ROME – From June 29 to July 5 2023, the 18th edition of the international music event Trasimeno Music Festival will take place in Umbria. Amongst the special guests of the 18th edition are Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, who will be interviewed, and Samuel West, British actor and theatre director.

 On June 30, the Sala dei Notari in Perugia will host the eagerly awaited meeting with Margaret Atwood, one of the most important voices of Canadian fiction and poetry. She will be interviewed by journalist Eric Friesen. The conversation will be in English with simultaneous translation into Italian. At the end, the writer will be on hand to sign her various books that can be purchased on site.

 A Harvard graduate, Atwood made her debut at the age of nineteen. She has published novels, short stories, poetry collections, children's books and essays. A multiple nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, she won the Booker Prize in 2000 for The Blind Assassin.

 Her most important titles include: The Handmaid's Tale (2017), The Song of Penelope (2018), The Testaments (winner of the 2019 Booker Prize), The Woman to Eat (2020), Personal Injuries (2021), the poetry collections Short Scenes of Wolves (2020) and Very Much (2021), and the essay collection Burning Matters (2022), all published by Ponte alle Grazie publishing house.  

 The musical side of the festival will begin on June 28 with a "Festival Preview" concert, organised by the association of the same name and with the artistic direction of Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt. The free concert will take place in the Piazzetta of the village of San Savino (a hamlet in the municipality of Magione) overlooking Lake Trasimeno.

 The Trasimeno Music Festival Association organises this event to introduce talented young Italian and foreign musicians chosen by artistic director Hewitt. For the 2023 edition, tenor Riccardo Cellacchi, flute, accordionist Samuele Telari and Angela Hewitt at the piano will perform: on the programme, music by Schubert, Liszt and Italian and English love songs.

 Over the course of the festival seven concerts will be held in evocative venues such as the Basilica of San Pietro, the Oratory of San Francesco dei Nobili, the Church of San Michele Arcangelo, the Castle of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in Magione, and the Piazzetta of the lakeside village of San Savino. There, internationally renowned performers of classical music and talented young musicians will be welcomed.

 Besides Angela Hewitt, the following artists will perform at TMF 2023: the Perugia Chamber Orchestra - Jonathan Ferrucci, Julia Hamos, Mishka Rushdie Momen (piano) - Benjamin Schmid (violin) - Riccardo Cellacchi (flute) - Joshua Hopkins (baritone) - Tabea Debus (recorder) - Samuele Telari (accordion) - Petrit Çeku (guitar and mandolin) - Florian Eggner (cello) - Bradley Smith (tenor).

 For more information: www.trasimenomusicfestival.com

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