Vesuvius Ensemble Presents:
Diapente Vocal Quintet – Incendioso Fato
Madrigals in Southern Italy and the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
February 21, 2026
7:00pm, Heliconian Hall
The Diapente Renaissance Vocal Quintet joins Vesuvius Ensemble in a special program juxtaposing composed and popular music from Southern Italy. Traditional songs from Italy’s southern provinces mix with madrigals and villanellas composed by Renaissance masters who worked in the same area. Featuring music by Gesualdo, di Lasso, d’India, Lacorcia, and Michelangelo Rossi’s explosive Mentre d’ampia voragine tonante about Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in 1631.
Diapente Renaissance Vocal Quintet:
Jane Fingler – Soprano
Peter Koniers – Countertenor
Alexander Cappellazzo – Tenor
Jonathan Stuchbery – Tenor, Lute
Martin Gomes – Bass
With:
Francesco Pellegrino
Lucas Harris
Buy your ticket now:
https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1052
2025 / 2026 Season
Hello, friends of Vesuvius Ensemble!
We’re excited to announce our 2025/26 concert series:
Quanno Nascette Ninno:
Christmas In Southern Italy
December 8, 2025@7pm
7:00pm, Heliconian Hall
The Messiah was born in humble conditions familiar to the peasants of the Southern Italian countryside. These peasants continue even now to mark the season with special music for the zampogne (traditional Italian bagpipes) which is believed to be the very music that was heard on the night Christ was born. Vesuvius’s Christmas program offers Toronto audiences a way to experience this special cultural heritage here in Canada.
With:
Francesco Pellegrino
Lucas Harris
Louis Simão
Tommaso Sollazzo
https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1051
Diapente Renaissance Vocal Quintet
Madrigals in Southern Italy and the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
February 21, 2026
7:00pm, Heliconian Hall
The Diapente Renaissance Vocal Quintet joins Vesuvius Ensemble in a special program juxtaposing composed and popular music from Southern Italy. Traditional songs from Italy’s southern provinces mix with madrigals and villanellas composed by Renaissance masters who worked in the same area. Featuring music by Gesualdo, di Lasso, d’India, Lacorcia, and Michelangelo Rossi’s explosive Mentre d’ampia voragine tonante about Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in 1631.
Diapente Renaissance Vocal Quintet:
Jane Fingler – Soprano
Peter Koniers – Countertenor
Alexander Cappellazzo – Tenor
Jonathan Stuchbery – Tenor, Lute
Martin Gomes – Bass
https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1052
Viaggio A Napoli With:
Cristina Prats-Costa & Friends
April 21, 2026
7:00pm, Heliconian Hall
Explore the beauty, passion and multifaceted sonic world of old-world Spain. This passionate evening features a diverse array of composers whose music is drawn from sacred devotion, theatrical drama, virtuosic chamber music, and popular dance. From expressive songs by Juan Frances De Iribarren to the virtuosic guitar works of Santiago de Murcia and the haunting recercadas of Diego Ortiz, echoes of the Iberian Baroque celebrates the multi-ethnic, stylistically rich, and rhythmically vibrant musical landscape of the Iberian world from the mid-16th to early 18th century. Curated by Spanish violinist, Vesuvius Ensemble will also be joined.
Cristina Prats-Costa – Julia Wedman – Geneviève Gilardeau – violin
Alison Mackay – violone
Naghmeh Farahmand – percussion
Romina Di Gasbarro – Voice
Lucas Harris – Lute & Guitar
Francesco Pellegrino – Voice
On sale here:
https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1053
The Vesuvius Ensemble
gratefully acknowledges the support of our generous season sponsors.
Presenting Sponsors:
The ABCRA Yorkville Cultural Fund
with the support of:
First Capital
Greybrook Realty Partners
Patrons:John & Angela Caliendo
Paul & Rebecca Elia
Paul Golini
Valerie EliaDonors:
Antonio Boccitto
Mary & Chris Chalmers
Tony Gagliano
Patrick Luciani
https://www.instagram.com/vesuviusensemble/
https://www.facebook.com/VesuviusEnsembleToronto/
https://www.pinterest.ca/fpellegrino2310/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesco-pellegrino-2923129/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/108109069005735783943
https://twitter.com/PelleFrance
THE MUSICIANS
PHOTOS BY KAREN E REEVES
Italian tenor, Francesco Pellegrino, began his career during his early childhood. By the age of ten, he was a celebrated singer of traditional and classical Neapolitan music throughout Italy and Europe and recorded his first album of classical Neapolitan songs, circulated on radio stations throughout Italy.
In 1994 Francesco Pellegrino completed his Diploma in Voice Performance with a minor in piano, from the Benevento Conservatory of Music. His performance activities during that time included opera, oratorio, concert songs and traditional Neapolitan music. During his undergraduate, his extraordinary voice caught the attention of legendary tenor, Carlo Bergonzi. Maestro Bergonzi awarded Mr. Pellegrino with The International Arturo Toscanini Foundation Scholarship, inviting him to continue his studies with him at his academy of music, L’Accademia di Canto Verdiano di Busseto, in Parma, Italy and at L’Accademia Chigiana di Musica in Siena, Italy.
Lucas Harris began his musical life as a jazz guitarist in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. After graduating summa cum laude from Pomona College, he studied for a year in Milan, Italy as one of the first Marco Fodella Foundation scholars and then at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. Lucas now keeps a busy schedule as a continuo player for dozens of Baroque ensembles across North America. He is the regular lutenist with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and is based in Toronto since 2004. Lucas teaches each summer at Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and has also taught for Amherst Early Music, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and the New York Continuo Collective. He is a founder of the Toronto Continuo Collective, a weekly class and performing ‘pluck band’ dedicated to learning the art of seventeenth-century accompaniment. Some recent projects included a lute concerto program for CBC radio’s Young Artist Series, a solo recital for the Minnesota Guitar Society, a debut solo CD, as well as duo recitals and a recording with the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wen Zhao. Lucas was music director for a production of Cavalli’s La Calisto for the Opera Program at Ohio State University, and has also been invited as guest director with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver. He was praised for his work with Les voix humaines in Montréal: “The revelation of the concert was the Torontonian lutenist Lucas Harris, who weaved a poetic thread through his infinitely subtle interventions. The sweetness and patience of his playing . . . was astonishing.” (Le Devoir)