Publications

Books

Music and Colonialism in Fascist Italy:
Identity, Propaganda, and Ethnographic Representation. Turnhout, Brepols (Forthcoming 2026).

This book offers the first comprehensive investigation of the role of music within the context of Italian imperial expansion in Africa, with a particular focus on the Fascist period.

Drawing on archival sources, colonial newspapers, Italian and international press, published and unpublished scores, and personal accounts, the book examines several domains of entanglement between music and imperial ideology showing how music was mobilized to affirm nationalism, legitimize domination, and shape perceptions of the Other.

Book Chapters

«Le armi dello spirito»: Music in Mussolini’s Imperialist Propaganda. Competitions and Awards in the mid-1930s, in Music and Institutions in Fascist Italy (Illiano R. – Sala L. ed.), Turnhout , Brepols, 2024 (in English).

Theatre Censorship in Italo-Turkish Diplomatic Relations: Lodovico Rocca’s Monte Ivnòr (1938-1939), in Music and the Politics of Censorship: From the Fascist Era to the Digital Age (J. Garratt ed.), Turnhout, Brepols, 2025 (in English).

Il coinvolgimento dei compositori italiani nella propaganda per l’impero fascista: il caso di Adriano Lualdi e Alfredo Casella (Italian Composers and Propaganda for the Fascist Empire: Adriano Lualdi and Alfredo Casella as Case Study ), in L’industria della persuasione: musica e cinema nella politica culturale del fascismo (F. Finocchiaro ed.), Torino, Accademia University Press, 2022 (in Italian).

The African Years of Gavino Gabriel / Gli anni africani di Gavino Gabriel, in Musica e identità nel Novecento Italiano: il caso di Gavino Gabriel (Pasticci S. ed.), Libreria Musicale Italiana LIM, 2018, pp. 71-96 (in Italian).

Journal Articles

Transcultural and transnational connections in Neapolitan song during the colonial period. Raffaele Viviani’s O tripulino napulitano (1925) as case study, ATeM Archives of Text and Music Studies, 7.02, 2022 (in English)

Musical Ethnography and Colonialism: Italian studies on African folklore from Liberal Era to Fascism / Etnografia musicale e colonialismo italiano: contributi sul folclore dei territori d’oltremare dall’epoca liberale al fascismo, Ethnorema n. 7, 2011, pp. 27-42 (in Italian).

Culture, Identity, Ideology: Italian Cultural Politics and Institutions in Colonial Libya / Ideologia, cultura, identità: politica culturale e istituzioni musicali coloniali in Libia, I sentieri della ricerca n. 13, September 2011, pp. 105-130 (in Italian).

Essays

Maurice Ohana: The Originality of a Musical Idiom. Biography and Cultural Background (first part) / Maurice Ohana. L’originalità di un linguaggio (parte I). Cenni biografici e riferimenti culturali.

Maurice Ohana: The Originality of a Musical Idiom. Aesthetics and Guitar Works (second part) / Maurice Ohana (parte II). Un profilo estetico e l’opera per chitarra, Il Fronimo n. 132, October 2005, pp. 24-36 (in Italian).

Maurice Ohana: The Originality of a Musical Idiom. The Tiento (third part) / Maurice Ohana (parte III). Il Tiento, Il Fronimo n. 133, January 2006, pp. 36-46 (in Italian).

RadioTripoli: Broadcasting Traditional Libyan Music in the 1930s – Muslim World Music Day, April 12th 2011 (http://muslimworldmusicday.com/) (in English).

Encyclopedia Entries

Eritrea: History, culture, and geography of music in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, Sage Publications, ed. J. Sturman, 2019, pp. 819-821.

Dissertations

Music and colonialism in fascist Italy (1922-1943), Rome Tor Vergata University, 2010 (in Italian).

Maurice Ohana: L’originalità di un linguaggio, University of Bologna, 2004 (in Italian).

Other Publications

Musica e colonialismo nell’Italia fascista (1934 – 1942), Rome Tor Vergata University, Ph. D. Thesis (2010) – Dissertation Abstract , Aethiopica n. 15 (2012), pp. 303-304.

In honor of Griselda Ponce de León, Il Fronimo, n. 123, July 2003, pag. 53 (in Italian).

Talks

Aural Colonial Traces: Fascist-Era Music and Its Postwar Memory. Paper Presentation at the Sounds of Fascism: Media, Practices, Imagination International Conference, Universität Bonn, September 24-26, 2025

Arias of Empire: The Role of Opera in Libya’s Italian Colonial Theatres. Paper Presentation at the IMS Study Group Mediterranean Music Studies International Conference – University of Malta, April 26, 2024

La musica e l’imperialismo italiano tra le due guerre. Paper presentation at Musica estetica e politica nell’età contemporanea. Giornata di studi, 6 dicembre 2023, 9 am-6 pm, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna (Bologna, Italy)

Music Censorship in Power Structures: Lodovico Rocca’s Monte Ivnòr (1938). Paper presentation at “Music and Censorship in the 2oth and 21st Centuries. Historical, Political and Social Context” Virtual Conference, 10-12 February 2023, Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, (Lucca, Italy).

Italian Fascism’s Empire Music in the Making: Awards and Competitions in the mid-1930s. Paper presentation at “Music and Institutions in Fascist Italy” International Virtual Conference, Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, 7-9 October 2022, (Lucca, Italy).

Opera and Operatic Companies in Italian Colonial Theatres in Libya, presentation in the panel “The Circulation of Opera and Operatic Companies around the Mediterranean Theaters” as part of the Study Group “Mediterranean Music Studies” at IMS 2022 21st Quinquennial Congress of the International Musicological Society, Athens 22-26 August 2022.

Respondant at Entangled Histories and Voices: Popular Music and Postcolonial Approaches, Online Conference, University of Innsbruck, Apr 28 – 30, 2021

Italian Music and Propaganda for the Empire during the Fascist Era (1934-1942), Guest speaker at Prof. Michael Beckerman’s Course on Music and Fascism – Special Studies for Graduate Students, New York University Music Department, Faculty of Arts and Science, Sept 28 2017, 2-4pm

Maurice Ohana and the Guitar: from Spanish Inspiration to a Universal Message – 2013 Guitar Foundation of America Convention, June 29, 2013.

The Role of Music in the Construction of Identity in Colonial Settings: Italian Colonial Libya as Case Study – 19th International Congress of the IMS (International Musicological Society), Rome July 1-7, 2012.

July 5 2012 – The Guitar Music of Maurice Ohana – New York City Classical Guitar Society, July 5, 2012.

Music and Colonialism in Fascist Italy (1922-1943) – Guest Speaker at New York University Italian Department, Seminar on Italian Colonialism by Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, November 1, 2011.

Il coinvolgimento dei compositori italiani nella propaganda per l’Impero fascista: il caso di Adriano Lualdi e Alfredo Casella (The Italian Composers Involvement in the Imperial Propaganda: the Case of Adriano Lualdi and Alfredo Casella) – XVIII Annual Conference of SIdM (Società Italiana di Musicologia) – Genova, October 21-23, 2011.

La pedagogia della musica per la scuola primaria nelle riviste inglesi e nordamericane (The Pedagogy of Music in the English and North-American Journals) – Table round on Music Education in the Primary School for the XIV Colloquium of Musicology organized by Saggiatore Musicale – University of Bologna, November 19, 2010.

Villa-Lobos al Festival internazionale di musica di Venezia del 1932 (Villa-Lobos at the 2nd International Music Festival of Venice) – International Conference on Heitor Villa-Lobos and Europe, University of RomaTre, Rome, November 27, 2009.

Pasquale Bona and his Work in the 20th Century (Recezione della figura e dell’opera di Pasquale Bona (1808-1878) nel Novecento) – Invited talk in occasion of the Centennial Celebration of the Birth of the Italian Composer and Theorist Pasquale Bona (1808-1878) – Rome, December 22, 2007.

GuitArt

– Italian Quarterly Classical Guitar Magazine

n. 63

GuitArt n. 63, July/September 2011, pp. 10-13 A New Repertoire for Guitar Inspired by Science: the Olson/De Cari Duo´s Science/Music Commissioning Project/ Un nuovo repertorio per chitarra ispirato alla scienza: lo Science/Music Commissioning Project del duo Olson/De Cari.

n. 66

GuitArt n. 66, April/June 2012 New York Guitar Marathon: “Bell’Italia”. Celebrating five centuries of Italian Guitar and Lute Music in North America / New York Guitar Marathon: Bell’Italia. La musica italiana per chitarra celebrata a New York.

n. 64

GuitArt n. 64, October/December 2011, pp. 18-21 The Tolgahan Çoǧulu’s Microtonal Guitar: Preserving Tradition, Exploring New Frontiers / La chitarra microtonale di Tolgahan Çoǧulu: tra sperimentazione e preservazione della tradizione.

n. 67

GuitArt n. 67, July/September 2012 Xuefei Yang: from Beijing to the West / Xuefei Yang: la chitarra conquista l’Oriente

n. 65

GuitArt n. 65, January/March 2012 New York City Classical Guitar Society: An Inspiring Model / New York City Classical Guitar Society: un modello da importare.

n. 79

GuitArt n. 79, July/September 2015, pp. 6-8 Duo Assad. I fratelli Sergio e Odair celebrano a New York i 50 anni di carriera. / The Assad Brothers celebrate their fifthy years of activity in New York.