Soaring talent: Il Volo taking the music world by storm

The Italian trio Il Volo has been jokingly referred to by other names since exploding on the music scene three years ago after winning an Italian talent show.
The Teenage Tenors (although they aren’t all tenors), the Italian Jonas Brothers and The New Bocellis are some of the names they’ve been tagged with. But Gianluca Ginoble, the handsome baritone of the group with the full Elvis Presley hair and bedroom eyes, doesn’t care for any of them.
“We are Il Volo, we are not those other names,” said Ginoble, 17, in a telephone interview from Chicago where the group also including tenors Piero Barone, 19, and Ignazio Boschetto, 18, had just finished a show before heading to Detroit and then Toronto and then Ottawa on a North American tour.
Il Volo brings, what the group calls, “operatic pop” to the National Arts Centre on Tuesday for the first time. And they return on Oct. 20, playing on a bill with headliner Barbra Streisand and trumpet player Chris Botti at Scotiabank Place.
The group’s name is Il Volo — Italian word meaning flight — and it is a perfect metaphor to the meteoric rise of these young Italians.

It started on the talent show, Ti Lascio una Canzone in 2009. A music producer realized that the three very young men would work well together. The singers were actually competing as soloists but when they sang together something magical happened.
“This is really unbelievable, it’s a dream come true,” said Ginoble, who comes from Abruzzo in central Italy. “It’s been three years since the TV show and so many things have happened to us. But we have remained the same guys, humble. I think it’s because we received a good education from our parents,” he said. In fact, their parents travel on the tour bus, he says, so no one’s ego gets too big.
Their self-titled album debut CD released in Italy in November 2010 is on its way to platinum status in their home country. They have achieved great international success, touring the world, and becoming the first Italian artists to sign with Geffen Records in the United States.
The first CD is a mixture of classics such as O Sole Mio and Il Mondo, as well as a stirring reworking of the Charlie Chaplin song Smile, and an English song, Painfully Beautiful, penned by prolific American songwriter Diane Warren. It topped the Classical Crossover Albums charts and it was No. 10 on the Billboard 200, selling more than 230,000 copies. It was put together by singer/producer Tony Renis and Humberto Gatica, who have worked with Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban and Celine Dion.
A second CD is due out just before Christmas.
“We have a few surprises for our second record, but we can’t say who will be on it,” he said. “We will have a few cover songs, songs in Italian, English and Spanish and a some duets with well-known contemporary singers,” he said.
This is the trio’s second tour of North America and Ginoble said he’s blown away by the size of the United States and by the reaction of the fans to their music .
“The people are amazing because our fans go from young to old. When we were in Latin America we saw a grandfather accompanying his granddaughter of about four years old, and we saw that too in America. It really is incredible.
“This is the first time that a group like us sings this kind of music and it’s a particular kind of music. It’s a new kind of music, it’s operatic pop, it’s not opera, it’s not pop. We sing these songs like O Sole Mio but with a modern arrangement, it’s new and it sounds new to many people.”
He suspects the trio has caught the attention of a wide-cross section of fans because people enjoy listening to young people perform well-loved songs.
“We are young kids, and we started only three years ago and we are able to attract a whole family to our show. Not everybody can do that today,” he said.
One of Ginoble’s musical heroes is Andrea Bocelli, the blind Italian tenor who has performed with many of today’s superstars.
“Our manager, Michele Torpedine, was also Bocelli’s manager and discovered him. He has been someone special in my life. he has always been my idol. We had the pleasure of meeting Andrea and he truly is a monumental man,” he said.
Ginoble said he hopes Il Volo will have as long and as successful a career as Bocelli has had.
“I hope to stay always together and bring our music to the people and show our love for this kind of music. We love our lives right now. At one time this was our dream to be able to sing and have a career. And now it has become a reality for us.”
For the Ottawa show, he said, people can expect a few new wrinkles.
“We will have three new songs, three solo songs, Where Do I Begin (Love Story), Maria and Tu Che Mi Ha Preso il Cuor. It’s going to be a beautiful show,” he said.
Il Volo
Where: NAC Southam Hall, 7:30 p.m.
When: Tuesday, Aug. 28
Tickets start at $40 and are available at NAC box office, Ticketmaster at             1-855-985-5000      , or www.ticketmaster.ca

Source: ottawacitizen