It is an event many look forward to, and every edition is a success: for 22 years I Suoni delle Dolomiti has been delivering emotion and music at altitude among the peaks and valleys of Trentino. It runs from 2 July to 26 August: the concerts not to be missed, the international artists from every musical genre to listen to for a unique experience. When music and landscape merge in harmony to celebrate the natural beauty of notes.

I Suoni delle Dolomiti, music at the summit

It takes place throughout Trentino, on the extraordinary stage of the high-altitude Dolomites, reached on foot by the audience and musicians alike carrying their own instruments, with a programme of concerts ranging from classical music to jazz, world music and singer-songwriter.

An environmentally captivating setting, the Dolomites, designated by Unesco as a Natural World Heritage Site, a harmony of rock, grass, woodland and wind that also becomes a precious acoustic space, where notes ring out upwards and expand in every direction, enriched by the colours of the landscape and the emotions they stir in those who listen. A unique and magical union, a combination that has worked for 22 years. At altitude, music breathes as it does nowhere else, it converses with silence and pushes away the noise of everyday life. The strings and woodwind of violins and cellos bow to the air; clarinets, trumpets and saxophones soar among the clouds; every voice is magically transformed into a choir.

The 19 concerts of "I Suoni delle Dolomiti" take place in the early afternoon, but also at dawn, near alpine refuges: summits, mountain pastures and woodlands are reached on foot together by the audience and the musicians themselves. Once at altitude, having all shared the effort and the joy of reaching the destination, everyone sits and rests on the grass around the musicians, waiting to listen, to experience an unrepeatable artistic and human occasion. No distance exists between those who listen, those who play and the nature that surrounds and welcomes everyone — music included. And when the concert ends, there is all the time in the world to admire the beauty of the landscape, to set off along mountain paths or simply to rest among the Dolomites.

The events not to be missed

There are 19 concerts scheduled, most at 13:00; from all the events, available at this link, we have selected a few that we consider unmissable.

It is perhaps the most eagerly awaited concert for those who attend the festival, and once again not to be missed this year: the "I Suoni delle Dolomiti" event at sunrise, during which emotions multiply thanks to one of nature's most beautiful phenomena — the dawn.

At 6 in the morning on Saturday 16 July, Mari Boine, voice of the Sami people, will perform at Col Margherita (in Val di Fassa), one of the finest vantage points from which to admire the majority of the Dolomite groups included in the Unesco World Heritage. In the foreground to the south-east, the Pale di San Martino; to the east, the wall of the Civetta and the solitary Monte Pelmo. To the north, the Costabella chain and the Monzoni in the foreground give a glimpse of the pillars of the Marmolada, the queen of the Dolomites, and to its west the Latemar and the Catinaccio.

For L'alba delle Dolomiti, Mari Boine will be joined by five musicians whose backgrounds span folk, classical music and jazz: Italian-born, Norway-adopted drummer Paolo Vinaccia, guitarist Roger Ludvigsen, violinist and nyckelharpa specialist Corrado Bungaro, saxophonist Giordano Angelo and bassist Carlo La Manna.

Trekking and music

For those who love walking, from Sunday 31 July to Tuesday 2 August the Pale di San Martino will provide the backdrop for a trekking event with Petra Magoni and archlute player Ilaria Fantin. Atmosphere and emotion in the notes and words of Sinéad O'Connor, Fabrizio De André, Domenico Modugno, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Claudio Monteverdi.

The arrival at Villa Welsperg for the final concert will see the two artists joined by double bassist Ferruccio Spinetti, Petra Magoni's partner in the successful project Musica Nuda, for a performance of songs taken from the recent album Little Wonder. All of this always in a dialogic relationship with the landscape, the sun and the rocks, as is the case at every event of "I Suoni delle Dolomiti".

Homage to Faber

This year "I Suoni delle Dolomiti" dedicates two tributes to Fabrizio De André: the first will open the festival; the other, on Friday 12 August, on the Altopiano della Paganella near Bait del Germano, will see seven musicians ranging across singer-songwriter, jazz and indie rock tackle one of the themes closest to Fabrizio De André's poetics: women. The protagonists are singer-songwriter Cristina Donà together with a group of highly regarded instrumentalists made up of Fabrizio Bosso (trumpet), Javier Girotto (saxophone), Rita Marcotulli (piano), Saverio Lanza (guitar), Enzo Pietropaoli (double bass) and Cristiano Calcagnile (drums). Bait del Germano can be reached first by cable car from Andalo to Doss Pelà and then on foot following trails 606 and 602 to Cima Canfedin and Passo San Giacomo (2 hours 30 minutes' walk); or via forest road 610 (1 hour 30 minutes' walk). Along the way, the eye is drawn to the spectacle offered by the peaks, spires and towers of the Brenta Dolomites group.