Giuseppe Sanfratello (Palermo, 1985) is an ethnomusicologist and a Postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Humanities (University of Catania). He has earned a PhD in Musicology (University of Copenhagen, 2017) and a PhD in Sciences for Cultural Heritage and Production – Ethnomusicology area (University of Catania, 2023). He has worked and published on Cretan vocal music, the Sicilian-Albanian liturgical chant repertoire, and more recently on the multipart singing repertoires of the Ionian Islands. His research interests concern multipart music, the study of socio-symbolic values and ‘participatory performance’ in musical practices, and the relationship between music and the sacred. His second doctoral thesis, entitled ‘Kùrdhisma. Cantare ad accordo nelle isole Ionie: interpreti e contesti esecutivi’, has been awarded the ‘Giovanni Morelli’ prize by the Ugo and Olga Levi Foundation in Venice. Since the academic year 2024/2025, he is an adjunct lecturer of Popular Music Cultures and Languages in the Bachelor of Arts in Sciences and Languages for Communication (Curriculum ‘Artistic and Intermedia Communication’). He has taught Ethnomusicology at the University of Copenhagen (2015) and the Ionian University of Corfu (2016); since 2020, he is lecturer in the seminars of ‘Introduction to Ethnomusicology’ and ‘Popular Music’ at the University of Catania. He has published in scientific journals and participated in conferences and seminars in Italy and abroad. In addition, he is a member of the Scientific Committee of the series "Culture musicali e Migrazioni sonore" (i.e. 'Musical Cultures and Sound Migrations', directed by Maria Rosa De Luca and Dinko Fabris, DueTreDue, University of Catania), as well as a member of the editorial board of the journal 'Musica Docta' and the 'Bollettino di studi belliniani'.
The Education of Art Music Audiences in Catania in the 20th Century: Ethnography and Analysis of Cultural Contexts
The research activity is part of the theoretical framework of the research programme (PRIN 2017) investigating "The education of art music audiences in Italy from the 20th century until today". More specifically, it is a historic-critical and ethnographic investigation into the ways in which music audiences are educated in Southern Italy, with particular regard to the cultural production (constitutive processes and training policies) of the city of Catania.