Fabrizio Piepoli is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and educator from Apulia, Italy. He currently teaches traditional vocal techniques at the Conservatory of Lecce, where he combines performance with academic research focused on Mediterranean musical heritage.
His voice, a light tenor with baritonal depth and contralto reach, demonstrates a flexible, melismatic style that navigates gendered expression and cultural identity.
Piepoli is one of the founders of La Cantiga de la Serena, an Italian trio that recovers and reworks the ancient music of the Mediterranean basin, which has always represented a true cultural bridge between the East and the West. La Cantiga de la Serena are Fabrizio Piepoli (voice, chitarra battente, daff), Giorgia Santoro (flute, bass flute, bansuri, xiao, tin whistle, Celtic harp) and Adolfo La Volpe (oud, bouzouki, guitar).
On 2017’s Il cedro e la rosa (cedar and rose) Piepoli crafts original songs, tarantellas and love songs from Gargano and Salento (the two extreme parts of the Southern Italian region of Apulia) like in a garden of cedars and roses. at the same time, he intertwines heartbreaking Portuguese fados, sweet Sephardic, Greek and Lebanese melodies, as well as ancient prayers in Aramaic.
Maresia, released in 2022, explores traditional and original songwriter music from Puglia and Southern Italy with a Mediterranean attitude and a meticulous search for sound.
Piepoli’s compositions often inhabit a cinematic soundscape that bridges ancient and modern worlds. Through carefully crafted arrangements, he intertwines traditional acoustic instruments with contemporary electronic elements. This fusion forms the basis of what he calls Tarabtella: a genre that merges the ecstatic emotional intensity of tarab, a central aesthetic in Arabic music, with the propulsive rhythms of Puglia’s tarantella.
Surrounding Piepoli’s vocal core is a dynamic ensemble of instruments, from Turkish saz and Arabic oud to synthesizers and samplers, creating layered countermelodies and textural complexity.
Moreover, his work reflects a broader cultural mission. By collaborating with artists and ethnomusicologists from across the Mediterranean, Piepoli fosters dialogue between Southern Italian traditions and Arab-Andalusian and Middle Eastern musical practices. In doing so, he positions his art as both a personal exploration and a transnational exchange. Piepoli said: “I’m a frontier man, I feel at home where East and West can meet, like two parts of the same heart, feeling free to love each other.”
Discography:
Autumn Sessions (2011)
La Serena, with La Cantiga de la Serena (2016)
Il cedro e la rosa (self-release, 2017)
La Fortuna, with La Cantiga de la Serena (Dodicilune, 2019)
La Mar, with La Cantiga de la Serena (Dodicilune, 2021)
Maresìa (Zero Nove Nove, 2022)
La Novia, with La Cantiga de la Serena (Zero Nove Nove, 2023)
