In the artist's words:

The clarinettist, saxophonist and composer Alessandro Palmitessa first studied jazz and classical saxophone, graduating from the N. Rota Conservatory in Monopoli (Bari/Italy). As a scholarship holder at "Siena Jazz", he subsequently obtained the "High Professional Qualification in Jazz Music and Contemporary Derivation". Palmitessa has won several musical awards and plays in numerous international formations at international jazz festivals. Alessandro Palmitessa has lived in Cologne since 1997. His project "Menschensinfonieorchester", initiated in 2001 with homeless musicians from Cologne, received a lot of media attention after the first CD release (including a report in GEO 2/04) and won the Rheinischer Förderpreis of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung in 2005. In 2024, he played and conducted the Menschensinfonieorchester as part of the Schönberg Gala in the Cologne Philharmonie. However, his activities extend far beyond Cologne: in 2005 and 2007 he toured Europe with the Japanese Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra. Alessandro Palmitessa Banda with Elena Ledda played at the Lanxess Arena Cologne at the "FEST im GLAUBEN" festival in 2013. In 2021/2022 it toured various cities in Germany with the music program: "Deutschlandlieder - Almanya Türküleri" and in 2023 with a part of the film documentary by Nedim Hazar on 3 Sat. The record I don't want your war AFGHANISTAN 1969 was nominated for the 2024 German Record Critics' Award in the category Traditional Ethnic Music. Alessandro Palmitessa is the director of several series of events and has been the director of the Italian festival Kulturbrücke am Rhein in Cologne since 2008.

My story in Cologne: "It's been about 27 years since I arrived in Germany and Cologne. After watching the documentary Conny Plank - Mein Vater der Klangvisionär (2017 ARD) at the suggestion of my wife Luciana, the memories of my arrival in Cologne came flooding back. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to experience that time, but fortunately I was able to get to know and capture a little of the scent of that era and I'm very happy about that. When I arrived, I was looking for a rehearsal room. At first, thanks to Hans Mörtter, I rehearsed under the bells of the Lutherkirche in Südstadt, and sometimes, so as not to disturb his colleague Rolf Domnig, I went to the Rhine to duet with passing ships. During those first few months, I got to know the Guinea Bisseu percussionist and singer Carlos Robalo, who gave me the key to his studio in Stollwerk, also in Cologne's Sudstadt district, free of charge. And so I went to this building, where various musicians from the Cologne scene met. Almost every evening I moved into the rehearsal room of Jaki Liebezeit (CAN), with whom I spoke several times and who told me about Gianna Nannini, with whom he was very good friends. A friendly relationship developed, and at several meetings we played together with other musicians in a circle in a kind of evening jam session. Then the MenschenSinfonieOrchester, which I founded together with the Protestant pastor Hans Mörtter, was born and we started to make our first CD, and who would have thought that I would end up in Can's recording studios with their sound engineer Renè Tinner. The studio, which was still intact, was moved to the Rock-Pop-Museum in Gronau after a few months. Markus Stockhausen, Helmut Zerlet and Klaus der Geiger were special guests on this recording. Shortly afterwards, at the invitation of Jan Krauthauser, we took part in the project 'Es war in Shanghai' with the orchestra and went with René Tinner to the recording studio of Conny Plank and his son Stephan, where we recorded a very energetic version of the Edelweisspiraten song 'Wilde Gesellen', perhaps unconsciously inspired by the studio in which we were full of history."(15.04.2024)

www.palmitessa.info

www.menschensinfonieorchester.info

www.festival-all-italiana.de