Elena Ledda
Encyclopedia
Elena Ledda is a Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

n singer.

Born near Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...

, she pursued conservatory studies in oboe and voice. Ledda has a dramatic soprano voice suitable for opera, which she originally performed as an artist, but was attracted by the folk singing of her native Sardinia and has chosen a career primarily in that genre of music. She worked with the Cooperativa Teatro di Sardegna in the late 1970s. She has toured and recorded widely at the international level.

She was chosen by Sardinia's top movie director, Gianfranco Cabiddu, to be the leading voice for his renowned live music/cinematic mix project, Sonos de Memoria, featuring old film footage of Sardinia from the 1930s and today's leading musicians from the island playing over the film. Sonos has toured the world, with other well known Sardinian musicians, such as Paolo Fresu.

A more recent development in 2006 was a new project called "Visioni di Sardegna", written and produced by Elena Ledda's longtime collaborator Mauro Palmas, who had old films of Sardinia from the Luce Institute restored and assembled 18 musicians under the direction of RAI TV director, Rodolfo Roberti. Special guest, renowned Greek singer Savina Yannatou
Savina Yannatou
Savina Yannatou is a renowned Greek singer.After taking classical guitar lessons and participating in the children's choir of Yannis Nousias for some years, she studied singing with Gogo Georgilopoulou and Spiros Sakkas in Athens, and later attended postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of...

, was invited to feature in the project to give it its unique pan-Mediterranean flavour. The project is ongoing in 2007.

The collaboration with Savina Yannatou
Savina Yannatou
Savina Yannatou is a renowned Greek singer.After taking classical guitar lessons and participating in the children's choir of Yannis Nousias for some years, she studied singing with Gogo Georgilopoulou and Spiros Sakkas in Athens, and later attended postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of...

, resulted in a series of ten concerts being given at the Half Note club in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 at the end of March 2006. It met with fabulous critical acclaim and TV interest in Greece. This resulted in a CD being recorded ("Tutti Baci", Lyra 1095) by both of them and featuring Mauro Palmas and Primavera en Salonico.

Among her collaborations, feature the likes of Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the AACM, and cofounded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Biography:...

, Israeli singer Noa, Maria Del Mar Bonet
Maria del Mar Bonet
Maria del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer is a Balearic singer from the island of Majorca.-Early life and career:She studied ceramics in the school of arts, but eventually she decided to dedicate herself to song. She arrived in Barcelona in 1967, where she began to sing with the group Els Setze Jutges...

 (mallorca), Paolo Fresu
Paolo Fresu
Paolo Fresu is a trumpet and flugelhorn jazz player, as well as an arranger of music, and music composer.-Career:Fresu was born in Berchidda, Sardinia. He picked up the trumpet at the age of 11, and played in the band Bernardo de Muro in his home town Berchidda...

, her longtime personal friend as well as Andreas Vollenweider
Andreas Vollenweider
Andreas Vollenweider is a Swiss musician. His music has been categorized as World Music, Jazz, New Age and even Classical; two of his albums were number 1 on the Billboard charts simultaneously in the categories Classical, Jazz, Pop and Crossover for more than 11 weeks. His music could be...

, Don Cherry, and Nana Vasconcelos
Naná Vasconcelos
Naná Vasconcelos is a Brazilian Latin jazz percussionist, vocalist and berimbau player, most notable for his works with Pat Metheny, Don Cherry, Egberto Gismonti, and Gato Barbieri....

. In 2005 Elena collaborated with Neapolitan violinist, Lino Cannavacciuolo (Peppe Barra's violinist and original founder of the Solis String Quartet who are now Noa
Noa
-Name:*Noa is a popular traditional Hawaiian name, meaning "free" and "freedom". *Noa , is the most popular feminine Hebrew name, derived from a root that means "movement". Noa is a biblical name; she was one of the Daughters of Zelophehad...

's band of choice) to produce her latest CD "Amargura". A perfect marriage of Sardinian and Neapolitan sounds and rhythms.

The BBC's Andy Kershaw
Andy Kershaw
Andy Kershaw is a British broadcaster, known for his interest in world music.His shows feature a mix of country, blues, reggae, folk music, spoken word performance from the likes of Ivor Cutler, and other music from around the world.- Early Life :Kershaw and his sister, fellow broadcaster Liz...

 said of Elena "I planned a trip south to make a programme about Sardinian music, almost solely on the evidence of a CD I was given of Elena's voice. We went to Sardinia and I was blown away. Elena and her band make traditional music from Sardinia using all the mainstream instruments, with hardly any 'traditional Sardinian' instruments in sight, yet it sounds so traditional and so not-mainstream. They have achieved a truly unique and refreshing sound. Clearly rooted to Sardinian tradition, yet so modern." The programme, featuring many Sardinian artists can be heard on (fast forward to the 20th minute of part 2 to hear Elena's interview).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/onlocation/ram/corsica2.ram

Her latest recordings due out in 2007 were done with other Sardinian legend, Andrea Parodi who died from cancer in October 2006, before completing the recordings. Elena was asked to sing at Parodi's funeral as they were friends, and both regularly featured in each other's recordings. Effectively, Elena Ledda's 2007 release will be a collaboration which was almost completed in the studio, though sadly Parodi never made it to the end.

Some more fragments of Elena's brilliant band can be heard here http://www.pablofarba.com/elenaledda.cfm

Recordings include:
Ammentos (1979)
Is Arrosas (1984)
Sonos (1989)
Incanti (1993)
Maremannu (2000)
Amargura (2005)

External links

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