Federico Mecozzi, Traiettorie impercettibili at Teatro Sala Umberto, January 11, 2027

Federico Mecozzi brings Traiettorie impercettibili, an instrumental journey through the music of Franco Battiato, to Teatro Sala Umberto on Monday, January 11, 2027, at Via della Mercede 50 (00187 Rome). The violinist from Rimini, who has stood beside Ludovico Einaudi for 17 years, plays violin, viola and piano with five musicians, in an IMARTS production. The theater is in the Colonna district, between Piazza di Spagna and the Trevi Fountain. The most convenient stops on metro line A are Spagna and Barberini, about a 10-minute walk away. Tickets cost 39 euros in the stalls and 34 euros in the first balcony, section A, according to the table on the official page, and you buy them on the theater's official website, salaumberto.com, or at the box office. The start time should be confirmed on the show's page when you buy.

A concert about Battiato without words is a gamble: the Sicilian singer-songwriter's songs live on famous lyrics, and taking them away means trusting the melodies and the harmonies. Mecozzi does it with one violin and five instrumentalists, in a hall of fewer than 500 seats where every timbre comes through clearly.

Traiettorie impercettibili: the project on Franco Battiato

Traiettorie impercettibili is Federico Mecozzi's new record and live work: a reworking of several masterpieces by Franco Battiato, turned into an instrumental discourse built around the violin.

A personal journey

In the official presentation, Mecozzi describes Battiato as the highest reference point of his artistic growth. His devotion to that music led him, he explains, to make it his own with courage but with the humblest possible approach, stripping it of the power of the words only in appearance. The result is a language that starts from familiar themes and harmonies and dresses them in the timbre that belongs to him most.

The title and Gli uccelli

The title comes from a precise image. The melodies, the rhythms and the harmonic passages of the songs that Mecozzi wanted to dig into and reshuffle become, like the unpredictable flights of the birds sung by Battiato, imperceptible trajectories to be grasped in another guise, from another tiny point of view. Anyone who knows Gli uccelli will recognize the reference.

The guests

The project, the presentation says, is enriched by the presence of prestigious guests tied to the great Sicilian singer-songwriter. The names are not given on the Sala Umberto page: whoever is on stage on January 11 will be discovered in the hall.

Not only Battiato

During the concert Mecozzi will also play several pieces from his own repertoire, from his two solo albums, and some tributes to other great reference points of the music scene. The evening is therefore both a tribute and a portrait of the musician.

The lineup on the Sala Umberto stage

There are six musicians on stage: Federico Mecozzi on violin, viola and piano, Veronica Conti on cello, Anselmo Pelliccioni on cello and double bass, Massimo Marches on guitars and electronics, Stefano Zambardino on keyboards and accordion, Tommy Graziani on percussion.

Two cellos

The presence of two cellos, with the double bass alternating, gives the ensemble a warm foundation, almost like an expanded string quartet. Over this carpet, Mecozzi's violin takes the place of Battiato's voice.

Electronics and accordion

Massimo Marches's guitars and electronics and Stefano Zambardino's keyboards recall Battiato's other side, the experimental and synthetic one. The accordion brings a Mediterranean color. Tommy Graziani's percussion keeps the rhythm of the best-known songs.

The production

The show is produced by IMARTS. The official subtitle is Viaggio attraverso la musica di Franco Battiato (Journey through the music of Franco Battiato).

How to listen to a Battiato without words

Traiettorie impercettibili asks for a different kind of listening from a cover concert: the songs are not reproduced, but taken apart and put back together around the violin.

The recognition game

Those who know Battiato's repertoire well will experience the concert as a game: a chord progression, a fragment of melody, a rhythm that recalls a specific song. The presentation speaks of another tiny point of view, and the definition is exact: the songs are the same, the angle from which they are seen changes.

For those who know little Battiato

Those who arrive without knowing the Sicilian singer-songwriter in depth will simply hear a concert for violin and sextet, somewhere between contemporary classical, instrumental pop and light electronica. It is music that stands on its own, and that can become a doorway to the original songs.

Date, time and tickets

Traiettorie impercettibili is on at Sala Umberto for one evening only, Monday, January 11, 2027. Tickets cost 39 euros in the stalls and 34 euros in the first balcony A.

The time

The start time is not legible in the table on the official page, so it is best to confirm it when you buy or by calling the box office. As a reference, the weekday evening performances of Captivo, on stage in the same hall from January 13, begin at 20:30.

Where to buy

Tickets are bought on the official Sala Umberto website, where the show's page links to the authorized presale network, or at the theater's box office. For reservations, the box office answers at 06 6794753, on WhatsApp at 345 9409718 and at prenotazioni@salaumberto.com.

The teacher's card

Sala Umberto accepts the carta del docente (teacher's card): teachers can use it for a concert like this one too.

Federico Mecozzi: biography

Federico Mecozzi was born in Rimini in 1992. A violinist, composer and multi-instrumentalist, since 2009 he has been a regular at Ludovico Einaudi's side, live and in the studio.

An early vocation

At age six he started playing the guitar and immediately used it to write songs. As a very young man he took part in a few singer-songwriter competitions, with good results. At 12 he entered the Lettimi music institute in Rimini, where he studied violin with maestro Domenico Colaci.

Conducting

A few years later he began studying conducting with Gianluca Gardini, and then attended advanced courses with Piero Bellugi. He also trained as an arranger, and since then has worked between pop, contemporary classical and minimalist music.

With Ludovico Einaudi

Since 2009 he has been at Ludovico Einaudi's side. He accompanies him live on long tours in the most important theaters and arenas in the world, from the Royal Albert Hall in London to the Sydney Opera House, from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Philharmonie in Berlin, and in making the records as a musician and musical assistant.

In the studio with other artists

In the recording studio he has worked with and for Pacifico, Angelo Branduardi, Enrico Nigiotti, Blonde Redhead, Remo Anzovino, Filippo Graziani, Andrea Mingardi and I Ministri: a list that runs from singer-songwriters to indie rock.

Sanremo

He was the youngest conductor at the Sanremo Festival in the 2019 and 2021 editions, and one of the youngest ever. In February 2019 he conducted for Enrico Nigiotti's Nonno Hollywood, for which he also did the orchestral arrangement. In 2021 he conducted for Dellai.

Awakening, Inwards and the solo career

On January 25, 2019, Awakening came out, Federico Mecozzi's first solo album for Warner Music Italy, as a violinist, composer and multi-instrumentalist. The second, Inwards, arrived on October 7, 2022.

Awakening

With Awakening, Mecozzi set out on an Italian and European tour, interrupted by the pandemic. It is the record in which the musician used to standing beside another artist takes the stage with his own writing.

Inwards

In the fall of 2022 he returned to live performance to present Inwards, released digitally and in physical format. The title, toward the inside, says a lot about music that works by subtraction, and anticipates the method of Traiettorie impercettibili: taking away the superfluous, voice included, to reach the core of a melody.

Celtic music

Alongside pop and contemporary classical, Mecozzi plays Celtic and folk music from the Breton, Irish and Scottish traditions. It is a detail you can hear in the way he plays the violin, with ornaments and a phrasing close to the fiddle.

Traiettorie impercettibili

The Battiato project is the third chapter on record and live: the first devoted entirely to the music of another author, after two albums of his own compositions.

Teatro Sala Umberto

Teatro Sala Umberto dates to 1882, on the ground floor of a building on Via della Mercede, commissioned by Andrea Busiri Vici and decorated by Alessandro Bazzani. Today it is a rectangular hall with a sloping orchestra level and one balcony, 485 seats, with Alessandro Longobardi as artistic director since 2002.

Operettas, cinema and variety

In its early years it hosted concerts, operettas and comedies. In 1890 the architect Giulio Podesti enlarged it to 650 seats. In 1913 it became a movie theater. In 1928 its management passed to the Marino brothers, already owners of the Salone Margherita, who brought it back to variety and gave it the king's name: Sala Umberto.

The return to theater

Around 1930 cinema came back, and it would stay for half a century. In 1981 the hall reopened as a theater with the Ente teatrale italiano. In 1991 it went back to cinema. Since 2002 it has been a theater for good, with a program that runs from plays to comedy, from music to shows for young audiences.

A hall for acoustic music

The rectangular shape and the single balcony give Sala Umberto an intimate scale. For a sextet with strings and acoustic instruments, that is an advantage: the sound arrives directly even in the back rows, without the dispersion of large halls.

The Colonna district around Sala Umberto

Via della Mercede is in the Colonna district, a few steps from Via del Corso, between Piazza di Spagna and the Trevi Fountain.

San Silvestro and Sant'Andrea delle Fratte

A few meters away opens Piazza San Silvestro, with the church of San Silvestro in Capite. On Via di Capo le Case is Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, with Borromini's bell tower and dome and Bernini's angels.

Piazza Colonna

Walking down Via del Corso you reach Piazza Colonna, with the Column of Marcus Aurelius and Palazzo Chigi, and opposite it the Galleria Alberto Sordi, a handy shelter on rainy evenings.

Trevi and the staircase

The Trevi Fountain is a five-minute walk away, Piazza di Spagna seven or eight. In the evening, after the concert, the staircase of Trinità dei Monti is almost deserted.

How to get to Teatro Sala Umberto

Sala Umberto is at Via della Mercede 50, inside the limited traffic zone of the historic center. The nearest metro line A stations are Spagna and Barberini.

By metro

From Spagna you cross the square and take Via di Propaganda toward Sant'Andrea delle Fratte as far as Via della Mercede. From Barberini you walk down Via del Tritone. Either way it is about a 10-minute walk.

By bus

Via del Tritone and Via del Corso are served by many surface lines. For the exact route it is best to use the ATAC planner, which accounts for the frequent detours in the center.

By car and taxi

The district is in the ZTL (limited traffic zone): leave the car outside the perimeter, in the garages around Villa Borghese. On the way out, a taxi is the most convenient option, and Piazza San Silvestro is an easy place to name.

Where to eat near Sala Umberto

The Colonna district offers every kind of dining, but it is also the area of places geared to passing tourists, so it is worth moving a few streets away.

Trattorias and osterias

In the side streets between Via della Mercede, Via del Pozzetto and Via della Vite you find Roman trattorias that people who work in the area's institutional buildings frequent at lunch.

Before and after

For a quick meal before the concert, the bars and pizza-by-the-slice shops on Via del Tritone work well. Afterward, a glass of wine can be found in the wine bars between Via del Corso and Piazza di Spagna. Better to avoid the places facing the Trevi Fountain, where you pay for the view.

Accessibility and practical information

For access to Sala Umberto for people with reduced mobility, for reserved seats and for access to the balcony, the point of reference is the theater's box office, at 06 6794753, to be contacted before you buy.

With teens and students

An instrumental concert on Battiato is a good opportunity for teenagers who study a string instrument: seeing how a violin can take the place of a voice is a lesson in live arranging.

Arriving on time

It is best to be in the hall at least 20 minutes early: ticket pickup and the coat check take time, and at an acoustic concert latecomers are noticed.

A Monday in January in Rome

On January 11 the holidays ended just a few days ago and the historic center goes back to everyday life: the streets around Trevi are less crowded than in December.

The weather

In January the evenings are cold and often damp. An umbrella in your bag makes the walk after the concert possible almost every time.

A Monday evening

Monday is the closing day for many museums and many halls. A Monday-night concert in the historic center is a rare opportunity, suited to those who are in town for work or a short trip. A few minutes away is Teatro Quirino, for anyone who wants to build a week of shows.

How to plan the evening

A Monday-night concert in the historic center lends itself to a compact evening: a walk at sunset between Trevi and Piazza di Spagna, the concert, then dinner or a drink afterward in the streets around Via del Corso.

Before the concert

Those who arrive early can take a walk between Sant'Andrea delle Fratte and the Trinità dei Monti staircase, a few minutes from the theater. In January the sun sets early, and the lit-up center looks better than in summer, with fewer crowds.

After the concert

When you come out, many kitchens in the center are still open. If you prefer a drink, you find wine bars in the side streets off Via del Corso. If you have a train to catch, you can reach Termini in a few minutes by metro from Barberini.

For those in town for work

Monday is the typical evening for people in Rome on business. Sala Umberto is a few steps from the hotels of the center and the institutional buildings. It is a good alternative to the business dinner, or a way to end it.

A curiosity about Federico Mecozzi, Traiettorie impercettibili at Teatro Sala Umberto, January 11, 2027

The most interesting curiosity concerns Sanremo. Federico Mecozzi was the youngest conductor at the Festival in the 2019 and 2021 editions, and one of the youngest of all time. In 2019, at age 26, he conducted the orchestra for Enrico Nigiotti with Nonno Hollywood, for which he had also written the orchestral arrangement. It is a detail that explains a lot about Traiettorie impercettibili: whoever arranges for an orchestra knows how to turn a song into an instrumental design, and the Battiato project is exactly that work, taken all the way.

The second curiosity is the guitar. Before the violin, Mecozzi started at age six with the guitar, which he used to write songs, and as a teenager he took part in singer-songwriter competitions. The violinist who today takes the words out of Battiato's songs began, in short, as a writer of songs with words.

The third is the list of artists he has worked with in the studio: Pacifico, Angelo Branduardi, Blonde Redhead, I Ministri. Singer-songwriters, indie rock, early music revisited: a range that explains why Mecozzi moves so naturally between the singer-songwriter tradition and instrumental music.

Something nobody tells you about Federico Mecozzi, Traiettorie impercettibili at Teatro Sala Umberto, January 11, 2027

What goes unsaid is that the musician of Traiettorie impercettibili is, for many spectators, a face already seen without a name. For 17 years Mecozzi has been beside Ludovico Einaudi on the tours that filled the Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall and the Philharmonie in Berlin. Anyone who saw Einaudi live in those years has quite likely already heard his violin, without knowing they should remember the name.

The second thing concerns the repertoire. The concert is not a tribute where you recognize the songs from the first chord. Mecozzi talks about digging into and reshuffling melodies, rhythms and harmonies. Some pieces will arrive transformed, only half recognizable, others will emerge suddenly from a theme that seemed to be something else. It is a kind of listening that asks for attention, and that rewards those who know Battiato well with the pleasure of recognition.

The third thing is practical: the guests tied to Battiato announced by the presentation have no published names. Their arrival on stage will be a surprise even for those who bought a ticket well in advance.

The advice I give you for visiting Federico Mecozzi, Traiettorie impercettibili at Teatro Sala Umberto, January 11, 2027

My advice is to book in the stalls, in the center rows, rather than in the balcony. The price difference is five euros, and at a concert of acoustic strings being close to the stage matters: you see the work of the bow, Mecozzi's switch from violin to viola and piano, the dialogue between the two cellos. With its 485 seats, Sala Umberto lets you see well almost anywhere, but for chamber music the orchestra level remains the right place.

Second piece of advice: listen again to some Battiato songs in the days before, starting with Gli uccelli, which the title openly cites. With the melodies fresh in your head, the recognition game becomes part of the concert, and Mecozzi's trajectories are easier to follow.

Third: listen to Awakening or Inwards too, the two solo albums. During the concert Mecozzi will play his own pieces, and knowing their sound helps you understand where Battiato ends and the violinist begins.

Finally, in our view, it is worth confirming the start time with the box office a few days ahead: it is a Monday, and planning the evening with some margin is always better.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

It is well known that Franco Battiato is one of the best-loved Italian singer-songwriters, and that his songs live on famous lyrics, quoted and remembered by generations. It is mentioned less often how well his music holds up even without the words, entrusted only to melodies, rhythms and harmonic passages. Traiettorie impercettibili starts exactly from here. Mecozzi speaks of timeless themes and harmonies, and chooses to remove the voice to show how much the musical structure is already, by itself, a story.

A second fact known to insiders but rarely mentioned concerns the musicians who stand beside great soloists. The audience at Einaudi's concerts remembers the piano, rarely the violin that supports it. Yet Mecozzi, according to his biography, is also a musical assistant in the making of the records, that is, one of the people who build the sound of a project. Traiettorie impercettibili is the moment when that expertise moves to the foreground.

The third fact concerns Celtic music. Mecozzi also plays Breton, Irish and Scottish repertoire: a tradition in which the violin is the main voice, and which explains his way of making the instrument sing.

The right photo to take at Federico Mecozzi, Traiettorie impercettibili at Teatro Sala Umberto, January 11, 2027

You don't take photos during the concert: in an intimate hall and at a string concert, a phone screen is visible from the stage and the shutter noise is heard in the pianissimos. The photo should be taken before or after.

The most effective one is taken outside, on Via della Mercede, with the red sign of Sala Umberto and the concert poster. Frame it from the opposite sidewalk, leaving room above for the 19th-century facades, with the friezes and medallions of the building that houses the theater. It is the image of a Rome of theaters hidden in ground floors, far from the postcards.

Inside, before the start, a photo of the sloping orchestra level and the balcony conveys the intimate scale of a theater born in 1882. If the stage is already set, the two cellos and the piano under the lights tell the evening better than any poster.

On the way out, the illuminated Trevi Fountain is five minutes away. A January Monday, late at night, is one of the rare moments when you can take photos without the crowd: after a journey through Battiato's music, the water and the travertine close the evening in silence.

Some important events that took place here in history

The history of Sala Umberto is that of a place that has changed its skin several times in almost a century and a half. In 1882 it was born as a hall for concerts, operettas and comedies on the ground floor of a building on Via della Mercede, commissioned by Andrea Busiri Vici and decorated by Alessandro Bazzani. In 1890 Giulio Podesti enlarged it to 650 seats. Perhaps in those years it was known as Sala della Piccola Borsa. In 1913 it became a movie theater, in the years when silent film was conquering Italian cities.

In 1928 the Marino brothers, owners of the Salone Margherita, turned it into a variety theater and gave it the name it still bears, in honor of the king. For a couple of years comedians, sciantose and vedettes performed there. Around 1930 cinema returned.

In 1981, after a renovation, the hall reopened as a theater with the Ente teatrale italiano, devoted mostly to plays. In 1991 it went back to cinema. The definitive rebirth came in 2002, under the artistic direction of Alessandro Longobardi. Mecozzi's concert brings the hall back to its first vocation, the one of 1882: music. In the same season, from January 13, two days later, Sala Umberto hosts Captivo by Gianfranco Gallo, another show in which song is the protagonist.

Who has passed through Federico Mecozzi, Traiettorie impercettibili at Teatro Sala Umberto, January 11, 2027

Between the two wars, Sala Umberto saw the variety artists hired by the Marino brothers: comedians, sciantose and vedettes presented as international, the same world that animated the Salone Margherita. The sources preserve no reliable list of names, but the picture is of a 1920s Rome that went to Via della Mercede in the evening to hear songs.

Since 2002 the hall has hosted mainly plays, comedy and music. In the 2026-2027 season its stage hosts, among others, Francesco Montanari with Storia di un cinghiale, Giulio Corso and Federica De Benedittis with Cime Tempestose, Francesco De Gregori with a long series of fall concerts, and in January Gianfranco Gallo with Captivo.

On January 11, 2027, Via della Mercede welcomes Federico Mecozzi, Veronica Conti, Anselmo Pelliccioni, Massimo Marches, Stefano Zambardino and Tommy Graziani, with the guests tied to Battiato announced by the production. And, through the melodies without words, Franco Battiato, the Sicilian singer-songwriter whom Mecozzi names as the highest reference point of his training, and to whom he dedicates the first project built entirely on the music of another author.

Frequently asked questions about Traiettorie impercettibili by Federico Mecozzi

When does Federico Mecozzi play at Sala Umberto?

Federico Mecozzi plays Traiettorie impercettibili at Teatro Sala Umberto in Rome on Monday, January 11, 2027. It is a single date. The start time should be confirmed on the theater's official page or with the box office when you buy.

How much do tickets for Traiettorie impercettibili cost?

Tickets for Traiettorie impercettibili at Sala Umberto cost 39 euros in the stalls and 34 euros in the first balcony, section A, according to the price table on the official page. You buy them on the theater's website or at the box office.

What is Traiettorie impercettibili?

Traiettorie impercettibili is an instrumental journey through the music of Franco Battiato conceived by Federico Mecozzi: the Sicilian singer-songwriter's songs reworked without words, with the violin at the center, together with pieces from Mecozzi's repertoire and other tributes.

Who plays with Federico Mecozzi?

With Federico Mecozzi, on violin, viola and piano, play Veronica Conti on cello, Anselmo Pelliccioni on cello and double bass, Massimo Marches on guitars and electronics, Stefano Zambardino on keyboards and accordion, and Tommy Graziani on percussion.

Who is Federico Mecozzi?

Federico Mecozzi is a violinist, composer and multi-instrumentalist born in Rimini in 1992, at Ludovico Einaudi's side since 2009. He conducted the orchestra at Sanremo in 2019 and 2021 and has released the albums Awakening and Inwards with Warner.

Where is Teatro Sala Umberto?

Teatro Sala Umberto is at Via della Mercede 50, in the Colonna district, between Piazza di Spagna and the Trevi Fountain. The most convenient stops are Spagna and Barberini on metro line A. The theater is in the ZTL of the historic center.

Will there be guests during the concert?

The presentation of Traiettorie impercettibili announces prestigious guests tied to Franco Battiato, but the Sala Umberto page does not give their names. Who will be on stage on January 11, 2027, will be discovered in the hall.

The final advice on Traiettorie impercettibili

Traiettorie impercettibili is the right concert for those who love Battiato and want to hear him from a new angle, and for those who have heard Einaudi live and want to meet the violin beside him. In our view it is worth taking a seat in the stalls in the center rows, confirming the start time with the box office, listening again to Gli uccelli and a few other Battiato classics in the days before, and on the way out spending 10 minutes at the Trevi Fountain, almost deserted on a Monday night.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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