The formation of the choir was not immediate, but preceded by several and continuous attempts. At the end of 1973, encouraged by Paolo Bernardini, we created a choral group made up by a few elements, who were lovers of “bel canto”. We studied with deep dedication (the master conductor was Paolo Bernardini, assisted by Giulio Bernardini, the director), the "Mass of Perosi", then singing that song in the church in the most significant liturgical occasions of the year.

We were often invited to sing it during Holy Communions, but, above all, at weddings, in order to make the celebration more solemn.
At the beginning of 1975 this group was made up by the above-quoted masters and by twelve singers:

Romeo Bernardi, Luigi Brasa, Canelli Joseph Mario Rubini, Ferdinando Fiocchi, Renzo Marcacci, Mario Palmieri, Aldo Sacchetti, Luciano Sacchetti, Franco Bertoni, Domenico Canelli , and Mario Franceschini. This was the first group around which the choir developed. The idea of extending the initiative to many people, of developing a love in choral singing (in a choir that did not sing anymore the difficult pieces of the classical authors written in Latin, but religious folk melodies written mostly in Italian)

led to the formation of a choir made up by about forty elements. This experience was very short, because it consisted in not more than ten rehearsals that took place in the rectory ... But the experiment worked wonderfully: many "new" singers fell in love with “coral singing” and therefore in the autumn of 1976, in the civic hall

where we still rehearse, began the rehearsals of tests of manly voices with the Master Paolo Bernardini. This was a repertoire of popular Alpine songs, which were chosen and harmonized by the masters of the famous Coro SAT coming from Trentino..
In anticipation of the first performances that took place in 1978, it was necessary to find a name for our choir;

We chose the symbol of Montano Gaggio which is the “Sasso di Rocca”, (a large rock formation at the center of our country) and we unanimously decided the name: Coro “La Rocca”.
During the 80’s we were committed to looking for folk songs of our own area which would have been certainly lost, if a group of singers and at the same time improvised researchers, led by Paolo Bernardini and encouraged by Maestro Giorgio Vacchi, had not discovered them. These songs are about 1400 and some of these, properly harmonized by M. Giorgio Vacchi, can already be found in our repertoire and in the repertoires of many other Italian choirs.
In the following years the choir has performed concerts and festivals in Italy and abroad. In 1998, under the guidance of the master Walter Chiappelli, it recorded its first CD "Le Cante", where you will find some songs involved in the research above-quoted. Nowadays the choir is made up by 40 singers, it is registered at the AERCO (Associazione Emiliana Romagnola Cori), it is registered as Association of Social Promotion and has great interest in cultural exchanges in order to make known a wide range of popular songs. Under the direction of Maestro Walter Chiappelli, experienced professional musician and with refined poetic sensibility, the choir certainly experienced a quality leap, even recognized by many experts that we met during our concerts abroad and in several Italian resorts. We remember with great pride and satisfaction that in 2001, during our stay in Poland, we were granted the honour of singing for two times in front of the holy Madonna of Czestochowa in the sanctuary particularly loved by the Pope John Paul II. This privilege had been granted only to few Polish choirs, as well as the privilege of singing the mass broadcasted live on the national radio. In 2007 we were invited to sing "Bella Ciao" (a famous popular song of the resistance) for the funeral of Enzo Biagi, who was a journalist, writer and television presenter known both in Italy and abroad. While we were singing, the Prime Minister at that time Romano Prodi stopped in front of us, listened to a piece of our song, then smiled and greeted us with a gesture of affirmation, satisfied with our performance.

       We would like to remember the presidents of our choir during these years: Romeo Bernardi, Mario Brunetti, Antonio Guarino and the current President of the Choir Aldo Sacchetti.