The Piano Music of Ennio Morricone
2025-12-07 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
Pianist and teacher Alessandra Tiraterra will present a program on Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who died in 2020 and was one of the greatest film music composers of our time. His filmography includes more than 70 award-winning films including Cinema Paradiso, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars. The presentation will discuss Morricone’s music and focus on several features, including connections between Morricone’s compositions and Classical and Romantic piano music. This presentation concludes with a performance of Morricone’s piano works.

Polenta Festa
2026-01-04 17:00 - 19:00
Join us for our annual party celebrating the humble cornmeal dish that has become ubiquitous on restaurant menus. Bring your dish piping hot—whether accompanied with cheese, mushrooms, lentils or anything else you can create—since oven space is limited.

Restoring Works of Art
2026-02-01 17:00 - 19:00
Restoration is defined as the act of returning something to a former condition, which raises many complex questions when applied to the restoration of historical artifacts and works of art. And why do we restore works of art at all? Bart Devolder, Chief Conservator of the Princeton University Art Museum, will discuss these issues, using several case studies including works created in Italy. Devolder will illustrate that restoring a work of art to its former glory is not always straightforward.

March Madness
2026-03-01 17:00 - 19:00
Award-winning author Mike DeLucia will talk about an Italian basketball legend whom few have heard of: Hank Luisetti. The son of Italian immigrants, Luisetti created modern basketball and laid the foundation for March Madness and the NBA. DeLucia will talk about Luisetti starting from his birth until he transformed basketball into the game we know today. He will also discuss the historical fiction book he wrote, based on Luisetti’s life, Madness, The Man Who Changed Basketball.

Italians Helped Shape the Nation
2026-04-12 17:00 - 19:00
Many Italians came to the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s, but they were not the first Italian immigrants to America. Historian Tom Frascella will speak about the earliest cohorts who came to the U.S., highlighting the Italian immigrants whose labor and skills helped establish the early success of the Jamestown colony in the 1600s and contributions in the 1700s from figures such as Filippo Mazzei, who inspired language for the Declaration of Independence, and Giovanni Battiste Sartori, who acted as an envoy from the Vatican Papal States to the consulate in Trenton.

End of Year Celebration
2026-05-03 18:00 - 20:00
Join us for a festive evening as we celebrate the end of another fantastic season. Enjoy a lively performance by D’Italia, a singing and dancing ensemble, who will delight you with Italian favorites ranging from Puccini to Sinatra, with plenty of folk songs, traditional dances, and surprises in between.

An Evening of Neapolitan Songs
2026-10-04 17:00 - 19:00
Join us on a musical journey to Naples as soprano Mara Adler, an expert in Neapolitan music who has performed around the world from Naples to San Francisco, shares the beauty, passion, and charm of this beloved tradition. You will be transported to the heart of southern Italy for an afternoon of beautiful music, storytelling, and Italian spirit.

The Italian Squad
2026-11-01 17:00 - 19:00
Professor emeritus of journalism at Brooklyn College and a former reporter and editor at New York Newsday, Paul Moses will speak on his book, “The Italian Squad: The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia.” With the press and the public in an uproar over immigrant crime, New York’s police commissioner in 1904 formed a special team of foreign-born detectives called the “Italian Squad.” Led by Lt. Joseph Petrosino, the Italian immigrant sleuths were nationally celebrated for their exploits—even as they struggled against deeply ingrained prejudice to convince both the public and fellow police that Italian immigrants were largely law- abiding people who would be good American citizens.

Polenta Festa
2026-12-06 17:00 - 19:00
It’s our highly anticipated annual event celebrating the humble cornmeal dish known in Italy as polenta. The community is invited to bring a favorite polenta dish to share — anything from polenta with sausage to polenta with lentils and everything in between. Please bring your dish piping hot since oven space is limited.

Sicilian Villa Opens Door to Learning Italian
2027-01-03 17:00 - 19:00
Professor and author Diana Silverman incorporates art history through the ages into her language and literature classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She will offer a snapshot of how she teaches college Italian spotlighting the 18th-century Villa Valguarnera in Sicily. Celebrated in Italian advertising and film, the opulent baroque estate has been featured in a Dolce and Gabbana ad with Sophia Loren and in the Netflix series “Il Gattopardo” (The Leopard).

A Taste of Italy in New Jersey
2027-02-07 17:00 - 19:00
Discover the artistry and passion behind Angelico Winery, a boutique, family-owned winery in Lambertville, N.J. Learn how the founders, Otto and Lily Angelico, brought process and offer a flight of their signature wines.

Italian Cookies
2027-03-07 17:00 - 19:00
From Amaretti to Zaletti, the world of Italian cookies is much more varied, and delicious, than most people realize. Noted cookbook author Domenica Marchetti, whose roots are in Central New Jersey, traveled to all 20 regions that comprise the Italian peninsula and islands, gathering recipes and stories from bakers and historic cookie bakeries. The result is her latest cookbook, “Italian Cookies.” Come hear about the 15th-century cookie from Liguria that inspired the book, as well as the dozens of other cookies Domenica discovered during her research. There will be cookies to taste as well.

500 Years of Disegno
2027-04-04 17:00 - 19:00
The collection of over 1,000 Italian drawings at the Princeton University Art Museum is renowned for its representation of such masters as Michelangelo, Guercino, Tiepolo, and Modigliani. Laura M. Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga, Jr., Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings, takes a deep dive into the collection and its history, focusing on how the double meaning of Disegno—encompassing both the mental formulation and the physical act of creation—is illuminated in examples spanning five centuries.

The Land Where Saints Walk with Witches: Rediscovering Italy’s Folk Traditions
2027-05-02 17:00 - 19:00
In “Italian Folklore: Rituals, Celebrations, and Ancient Traditions,” Dr. Gina M. Miele, professor of Italian at Montclair State University, charts the living wisdom embedded in Italy’s regional traditions, from the malocchio and sacred herbs to November vigils for the dead and the guaritrici who preserved healing knowledge in secret. In her presentation, she will take us on a journey through all twenty regions of Italy, introducing the saints, witches, storytellers, and customs that animate Italy’s rich folk culture. Drawing on more than two decades of fieldwork, she reveals how these traditions continue to shape Italian and Italian-American identity, and why they matter now more than ever.
