On Friday, October 9, the new edition of Hit Week, the international festival that since 2009 has been promoting Italian pop, rock, and singer-songwriter music abroad, will open at the Italian Cultural Institute in Miami. The festival creates opportunities for Italian artists to connect with audiences and international music industry professionals.
Organized by the Italian Music Industry Federation (FIMI) and the Italian Trade Agency (ITA), through its Los Angeles office, Hit Week has travelled to numerous countries and several cities across the United States over the years. Since 2022, the festival has consolidated a format featuring two annual events, in Miami and Los Angeles.
The Miami leg of the 2026 edition, organized in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, will open with a performance by Neapolitan musician Francesca Del Duca, an eclectic percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and singer. She will perform selections from her repertoire and retrace the different stages of her artistic journey.
A graduate in Percussion Instruments from the Salerno Conservatory of Music, Francesca Del Duca has studied instruments from a wide range of musical traditions, from the tambourine and tammorra of Southern Italy to African, Arab, Latin American, and Indian percussion. From 2010 to 2013, she lived in New York, where she worked as a musician and Music Director, collaborating with international artists. After returning to Italy, she released her first solo album, It is Love, in 2019. From 2017 to 2024, she was a member of Eugenio Bennato’s band as a percussionist and singer, while since 2025 she has toured with La Niña. She is also a member of the electro-folk trio CURANIME, dedicated to reinterpreting the musical traditions of Southern Italy through a contemporary lens. During the 2026–2027 season, she will also appear on stage alongside Stefano Accorsi in the theatrical production Nessuno. Le avventure di Ulisse, an original theatrical reinterpretation of the myth of the Homeric hero.
Francesca Del Duca’s artistic journey is characterized by a constant dialogue between tradition and contemporary expression, with particular attention to the sounds and musical cultures of the Mediterranean and Southern Italy.
The evening will continue with a DJ set by Frank One and Aramis Lorie, the latter a Miami-based DJ, composer, and producer, whose work includes a track significantly titled Ode to Italy.
The two-day Miami program will culminate on Saturday, October 10, with a concert by La Niña at the Miami Beach Bandshell.