Paola Tagliaferro, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, is a leading figure in Italian progressive rock and high-quality songwriting. Yet her sophisticated, cultured music also has an international reach, thanks to her rich musical background. From a very young age, she demonstrated her abilities through a number of pop singles reflecting the musical culture of the eighties, which already showcased her captivating voice. It was through her subsequent development, however, drawing on a wide range of experiences including Indian vocal studies, painting and dance, that her musical background became more refined and rooted in progressive rock. As it continued to develop, her talent and sensitivity emerged with increasing clarity. Each of her albums creates fresh musical landscapes, revealing a musical personality that is constantly evolving. Her latest release, Il Suono Delle Sfere (The Sound Of The Spheres, reviewed on our website), released in 2025, further confirms her inclination to push her artistic horizons towards the avant-garde. Another important moment in her career was meeting Greg and Regina Lake in 2012, during the celebrated British artist’s Italian tour, which marked the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Paola has dedicated two splendid tribute albums to Greg Lake, alongside her numerous collaborations with other progressive rock artists.
In this enjoyable interview, Paola Tagliaferro shares many aspects of her career with VeroRock.it, revisiting its key moments, her approach to making music, her dynamic temperament, and the prospects and current role of progressive rock: a genre poised to reassert itself on the international rock scene.
Hello Paola, and welcome to VeroRock.it.
2012 was an important year in your career. You released Milioni Di Lune in collaboration with Max Marchini and met Regina and Greg Lake during the celebrated British artist’s Italian tour. Your lovely friendship with Regina grew even stronger after Greg’s passing. Would you tell us about it?
Hello Carlo, thank you for inviting me.
In 2012, I was asked to arrange some dates for Greg Lake’s Italian tour. I managed to secure a date in Verona, an evening at La Salumeria della Musica in Milan, and a concert at Castello Canevaro in Zoagli. On these occasions, I had the opportunity to meet Greg and Regina Lake, and a friendship developed with both.
In 2013, I brought Greg Lake back to the Genoa International Poetry Festival, working with the poet and writer Claudio Pozzani, the festival’s president. Greg came with Regina, and they spent a few days in Santa Margherita Ligure, on the Gulf of Tigullio, where I live.
From 2012 onwards, Greg and I exchanged emails in which he encouraged me and offered advice on developing my musical direction, which at the time centred on spontaneous, improvised and exploratory music.
In 2017, following Greg’s death, I asked Zoagli Town Council to award him honorary citizenship, and my request was granted, in remembrance of that enchanting musical encounter in 2012, which had attracted international attention.
At Castello Canevaro, through the Accademia Internazionale delle Arti, the non-profit association I founded, we worked with Claudio Pozzani and Zoagli Town Council to organise a beautiful ceremony.
Regina Lake was presented with the scroll awarding Greg Lake posthumous honorary citizenship of Zoagli.
And so, my friendship with Regina entered a wonderful new chapter. In 2018 and 2019, once again through the Accademia Internazionale delle Arti, in collaboration with Zoagli Town Council and with Regina Lake as patron, I organised the first and second Art in Progress events in memory of Greg Lake.
You have devoted yourself to creating two outstanding tribute albums to Greg Lake: one featuring what might be considered some of the best-known ELP and King Crimson songs, “Paola Tagliaferro Sings Greg Lake”, and another which also includes one of his solo songs, “It Hurts”, on “For The Love Of Greg Lake Paola Tagliaferro – La Compagnia dell’Es” – perhaps less well known, but deeply powerful. When and how did these projects take shape? Did your friendship with Regina Lake also inspire you to pursue them?
In the summer of 2019, Regina Lake suggested that I record an album of Greg Lake’s songs. In December 2019, at a wonderful event organised with my friend Didy Pasini Ciriani and Palmanova Town Council in Friuli, I had the opportunity to discuss it with my band, La Compagnia Dell’Es, and the project began with great enthusiasm.
Regina Lake worked with me as artistic producer and was an enormous help. It was a profound and wonderful journey into Greg Lake’s music, guided by the woman who had spent forty years by his side: his wife. It involved a tremendous amount of work for both Regina and me, and certainly for the musicians who were members of La Compagnia Dell’Es at the time.
In 2020, I released “Paola Tagliaferro Sings Greg Lake – La Compagnia Dell’Es “through Owl Records.
In 2021, Regina Lake, who heads Manticore Records, which she inherited from Greg, officially invited me to become a Manticore Records artist for all my recordings of Greg Lake’s repertoire.
“Paola Tagliaferro Sings Greg Lake – La Compagnia Dell’Es” was then reissued digitally across all platforms, bearing the famous Manticore Records logo.
You also had the honour and excitement of recording – “For The Love Of Greg Lake” – for Manticore Records, the historic label founded by ELP. Tell us how this collaboration felt.
It was certainly a great thrill to record directly for Manticore Records: a second journey into Greg Lake’s wonderful music, with Regina Lake by my side. Regina and I talked a great deal, and every song brought back memories for her of precious moments she had shared with Greg. Regina paid particular attention to my pronunciation and the album cover. Together, we put an enormous amount of work into it, and the album’s title describes the love and passion that guided us both – For The Love Of Greg Lake- released digitally by Manticore Records in 2024.
Let us turn to your original repertoire, which is full of high-quality work that does credit both to progressive rock and to the finest songwriting. From “Chrysalis” to “Milioni Di Lune”, from “Fabulae” to the more recent “Il Suono Delle Sfere”, you have consistently moved towards the avant-garde and explored the voice in depth. Could you tell us about your evolution as an artist? How much has it been enriched by the different forms of expression you have explored, such as Dhrupad singing from the Indian tradition, painting and dance?
“Chrysalis” and “Milioni Di Lune” are two albums I composed with Max Marchini and released through Owl Records. At that time, I was exploring experimental music, improvised singing and the avant-garde.
In 2009, I enrolled at the Arrigo Pedrollo Conservatoire in Vicenza to study Dhrupad singing with Amelia Cuni, on the three-year course in Non-European Musical Traditions specialising in Indian studies. It was a fascinating journey in search of primordial and spiritual sound.
Painting and dance came earlier, but they are all expressions of my soul.
Compared with Fabulae, which often drew on folk influences and a more intimate approach, I find the compositions on “Il Suono Delle Sfere” more distinctly progressive. Is that a fair impression?
“Fabulae”, released in autumn 2018, is a journey towards greater awareness and the evolution of consciousness, inspired by the tales in the wonderful book Women Who Run with the Wolves and by the ancient Eastern philosophies I studied at the conservatoire. It is certainly an intimate, acoustic album.
“Il Suono Delle Sfere / The Sound Of The Spheres” came after the two albums dedicated to Greg Lake. For this reason, the music, which I wrote with Pier Gonella – the album’s guitarist, bassist and artistic co-producer – is decidedly more progressive.
Your singing is imbued with poetry, and the album is built around the concept of the Ankh: a vision extending beyond earthly existence. How do the sound of the spheres, this cosmic journey and the symbolism of the Ankh intertwine throughout the record?
The Ankh is an ancient Egyptian symbol of eternal life. I imagined leaving Earth in my astral, energetic body to visit the planets of our solar system.
In my lyrics, I evoke the names of the planets in connection with the powers of the ancient gods. I believe in the influence the planets can have on human beings: we are talking about frequencies. Our very breath of life is a frequency.
I think your practice of performing songs from your albums in both Italian and English is an excellent idea. In my view, the seemingly established assumption that progressive rock lends itself better to being sung in English is not entirely correct. What are your thoughts?
I want Italian listeners to be able to hear me in my mother tongue, because I would like everyone to understand me, including those who do not speak English. English is the international language that allows me to communicate with the world.
However, I do not think you have to sing in English to make good progressive rock, either in Italy or perhaps, to a certain extent, abroad. Historic bands such as PFM and Banco bear witness to that. For me, it is simply a choice that allows my songs to reach an international audience.
Are you drawn to ambient atmospheres? I find them highly complementary to progressive rock, often providing a useful starting point even for pieces with substantial, intricate structures.
I agree with you, Carlo.
Since 2013, you have been accompanied in the studio and on stage by an outstanding ensemble of highly accomplished musicians, La Compagnia Dell’Es. Could you introduce them?
La Compagnia Dell’Es has had several line-ups, all featuring very talented musicians: fellow travellers I have met along the way. Naturally, each album credits the musicians who contributed to it. To mention a few: Giuliano Palmieri on piano and electronic music; Giulia Ermirio on viola; Andrea Zanzottera on piano; drummer Andrea Canepa; the duo Enten Hitti on oboe, xylophone and lute; Vincenzo Zitello on harp; Akhilesh Gundeca on pakhawaj; and U.T. Gandhi, an exceptional percussionist who sadly passed away this year, as did another friend and brilliant improviser on wind instruments, Angelo Contini.
The latest line-up of La Compagnia Dell’Es, featured on Il Suono Delle Sfere / The Sound Of The Spheres and in our live performances, is:
Pier Gonella, who has been my collaborator and a musician in the band since 2015, appearing on every album and at every live performance. He is a superb guitarist and bassist.
Luca Scherani, an exceptional progressive rock keyboard player, on piano and keyboards.
Andrea Orlando, a talented drummer.
All three have extensive experience, both as musicians in various bands and as composers.
It is lovely and rewarding to work with these musician friends. There is mutual respect and harmony between us.
You live by the sea. I consider it a great source of inspiration for artists, and I believe you, too, have a strong connection with this natural element, as Mediterranean atmospheres are very present in your music. Would you agree?
Absolutely! I was born in Verona, a beautiful city, but my dream was always to live by the sea, and I have managed to fulfil it. It makes me feel good, and its constant transformations are a great source of inspiration for me.
After its heyday in the seventies and, to some extent, the eighties, is progressive rock destined to remain a niche phenomenon, or can it once again play an influential role in rock? I notice considerable activity and enthusiasm among musicians in this field, including here in Italy. What is your opinion?
The great bands that gave rise to this genre in the seventies and eighties certainly wrote its history. But the term “progressive rock”, or “prog rock”, describes rock that is evolving: a desire to explore and expand its language through intricate structures, cross-fertilisation with other genres and experimentation.
I do not know whether it will remain a niche form of music today and soon, or whether its audience will grow, but it will certainly continue to encourage exploration within the world of rock music.
How do you view the growing presence of AI in the arts, particularly in a sophisticated and creative form of music such as progressive rock? Do you think there is a risk that it might discourage musicians’ creative drive, or should it be regarded as a useful aid when used sparingly?
I believe AI can be a valuable aid in many fields, but we must use it rather than allow ourselves to be used by it.
Musicians must create and play, expressing their own talent and soul. Only then can they touch the soul of the listener. AI is a computer connected to software and should be used as such.
Let us return once more to your earlier work. On “Chrysalis” and “Milioni Di Lune”, mentioned above, you collaborated with one of rock’s greatest poets, the late Peter Sinfield. What was it like to work with another progressive rock legend?
It was fantastic! Peter was poetry…
On “Chrysalis”, Marchini and I had set his beautiful poem “Poem to a Blue a Painting” to music, and he was delighted with it.
For” Milioni Di Lune”, I wrote to Peter asking whether he could write a haiku for the new album. He wrote “Blossom On The Tree”, which Max Marchini and I set to music.
I also asked Peter whether he could record himself reciting some words from his haiku. He sent me the recordings, and we incorporated them into the track.
Peter was very impressed by our studio work and my interpretation, and he wrote a wonderful review in a post that I treasure. I met Peter in 2012 at the Genoa International Poetry Festival, and it remains a precious memory in my heart.
An obvious but essential question: what does the future hold for Paola Tagliaferro? What are your short- and long-term plans? Will we be seeing you on stage again soon?
My plan is certainly to continue my spiritual exploration of sound and to produce new albums. I very much hope there will also be opportunities to perform live.
With La Compagnia dell’Es we were guests of the Prog Festival that took place on November 6th at the Teatro Nuovo Valleggia in Quiliano (SV), where we proposed in the first part of the evening all the songs from “The Sound Of The Spheres” / “Il Suono Delle Sfere” and followed by ten other songs from my albums Manticore Records “Paola Tagliaferro Sings Greg Lake” and “For The Love Of Greg Lake Paola Tagliaferro – La Compagnia dell’Es”.
Some videos related to the event will be available soon.
Thank you for your time and kindness. Would you like to leave a message for VeroRock readers?
Thank you for such an interesting interview, and my warmest wishes to all VeroRock readers!
