Biography
Her professional activity begins at fourteen years of age performing recitals with the great names of the Sicilian artistic and cultural scene: the poet Ignazio Buttitta, the singer Rosa Balistreri and the story-teller Ciccio Busacca.
“Today, national and international critics acclaim Laura Mollica as the spiritual heiress of the great Rosa Balistreri. Since 1980 she has been promoting Sicilian music through an intense concert activity around the world.” (Accademia siculo-normanna, Istituto di Cultura Superiore del Mediterraneo).
Since 2011 Laura Mollica is part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Sicily list, under the heading “Expression” of Sicilian Cultural Identity.
She has worked with directors Orazio Costa, Roberto Guicciardini, Michele Perriera, Antonio Calenda, Carlo Quartucci and Paolo and Vittorio Taviani; has an ongoing collaboration with Teatro Stabile Biondo (Palermo), Teatro Stabile (Catania), Teatro “Teathes” and with the Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico.
Her international touring career started in 1984 when she was invited to represent Sicily with a series of concerts performed at “Casa Italia” in Beverly Hills during the Los Angeles Olympics.
She later returned to the States where she performed in New York, Detroit and Philadelphia. She also gave acclaimed performances in Australia, Canada, South Africa, Mexico and in Europe (Paris, Munich and Brussels amongst others).
Her collaboration with the German choreographer Pina Bausch gave us the performance “Palermo-Palermo”, while with the dancer-choreographer Daniel Esralov, founder of “Momix”, she helped create the 381st “Festino di S. Rosalia”.
Laura Mollica has been the recipient of many prestigious awards. To name but a few: the international award “Il Castello d’Argento” during the celebrations for the Internation Youth Year promoted by the UN General Assembly; “Attestato di Benemerenza Culturale” Associazione Siciliani nel Mondo; “Premio Rosa Balistreri” for her research and spreading of the tradition of Sicilian singing; the international award “Universo Donna 2002”; “Premio di Cultura Città di Monreale”; Accademia siculo-normanna, Istituto di Cultura Superiore del Mediterraneo.
She works closely with renowned Sicilian musical institutions (Ente Autonomo Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Amici della Musica, Ente Autonomo Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana…) and co-starred, with Giorgio Albertazzi, in the virtual opening of the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, after the fire that almost completely destroyed it, performing in the show “Verbatango”.
Widely acclaimed in the academic musical milieu, she was invited to direct a course on ethnic singing at the Conservatorio “V. Bellini” in Palermo, in collaboration with the association “Italia è Cultura”.
She co-directed the ethnic music programmes “Suoni d’Inverno” and “L’Isola Possibile”. She is the interpreter of the ethno-chamber music suite by Giuseppe Greco “…e tornu a cantari” (Back to Singing), a homage to Alberto Favara, performed for the first time within the Rassegna di Musica Antica, Associazione “Antonio il Verso”.
Since 2004 she has been working with the guitarist and composer Giuseppe Greco whose artistic production include ethnomusic, the symphonic genre and electronic experimental music. Together, within the programme “La musica attraversa/o i suoni” they performed “Dhinamis”, a performance for voice, musical instruments and sound sculptures, in collaboration with the association “Curva Minore”. Together they also recorded “La Vuci Mia”, a suite for musical instruments and voice inspired by fragments of traditional popular Sicilian music.
Laura Mollica is the President and Artistic Director of the Cultural Association “Officina dell’Arte” and created the ethnotexts pieces: “Cialoma” “Il Colore della Rosa”, “La Vuci Mia”, “Stabat Mater” and “Pasturali”, all performed within the most important and renowned shows organised by the major cultural Sicilian institutions, both in Palermo and throughout the Sicilian Region.
In 2009 she performed in the city of Valencia, Spain, within the programme “European Cultural Districts”. In the same year she was amongst the winners of the International Ethnomusic Festival “Sharq Taronalari” in Samarcand, Uzbekistan.
