Pasta and pizza might be Italian immigrants’ most widely known contributions to American culture. But a less recognized one is their folk music. Think composer Nino Rota’s scores for the Godfather movies: songs played on acoustic guitar, mandolin or accordion in celebratory wedding-dance rhythms, or slower ones in minor keys accented with dramatic instrumental tremolos.
While not as deeply researched as other strains of American folk, such as Celtic and the blues, Italian American folk music is “an incredible phenomenon,” said Beppe Gambetta, an acoustic guitarist, singer and composer from Genoa, Italy. Gambetta, 70, specializes in reviving historical songs and presents an annual international festival of acoustic music in Genoa.
Named “Genoa Ambassador to the World” in 2019 by a former mayor of his hometown, the musician spends seven months a year in the U.S., touring on an O-1 visa, reserved for “artists with extraordinary ability,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Between stops in New York and California this year, Gambetta plays a house concert in Essex on Sunday, February 8.
“My art represents a bridge between the two cultures,” the Italian said by phone from his American home in Lambertville, N.J.
Singing in a range of Italian dialects and English, Gambetta performs songs by artists such as fellow Genoan Pasquale Taraffo — a master of the harp guitar and one of 4 million Italians who immigrated to the U.S. between 1880 and the 1920s — and pioneering jazz guitarist Eddie Lang, who was born Salvatore Massaro in Philadelphia to Italian immigrant parents.
The local concert is a fundraiser for a traveling exhibition coming in June to Winooski that celebrates another Italian export: the early childhood educational approach named for Reggio Emilia, a town in northern Italy. Invented by the town’s residents at the end of World War II to prevent future susceptibility to fascism, the municipal instruction system encourages autonomy, independent thinking and a strong sense of community in its children, ages roughly 3 to 8. The method still thrives today and has spread internationally.
“Teachers and children are seen as co-researching together,” said Jeanne Goldhaber, 78, a former professor in the early education program at the University of Vermont, who directed the Reggio-inspired Campus Children’s Center for several years.
Though that center closed in 2020, Vermont currently has 25 Reggio-inspired classrooms and 63 instructors, according to Goldhaber, who lives in Burlington. (Unlike other educational programs, such as Waldorf and Montessori, Reggio has no prescribed curricula or certification.) The instructors’ network, Reggio Inspired Vermont Early Education Team, will host the exhibition in the black-box theater of the Winooski Educational Center from mid-June through mid-August.
Called “Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material,” the show features panels, video clips and artifacts made by pupils of the Italian school. It has been traveling around Canada and the U.S.; its Vermont appearance coincides with this year’s North American Reggio Emilia Alliance conference, which runs June 25 to 27 in Winooski. That event will feature two Italian educators from Reggio, plus their interpreter.
Gambetta grew up only a couple hours’ drive from Reggio Emilia. He didn’t learn about the educational approach until recently, but, he recalled, “We were aware of Reggio as a cultural avant-garde in Italy. It is a town that has more [than typical] examples of social consciousness and help to people in need in many fields. That has roots in the character of the people there. They are sort of special.”
Concert presenter Mark Sustic, 75, of Fletcher, comes from both the folk-music and Reggio worlds: He founded the nonprofit Young Tradition Vermont in 2010 to teach children traditional music and dance, and he taught as a lecturer for two decades in UVM’s early education program — of which Reggio was “a core piece,” he said. Landing Gambetta for the fundraiser made perfect sense as a bridge between the two forms of creativity.
“Italy has a pretty good record of generating artists,” Sustic commented wryly. “It’s a particularly unique success.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “Folk Music | Italian Folk Singer Beppe Gambetta to Play Benefit House Concert in Essex”
This article appears in Love & Marriage Issue • 2026.
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