pasturana. Each stop is an opportunity to discover a lesser-known corner of Piedmont, amidst hills, castles, and ancient churches, accompanied by live music.