Sounding Forest
In Val di Fiemme, the Valley of Harmony
The centrepiece of this opencast temple of music are the spruces, already appreciated by Stradivari and other master luthiers like the Guarnieris and the Amati. Each summer this forest welcomes a musical ritual, the only one in the world, invented by Mr. Claudio Delvai. Worldwide famous musicians taking part in the festival of music at high altitude "The Sounds of the Dolomites”, are invited to the forest to choose one of the trees. This is the gift that Val di Fiemme offers to all artists spreading sublime melodies throughout the world with musical instruments that are likely to be born in these forests, that the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme accurately have been looking after and managing for one thousands of years.
During the naming ceremonies of the trees, celebrated by Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme, Val di Fiemme and Trentino, Mr. Marcello Mazzucchi, a forestry expert, reveals the “personal features” and history of the spruce that the musician has chosen.
It often happens that the artist recognizes a curious similar nuance with his tree. The ritual finishes with the performance of a track that the musician dedicates to his spruce. A mysterious resonance between man and nature vibrates in the wood. Magically, the assonance between these two living beings of different species – but sharing some common chromosomes – becomes palpable.
You can arrive at the Sounding Forest driving through a forestry road (mostly paved) that from Predazzo gets to Valmaggiore. At the Tourist Board office of Predazzo you can ask for the tablet with the APP "The Sounding Forest". Once reached the forest, walking among the trees, look at the number assigned to each spruce, then click it in the App “Sounding Forest” to listen to the artist's song.
Please note that after the Vaia windstorm of 2018, some trees and information boards were damaged. Together with the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme and their forest rangers, we are working on bringing the Sounding Forest back to its original beauty as soon as possible, thank you for understanding.
The "baptized" trees of the Sounding Forest
EDITION 2007
Uto Ughi (violinist), Mario Brunello (cellist), Giovanni Allevi (pianist),
EDITION 2008
Daniel Hope (violinist), Marco Rizzi (violinist), Danilo Rossi (viola palyer), Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo (orchestra), Ilya Grubert (violinist), I Suoni delle Dolomiti (music event organizer).
EDITION 2009
Giuliano Carmignola (violinist), I Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca (orchestra), Aiarp (Italian Association of Piano Tuners), Uri Caine (jazz pianist), i Virtuosi italiani (orchestra), Iva Bittovà (violinist and vocalist).
EDITION 2010
Ezio Bosso (double bass player, composer and orchestra leader), Piero Farulli (founder of the famous Music School of Fiesole), Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Ivry Gitlis (violinist) and Paolo Vallorz (landscapes painter).
EDITION 2011
Fondazione Stradivari (Cultural Association of Cremona), Quartetto di Cremona (string quartet), Salvatore Accardo (violinist), Isabelle Faust (violinist).
EDITION 2012
Gidon Kremer (violinist), Kremerata Baltica (orchestra), Giovanni Sollima (cellist) and Stefano Bollani (pianist).
EDITION 2013
Isabelle Faust (violinist) and Mario Brunello (cellist), welcome-back cerimony to the Sounding Forest and tree greeting.
EDITION 2014
Franco D’Andrea (jazz pianist)
EDIZIONE 2015
Arve Tellefsen (violinista) e Thomas Zehetmair (violinista e direttore d’orchestra)
EDIZIONE 2017
12 violoncellisti del Berliner Philarmoniker
