On January 19th and 20th, an immersive audiovisual show born from the collaboration between the Catania Conservatory and AME, explores new frontiers of artistic expression. A hybrid format that is not cinema, it is not concert, it is not performance, but all three things together.
CATANIA, January 16, 2026 – What if photographs could move and tell stories? This is the question that gave rise to “RINGLIKE 2.0“, the first MUSIC4D event of 2026. On Monday, January 19th and Tuesday, January 20th, starting at 9:00 PM, Catania will host an immersive audiovisual concert that promises to redefine the boundaries between image, music, and speech, thanks to a structural and original use of Artificial Intelligence.
The event is part of the ambitious PNRR project launched in 2024 and led by the Alessandro Scarlatti Conservatory of Palermo, in synergy with a vast network of partners. MUSIC4D blends tradition with cutting-edge tools like AI and VR to revolutionize teaching, going beyond performance. The initiative aims to generate original productions, soft skills, and solid international opportunities; it prepares tomorrow’s artists to create and compete on an increasingly interconnected “stage”, transforming culture into a strategic asset for the future. “RINGLIKE 2.0” shares the same vision, translating its mission into spectacle: the creation of an unpublished work, another step forward in bringing higher musical education out of the academic classroom.
Conceived in collaboration with the prestigious Etnea Music Association (AME), the initiative will feature a 60-minute film at its heart. Real shots of Sicily, taken from the vast archive of director Marco Schillaci, will be “animated” using sophisticated AI software (such as Adobe Firefly and Stable Diffusion), transforming into true “tableau vivants“: photographs made “filmic” to blend the solitary soul of the photographic shot with the narrative art of directing.
Music and poetry will intertwine on this new visual tapestry. Composer Paolo Sorge emphasizes its essence: “Two creative aspects coexist in my music: the composer’s rigor in designing new musical architectures, and the freedom of the jazz musician who elaborates and transforms the basic material differently each time. ‘RingLike’ is the meeting point between these two worlds. My music is based on cyclicality, the repetition of multiple modules that are completed and restarted even in dephasing with each other, but in this context the musicians are free to improvise, to dialogue, to surprise each other. My research is this: building a well-organized world designed to make those inside feel incredibly free. It’s a paradox, but it’s precisely the lifeblood of this show”.
A three-way dialogue, therefore, in which the direction and images of Marco Schillaci will lead the audience through an immersive experience to the notes of a singular coexistence between a Jazz quintet and a classical wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon), accompanied by the piano of Eugenio Macchia, the saxophone of Giovanni Cutello, the electric bass of Danilo Gallo, the drums of Lluis Naval, the compositions and guitar by Paolo Sorge and the narration in Sicilian by the writer and poet Biagio Guerrera, author of the lyrics and narrator. A high-level cast that unites Conservatory faculty, young talents, and internationally renowned soloists.“RINGLIKE 2.0” will be performed in two symbolic places of Catania culture: on January 19th at the Casa della Musica (the former Empire on Via Zolfatai, a significant asset seized from the mafia) and on January 20th at ZO Centro di Culture Contemporanee. The project, faithful to its educational mission, also includes a meeting open to the public. After the Etna dates, the show will arrive in Spain with a double performance scheduled for the end of February in Castellon de la Plana and Murcia.
