Singer/songwriter Luciano Maio (b. 1950 in Milazzo, Sicily) has been a propagator of Sicilian culture all his life, as a poet, artist, painter, singer, fisherman, sculptor, lyricist, and philosopher.

In the early 1970s he founded 'Taberna Mylaensis' and initiated the recovery of the great traditional music of Sicily, on the wave of the student revolts of 1968 with its expectations for social renovation. In the years to follow, Taberna Mylaensis has had various line-ups, with Luciano Maio as its steady center, and the band released 10 LPs and CDs.
The repertoire, which originally was focused on protest songs, gradually shifted to a more traditional/contemporary approach. 
Mylae is the old Latin name for Milazzo. The band's name 'Taberna Mylaensis' translates as "Tavern of Mylae/Milazzo".

Sicily, the centre of the old Mediterranean world on the crossroads of trade routes, has been influenced by Normans, Arabs, Greece, France, Spain, and the Maghreb, and Sicilian music bears traces of all these. 
Luciano Maio's compositions are based on traditions of Sicily and the Mediterranean and his lyrics (in Sicilian dialect) often depict historical events.
Since 1985 Luciano lives and works both in Milazzo and in Amsterdam. He is married to his Amsterdam girlfriend Annemarie.

When performing on Sicily he works with a new generation of traditional musicians, all educated at the Conservatory of Palermo. When performing in Netherlands, he works with Amsterdam-based Sicilian musicians and musicians from Netherlands.
www.tabernamylaensis.com/