Press kit

Salvatore Mazzei (Castelsilano, 1968) is a Calabrian singer-songwriter and storyteller. With I Kalacunta, founded in 2012 with Ludovico Grilletta, he tells often-forgotten pages of Calabrian history in dialect. He is the author of the album and book «Dal brigantaggio alla Repubblica. Cento anni di storia» (Gruppo Albatros Il Filo, 2026) and of the single «Vuagliu cantare», dedicated to emigrants.

Salvatore Mazzei was born on 27 April 1968 in Castelsilano, a small village in the Sila mountains, province of Crotone. At fourteen he left Calabria for Turin, where he attended secondary school, and later graduated in business economics from the University of Bologna. After many years away he returned to Calabria, where he lives with his family. The experience of those who leave, and those who stay, runs through all his writing.

A music lover since his youth, he has spent many years researching Calabrian traditions. In 2012, after a gathering of friends, he founded «I Kalacunta» with Ludovico Grilletta, arranger and chitarra battente player, to bring Calabrian culture to the world, especially to younger generations. In 2015 the group took part in the third Premio Pierangelo Bertoli and performed at Expo Milano.

In April 2023 he released the single «Vuagliu cantare», a song of Calabrian emigrants that was also covered by the Italian press in Chile and Argentina. 18 July 2024 saw the release of «18 luglio 1980», written by Salvatore Mazzei and sung by his son Giovanni (GioMaz), about the Libyan MiG found in the Sila. December 2024 brought the album «Cento anni di storia: dal Brigantaggio alla Repubblica», seven songs in dialect from the Risorgimento to the Second World War, followed in April 2026 by the book of the same name (Gruppo Albatros Il Filo, preface by Giovanni Iaquinta), which combines historical narrative and songs.

Mazzei does not present himself as a historian: he gathers stories, tells them in music and offers listeners a starting point to look for the sources and form their own view.