Alberto Cesa Prize: six finalists chosen to take the stage at Folkest 2025.
The territorial selection phase of the Alberto Cesa Prize, the award dedicated to music that enhances cultural roots from all over the world, has concluded. The competition, named after the great Piedmontese musician, collected more than 150 applications from all over Italy.
Six artists won the pass to the Folkest 2025 stage after live selections: in Arezzo the Zerofolk Duo won, while in Cervasca the prize went to the Stefano Turolla Trio. In Loano the Pasticcio Meticcio prevailed, while in Codroipo the Urtie stood out. In Rome, Massimiliano Felice and his band triumphed, while in Arbizzano victory went to Fan Chaabi. All six winners will take the stage at Folkest 2025 in San Daniele del Friuli, bringing their music and their personal journey between tradition and innovation before the audience of the renowned festival.
Again this year, as last year, the finalist groups will be asked to set to music, sing and arrange a text in the Friulian language by the poet Federico Tavan from Andreis, an artistically outstanding figure, the highest voice of Friulian literature in the second half of the 20th century after Pier Paolo Pasolini, a stimulating cultural challenge carried out in close collaboration with Morganti Editori, the publishing house that manages the rights of this great poet.
The first runners-up will receive the NUOVO IMAIE Prize and will be invited to perform at Folkest 2026 and Ethnos 2026. While the second and third place winners will be invited to two of Folkest’s evenings on the territory 2026.
Also this year, the Alberto Cesa Prize will be supported by Nuovo Imaie.
As Folkest’s Artistic Director Andrea Del Favero well points out, “The live dimension is a very important aspect of music on which we have always been fighting, looking for opportunities and solutions for the new proposals, often really very interesting ones, that we happen to encounter.” Precisely in this line, that is, that music can and should have as wide a diffusion as possible, but above all that it can have its own working dimension guaranteed, during the Festival all musicians present in San Daniele between July 4th and 6th will be offered, in collaboration with UpBeat, the European Platform for World Music Showcases, a wide choice of clinics, with meetings with professionals of the sector at an international level.