Federated Italo Americans of Southern California set to celebrate the 150th Unification Anniversary on June 10

Federated's June 10th celebration will feature two very popular and talented Italian performers, Ms. Gina Graziadio and Filippo Voltaggio. Ms. Graz-iadio will be singing both the American National Anthem and the Italian National Anthem. She is a gifted and experienced singer and performer. Gina graduated from the University of Southern Calif-ornia with a Bachelor Degree of Music – Vocal Arts and a minor in Italian.

She went on to earn a Master Degree of Music in Vocal Performance from CalState, Long Beach. Ms. Graziadio has performed not only here in California, but across the United States and Europe. In Europe, she performed at the Rome Festival in Rome, Tropica Music in Italy and the Corfu Opera in Greece.

Her repertoire of her performances is extensive and impressive. Gina is the granddaughter of the late George L. Graziadio, who was very prominent in the Italian-American community. Most notably, Chair of Italian Studies at CalState Long Beach and the Graziadio School of business at Pepperdrine Univ-ersity. The Federated is much honored to have Gina as part of our special celebration. Headlining the entertainment for the evening will be the very popular Filippo Voltaggio. Born to immigrant parents from Southern Italy, he grew up in Northern California. Life in the Voltaggio home was one immersed in Italian. Filippo started singing at a young age. He would sing for visiting friends and guests.

As time went on, he put together family shows featuring him and his siblings. They sang, danced, played musical instruments, did magic tricks and told stories. Later on, Filippo attended the University of California, San Diego, graduating with a Bachelor Degree in Engineering Management. After college, he was recruited by IBM, moving quickly into junior management, but his first love was singing and performing. He left IBM to pursue a career in singing.

As his popularity grew, so did his performance biography. Filippo not only sings and speaks Italian and-English, but also, Latin, Spanish, French, German, Sicilian, Portuguese and Neapolitan. He is most popular with the Italian community, who not only enjoy his singing but his stories of growing up in an Italian home. We invite the community to join us on June 10th at the Glendale Hilton in Glendale for a wonderful evening of celebration honoring a special occasion in the history of Italy.

The event will also feature popular TV personality Mark DeCarlo. as master of ceremonies. Each guest will receive gifts commemorating the occasion. For information/reservations, please contact Ann Portenza, (702) 217-1777 or Maria Bruno, (818) 241-4672 or Rosemarie Biagetti Vanderhaar, (626) 254-0449 or rgeorev@aol.com