Musicians for church music in Tuscany

The Via Francigena crosses Tuscany from north to south: from Pontremoli to Lucca, from San Gimignano to Monteriggioni, from Siena to the Val d'Orcia, as far as Radicofani. For a thousand years pilgrims have walked it, stopping at the parish churches and villages along the way. If you are looking for musicians for church music for a wedding in Tuscany, Maestro Ilarion, tenor, brings live sacred music to the region's churches, together with the parish organist and choir.

Two pilgrims

Think of two people who have never met. She comes from northern Europe, he from an Italian city. Both, at a difficult moment in their lives, decide to set off on foot along the Via Francigena. They meet in a pilgrims' hostel, over a plate of pasta, their feet covered in blisters.

They walk together for a few days. Then a few weeks. They reach Rome together. Two years later, they decide to marry. And they know at once where: in Monteriggioni, the walled village with fourteen towers where they had stopped one evening to watch the sunset over the Sienese countryside.

The ceremony is in the Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta, the Romanesque church on the village square. Guests enter through the gate in the walls, the same gate pilgrims with backpacks pass through every day. Some friends met on the way arrive on foot, with the scallop shell hanging from their packs.

Inside, the church is simple, made of stone. The Maestro has prepared with the parish priest a restrained programme, as the place demands. When the bride walks in, the tenor's singing fills the small nave. During the Ave Maria the groom thinks of that evening in the hostel, of the kilometres walked together, of the climbs. And he understands that the journey is not over: it has only just begun.

Outside, on the square, a pilgrim with a backpack walks by. He stops, smiles, and wishes the couple a good journey.

The ceremony musicians

• The tenor sings the solo pieces and the Ave Maria.
• The organist accompanies the liturgy; in the smallest pievi the best solution is agreed with the parish priest.
• The choir, if present, joins the congregation's chants.
• The programme adapts to the church: restrained in a pieve, more solemn in a basilica.

Church music in Tuscany, along the Francigena and beyond

The Maestro sings for weddings, baptisms, anniversaries and other celebrations:

• Along the Via Francigena: Pontremoli, Aulla, Pietrasanta, Camaiore, Lucca, Altopascio, San Miniato, Gambassi Terme, San Gimignano, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Monteriggioni, Siena, Ponte d'Arbia, Buonconvento, San Quirico d'Orcia, Bagno Vignoni, Radicofani.
• Florence and surroundings: Florence, Fiesole, Settignano, Impruneta, Bagno a Ripoli.
• Chianti: Greve in Chianti, Panzano, Castellina, Radda, Gaiole, San Casciano in Val di Pesa, Tavarnelle.
• Val d'Orcia and Valdichiana: Pienza, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Cortona, Castiglione d'Orcia, Chianciano.
• Coast and Maremma: Forte dei Marmi, Viareggio, Bolgheri, Castagneto Carducci, Castiglione della Pescaia, Porto Ercole, Capalbio.

See also the page on church wedding musicians in Tuscany and those on church music on Lake Como and on the Amalfi Coast.

After the ceremony

Maestro Ilarion is a tenor and pianist: he can also accompany the reception with elegant live music, at a villa, a castle or a farmhouse in the hills.

Tell us your date with the request for church music.

I travel anywhere: here are all the towns and cities where I sing, near you too.