July 23 – Ten days of intense Canada touring await the Piccola Banda Ikona, group led by Stefano Saletti, that will perform, until July 29, in the 36th edition of the Vancouver Folk Festival and the Mission Folk Festival, two of the most important ethnic and world music events in North America. In addition to the concerts, which kicked off Saturday, July 20, workshops and sessions are planned together with other musicians on the bill. La Piccola Banda Ikona is composed of prestigious musicians, such as singers Barbara Eramo and Ramya, flutist Gabriele Coen, violinist Carlo Cossu, bassist Mario Rivera and percussionist Leo Cesari. The founder is multi-instrumentalist Stefano Saletti, already member of Novalia, director of Sois 7 Orkestra and Les Voix du 7 sois (two international music ensembles). La Piccola Banda Ikona sings in Sabir, the ancient lingua franca that sailors, pirates, fishermen, and merchants spoke in the Mediterranean ports. Saletti has taken this sort of seafaring esperanto, formed gradually with words taken from Spanish, Italian, French, and Arabic, and has written songs that run through the soundscapes of Mediterranean popular tradition, ranging from early Balkan polyphony to Southern Italy’s chants, from Arab-Andalusian mouwashas to Sephardic chants of the Jewish diaspora. Back in Italy, the Piccola Banda Ikona will play on July 30 at the Casa del Jazz in Rome in a special ” Mediterranean Night ” alongside pianist and accordionist Antonello Salis.