Biography

The Polyphonic Choir “LAUDATE DOMINUM” was born in 1993 from an idea of Salvatore Di Blasi, today its Conductor, at the request of Don Mario Di Lorenzo to animate the Eucharistic Celebration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Bagheria. Initially the Choir is composed exclusively of children’s voices, but already after a few years, and the inclusion of male voices, is dedicated to the concert promotion of polyphonic-sacred singing.

In June 2001 the Choir had the high honor of singing in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, for the Eucharistic Celebration broadcast in Eurovision on RaiUno on the occasion of the Canonization of Fra Bernardo di Corleone and presided over by His Holiness John Paul II. Countless animated celebrations in the Cathedrals of Sicily, many of them televised on RaiUno, and as many participations in Choral Reviews of a Regional character, receiving considerable appreciation from the public. In May 2003 the Choir, in collaboration with the Centro Regionale Rassegna Corale Liturgica and the Archdiocese of Palermo, paid tribute to Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi with the “Jubilee Concert”, held at the Oratory of SS. Salvatore in Palermo on the occasion of the celebrations of the Cardinal’s 50th anniversary of priesthood. In June of the same year he won the III° National Prize of Choral Music held in Balestrate (Pa). Between 2004 and 2006 numerous participations in events and reviews of choral music with official awards and good appreciation of listeners. In November 2006 he participated in the V Festival of Sacred Choral Music, held in Alessandria della Rocca (Ag), where the Choir received the recognition and delivery of the award from the President of the Regional Province of Agrigento.

Since December 2011 the choir collaborates with the Telethon foundation to raise funds for the research of genetic diseases.

In September 2012 the Choir suspends the commitment of Sunday and festive liturgical and continues its growth, for concert purposes only, at the Parish of Maria SS. Immacolata of Bagheria. Since 2013 the activity of the choir is entirely managed by the Cultural Association Bequadro di Bagheria, which in the same year organizes the First Choral Festival of Sacred Marian Music, at the Church Sanctuary Maria SS. Immacolata, with the participation of nine choirs from every province of Sicily.

The Laudate Dominum Choir has the honor of Concertare at the Church Maria SS. Immacolata for the Master Emeritus of the Sistine Chapel, Monsignor Giuseppe Liberto in June 2013; during the event the Hymn of the Immaculate is presented to the City of Bagheria for the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation as Mother and Queen of Bagheria (event sponsored by the “Banco di Sicilia” foundation). He participates in the Lyric gala concert for the Festino di Santa Rosalia held at Palazzo Costantino in Naples (“Quattro Canti” in Palermo). In September he received the assignment from the Municipality of Palermo for the “Concert tribute to Mons. G. Liberto” on the occasion of the National Week of Cultures at the Monumental Church of San Giovanni Decollato.

He participates in the XIII Competition of Sacred Choral Music in the Mother Church of Alessandria della Rocca (AG) Sunday, November 15, 2015 and receives from the Commission composed of three Masters the “Sicily Region” Award, consisting of a diploma of merit assigned to the Choir that presented the best performance of a piece of topic related to sicilian popular religious traditions or Sicilian author. Commissioned by the University of Nantes (France), the Conductor Salvatore Di Blasi composes the music on texts by Giovani di Gaza (V century d.C.) sung in the original language, classical Greek, by the Laudate Dominum Choir as part of the Classical Studies Conference “Coricio di Gaza: his time, his places” held in Bagheria from 19 to 21 May 2016, organized by the University of Nantes in collaboration with the Cultural Association Bequadro di Bagheria, of which the choir is an integral part and Salvatore Di Blasi Artistic Conductor.

In September 2016 the Choir, at the invitation of the research center “L’AMo” of the University of Nantes, director Prof. Eugenio Amato, in collaboration with the University of Basilicata, performs presenting an opera gala at the Concervatorio di Musica E.R. Duni of Matera, with an operatic-sacred program where the songs in Greek language set to music by Salvatore Di Blasi are inserted.

The next trip, in November 2016, seals the quality in the preparation of the choir and the highest esteem for the Conductor, during the trip to the town of Ricadi (VV) at the invitation and by the will of the parish priest of the village Don Giuseppe Lopresti. The trip, aimed at the knowledge of the method of study and singing that the choir master imparts in the weekly meetings, to expand and intensify the choral activist of the Parish of San Zaccaria, ends with the concert of sacred music offered by the Laudate Dominum Choir and ends with the signing of the Twinning between the choirs at the time of the signing by the local authorities and guests: the Mayor of Ricadi, the President of the Bequadro Association, the parish priest, the choir masters.

Fixed appointments of the Choir, for the City of Bagheria, remain: the Epiphany Concert, Concert on the Passion and Death of Christ, the Easter Concert and the Regional Choral Festival of Sacred Marian Music now in its third edition in 2015, and prepares the fourth for the second Sunday of May 2016, always obtaining excellent feedback from the public.

Currently the Choir consists of about forty adult singers and thirty White Voices, directed by Salvatore Di Blasi, who give life to the school of the Cultural Association Bequadro (Artistic Conductor Salvatore Di Blasi) with study and singing meetings to which musicians, singing teachers, singers students of opera music for collaborations are often invited, Masterclass, comparisons and enrichment of musical knowledge, at the premises of the historic residence Palazzo Aragona Cutò in Bagheria.