Alessandra Belloni is the proud receipient of the 2026 Heritage Fellowship award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts for life time achievement as a Folk Arts Master.
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Award winning percussionist , singer, dancer and actress, Ms.Belloni was born in Rome, Italy and is committed to preserving the strong and rich traditions of her culture. Author of the book ‘HEALING JOURNEYS WITH THE BLACK MADONNA” published by Inner Traditions- Bear & Company best seller on Amazon, With foreword by best selling author Matthew Fox.
Alessandra Belloni is the Artistic Director, Founder and Lead Performer of "I GIULLARI DI PIAZZA", an Italian Music, Theatre and Dance Ensemble who is Artists-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St.John the Divine in New York City.
This is a special year, as it marks the 45th anniversary of I Giullari di Piazza, Their recent retrospective at NYU’s Casa Italiana was an oversold-out success, filled with deep emotion, community, and the presence of longtime supporters — including former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Writer, Producer/Narrator and guide for her award winning documentary Musical Journeys with the Black Madonna in Southern Italy, has been called a “force of nature” and a “Mediterranean volcano” by the New York and Los Angeles times.
She has been awarded a special Master Folk Arts Heritage fellowship from the NJ Council on the Arts for life time achievement in 2025 and will be featured as one of the best artists in United States in this field on the PBS TV program STATE OF THE ARTS in January 2026 .
She is renowned in her field and travels worldwide to perform group and solo concerts in theaters, universities, and international percussion festivals. Belloni began her career in her native Rome with the great actress Anna Magnani in "La Lupa," and with legendary film director Federico Fellini in "Casanova."
With 45 years of fieldwork experience studying and preserving Southern Italian folk music, dance, drumming, theatre, and healing/ritual traditions, she is internationally-renowned and voted by Modern drummer & Drum Magazine as one of the best virtuoso percussionists in the world on the Italian tamburello frame drum. She has designed a special line of Italian tambourines for REMO, the largest drum company in the world.
Belloni is the author of Rhythm is the Cure book published by Mel Bay Publications
She has collaborated with Oscar Winner Actress Marisa Tomei, as consultant for the t Broadway revival of The Rose Tattoo, and is featured in Season 3 of the PBS series Dream of Italy also with Marisa Tomei.
She has received special awards and grants from Casa Italiana at New York University to produce her documentaries,
She also received lifetime achievement awards from the Italian Charities of America, Italian Teachers of New York, AIAE association of Italian Educators, the New York State Council of the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts as Master folk artist.
She was also knighted as Dame of Honor by the Orthodox Order of the Knights of St Johnfor her healing work with women.
Her work as teacher and healer brought her to be featured on CUNY TV with her workshop RHYTHM IS THE CURE, and main feature of the Russian TV Travel Channel The Dancing Planet, Her TV appearances include: ABC TV live in Chicago, National Geographic documentary SPIDER SEX on the Tarantella, WORLD BEAT on CNN, , GLOBO BRAZILIAN TV, RAI UNO MATTINA,
Also featured on the PBS documentary, "LA FESTA" with The Voyage of the Black Madonna.
She has spent 40 years also participating in authentic drumming festivals in remote areas of Southern Italy, held as rituals of purification in honor of the Black Madonna.
She has performed extensively with master drummer Glen Velez (her first tambourine student) and was invited by Nana Vasconcellos and Gilberto Gil to perform in PERC PAN '98 in Bahia, Brazil. Voted one of the best female percussionists in the world by Drum Magazine, featured in Modern Drummer magazine and has written articles for Percussive Notes.
Her CD’s "Tarantelle & Canti D’amore" released by Naxos of America on 2003 has been considered the second best percussion CD of the year by DRUM Magazine and has received many favorable reviews from major press.
The CD "Tarantata: The Dance of Ancient Spider" (on the Soundstrue label) released in 2000, has received a wide critical acclaim and distribution. It was also nominated one of the best CDs of the year (2002) by Jon Parales from the New York Times and Dan Hackman from the Los Angeles Times, and won the Best World Percussion CD of the Year by DRUM Magazine.
Alessandra Belloni created a new World Music Sound with her group, using electronic music combined with acoustic, in her new show TARANTELLA SPIDER DANCE, with electric violin master Joe Deninzon . This show was also presented with great audience and press success at the prestigious RED CAT THEATRE AT Disney Center in Los Angles, with CAL ARTS. She has founded a Women’s percussion ensemble called DAUGHTERS OF CYBELE . She tours the world her one woman show "Rhythm is the Cure" , With her ensemble from New York she tours across the U.S. and abroad, performing and teaching workshops in various Festivals and halls –
LIST OF PERFORMANCES In New York:
LINCOLN CENTER, CARNEGIE HALL, SYMPHONY SPACE, ST. JOHN THE DIVINE, RIVERSIDE THEATRE JOE’S PUB THEATRE FOR THE NEW CITY Juilliard, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, NYC Ballet
Percussion Festivals:
PATAGONIA PERCUSSION FESTIVAL ARGENTINA
KOREA PERCUSSION FESTIVAL
BERKLEE PERCUSSION FESTIVAL , Boston
CROSS DRUMMING (Warsaw, Poland), PERC PAN, (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, )
KOSA PERCUSSION FESTIVAL (Vermont)
SEATTLE WORLD PERCUSSION FESTIVAL
CAPE BRETON DRUM FESTIVAL (Canada)
PERC FEST and PAS , Italy
JOURNE DE LA PERCUSSION, Paris, France
RHTYHM STICKS, (Royal Festival Hall, London)
PASIC 1996, 97, 2000 (Dallas), 2003/2010/2013
DRUMMING AT THE PYRAMIDS ( Egypt), Oberlin Athens, (Ohio ) University of Buffalo, Fredonia (NY) Conservatory of Milan (Italy) , Royal Marine School of Music (England), NYU Percussion Conservatory, CAL ARTS, University of Hawaii, Wisdom University
WORLD MUSIC FESTIVALS:
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, DUBROVNICK, CROATIA, RED CAT THEATRE in Los Angeles WOMAD (Seattle and Sicily), NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FESTIVAL , CHICAGO FESTIVAL LOTUS , Indiana, RHYTHM STICKS, Royal Festival Hall (London) MONTREAL MUSIC FESTIVAL, Canada,
ACOUSTICA FESTIVAL, (Sidney, Australia)
Getty Center, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Sacred Music Festival, Glastonbury Goddess Festival, England, Cultural Center in Tel Aviv (Israel)
IN ITALY:
ROME: PALLADIUM , QUIRINO AND ARGENTINA THEATRES, VENICE (Musica Venezia), Conservatory of Venice, LERICI, SORRENTO JAZZ, TARANTELLA POWER . WOMAD, Palermo
IN BRAZIL : REC BEAT, Recife, PERC PAN, Bahia, Sau Paulo Teatro Oficina, Maranhao, Belo Horizonte
Alessandra Belloni has studied acting at H.B. Studios, voice with Professor Michael Warren, and mime and Commedia dell'Arte with Dario Fo (winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature) at New York University. She has worked in both theatre and film in New York - "Next Stop the Greenwich Village" by Paul Mazursky - and in Italy with Anna Magnani in "La Lupa" and Federico Fellini in "Casanova". Ms. Belloni founded "I GIULLARI DI PIAZZA" - a company performing traditional Italian Folk Music and Theatre – with classical guitarist/composer John La Barbera in 1979 and was Artist-in-Residence at New York University for ten years.
Fluent in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese plus Southern Italian dialects, Alessandra Belloni also speaks through her tambourine and drums.
.For her achievements in music and theatre, she won the following awards: achievement in performing arts by Association of Italian American Educators, from the ITALIAN ORAL HISTORY INSTITUTE IN Los Angeles, Fall 2005, Award for Italian American Woman of the Year in 1996 and the Community Arts Project Award from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts as well as the Sons of Liberty "Citation of Honor" award in 2001. residency with the Women Studies program at SUNY Fredonia.
Recordings:
HEALING JOURNEYS WITH THE BLACK MADONNA 2019 Inner Traditions
LA CANTATA DEI PASTORI -Christmas CD 2015
TARANTELLA SPIDER DANCE 2009
DAUGHTER OF THE DRUM –REMO, INC. 2007
TARANTELLE E CANTI D’AMORE – 2003Naxos World
TARANTATA: THE DANCE OF ANCIENT SPIDER – Sounds True - MOTHER EARTH LULLABIES - Ellipsis
EARTH, SUN AND MOON - Lyrichord 1995
DIVINE DIVAS - Rounder Compilation 1997
GLOBAL CELEBRATIONS - Ellipsis Arts 1993
DEA FORTUNA - Shanachie 1989
SULILLO MIO - Shanachie 1985
She is the Company’s director, writer,
and lead performer of the Folk Operas:"
TARANTELLA SPIDER DANCE - The Dance of the
Ancient Spider"premiered at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center,
VOICES OF THE TARANTATE, NYC
"Stabat Mater: Donna de Paradiso"
(Cathedral of St. John the Divine)
"The Voyage of the Black Madonna"
(Cathedral of St. John the Divine)
"1492-1992: Earth, Sun and Moon"
Lincoln Center out of Doors Festival 1992
"La Cantata dei Pastori" (Caramoor , St. John the Divine, Smithsonian and others)
"La Lupa" (St. Mark’s Church, YALE, and others)
"The Adventures of Don Giovanni & His Servant Pulcinella" (Carnegie Hall and others)
Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote:
"Invocations and work songs, exorcisms and lullabies shared the program of RHTHM IS THE CURE in the Chapel of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.... Driven by tambourine patterns so fast that the drummer’s hands became blurs. Ms. Belloni sang in an exultant voice. The songs blazed with an age-old momentum" .
Dan Hackman – Los Angeles Time:
Alessandra Belloni and Tarantata Dance of the Ancient Spider is a revelation, utterly fascinating..”
Drum Magazine:
Italian-born virtuoso Alessandra Belloni is established as a unique phenomenon, not just a percussionist, she is an actress, lecturer, entertainer, a healer, above all archetype….
Ric Mattinly- Modern Drummer:
With her left hand she uses a variety of techniques to produce a wide range of timbers, incorporating thumb strokes, finger strokes, slaps.
