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It is a group from Biella (Piemont) which has been involving in search and circulation of traditional music and dance for many years. This group started working when four musicians, coming from different experiences not only inside the folk music field, met together.
Their extensive repertory ranges from the area of Biella, the group's native land, to the Provençal area and Provence, as well as from the centre of France to Brittany finding out again some "monferrina" played by bands and then musically adapted the instruments coming from the tradition (such as diatonic accordion, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and harp).
The research, the care taken to the arrangements and the composition of new passages are the main characteristics which distinguish the Meikenut's music and make this pleasant not only to the people dancing this kind of music but also to the people which simply listen to it.
This group has been taken part in several festivals, both in Italy and in many foreign countries, and has collaborated with many Italian artists; and so a great number of recordings have been made. To be remembered the CD which has been fully recorded by this group and titled "Sons et suggestions d'autrefois" ("Ancient sounds and suggestions") from which the sensation given by the ancient dancing holidays comes out again and well mixes to the new compositions of Raffaele Antoniotti, who plays the accordion.
Several traditional passages coming from the Maritime Alps to Istria, with many ethnic and linguistic affinities which go over any political border following a fascinating run, re-propose and underline their similarity of belongings and show the common roots of people living on the mountain and so give emphasis to a sole and particular mosaic.
The nucleus of the orchestra is composed by people coming from Lombardia and Canton Ticino regions, who play in the "Bandalpina" band, together with some famous groups from Piemonte region such as the "Tre Martelli", the "Meikenut", the "Ombra gaia", the "Li Sounalhe" the Provençal duo Peron-Ferrero, the "Samadur" from Bergamo, the "Abies Alba" from Trentino region, the "Calicanto" from Veneto region, the violinists Kraniac e Marusic from Slovenia, the "La kinkerne" and the "Coralpes" from Savoia, the "Montferrine" from Switzerland and the "Trouveur Valdotèn" from Aosta Valley.
Besides a kind of choral repertory which performs the sonorities coming from different regions, the above mentioned groups also perform the culture of each region.
The Montferrina, country-dance, quadrille, polka, scottish, courente and many songs, which are performed in the different regional languages, can surely amuse and fascinate the audience offering a kind of performance which is sole and emotionally involving.
The instruments which perform the musical tradition are the accordion, hurdy-gurdy, violin, bagpipe, flute, ocarina, mandola, double-bass, harp, guitar and percussion instruments.
The director of this orchestra is Christian Thoma who is a teacher at the Musical Institute of Aosta.
This performance is illustrated through a presentation which, step by step, tells the musical run concerned and which invites the audience to take an imaginary musical trip which evokes mountain landscapes, architectures, monuments and people.