More than many other Italian cities, Torino and Milano have cultivated and contributed to the development of Italy’s immense soccer culture, aspiring to and at times attaining unsurpassed excellence. MITO SettembreMusica 2024’s Music on Two Feet project aims first and foremost to pay tribute to the two host cities’ achievements on the pitch. Thus, the soccer-themed evenings in both Milano and Torino are dedicated to audiences that go beyond the usual crowds of art music fans we’re accustomed to. The project focuses on two teams, AC Milan and Torino FC. Incidentally, this year marks the 75th anniversary of the plane crash that in 1949 killed 18 Torino FC players, several coaches, staff and journalists aboard, along with the flight crew.

The performance we’ve devised is what you might call a “quasi melodrama” that comes to life with archive images and music created especially for the occasion by two well-known composers with no little experience in the film soundtrack department, Fabio Vacchi and Carlo Crivelli. Vacchi’s compositions for the AC Milan event will be performed by the Milano Symphony Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Diego Ceretta. Crivelli’s compositions for the Torino FC event will be performed by the Rai National Symphony Orchestra and the Maghini Choir, conducted by Enrico Pagano.

Archive video and photo material for AC Milan is curated by photographer and videomaker Claudia Ferri, best known for her work for designer fashion labels and international magazines; archive video and photo material for Torino FC is curated by Simone Derai, videomaker, director and founder of Anagoor, the theater, performance art, philosophy and hypermedia collective.