The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western musical history: Gregory the Great, for whom the Gregorian chant is named, and Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. Since 2005 it has been headquartered at the Renzo Piano designed Parco della Musica in Rome.
There are 70 community bands, 110 community choirs, and about 20 secondary music schools. The region is famous for its music festivals, including the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto and the Umbria Jazz Festival.
The music of the Marche, a region of Italy, has been shaped by the fact that the entire region is a collection of small centers of population. There is no cultural giant to be found—no Florence or Naples—that might have shaped the cultural and musical expressions of the entire region. There is not a town in the region with more than 100,000 population, but there are 246 total towns, and they support no fewer than 113 theaters, a cultural building boom that started in the late 18th century. Historically, the entire area was home to a great number of monasteries and abbeys in the Middle Ages, institutions that had choirs and were active in the musical lives of the inhabitants. That period is still obscure and is currently the subject of musicological research. In the modern age, the region has a vibrant musical life.
(This article is about the Music of Tuscany outside of the city and province of Florence. For that, see Music of Florence.)
Parco della Musica is a large public music complex in Rome, Italy, with three concert halls and an outdoor theater in a park setting, hence the name. It was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Jürgen Reinhold of Müller-BBM was in charge of acoustics for the halls; Franco Zagari was landscape architect for the outdoor spaces. Parco della Musica lies where the 1960 Summer Olympic Games were held, somewhat north of Rome's ancient center, and is home to most of the facilities of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Roberto Abbado is an Italian opera and symphonic music conductor. Currently he is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed Music Director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. From 2018 he's Music Director of the Festival Verdi in Parma. Previously he held the position of Chief Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester.
Diodato "Uto" Ughi, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI, is an Italian violinist and conductor. He was the music director of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia between 1987–1992. He is considered one of Italy's greatest living violinists and is also active in the promotion of classical music in today's culture.
Riccardo Piacentini is an Italian composer and pianist, professor of Composition at the Milan Conservatory.
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Musical Instruments Museum (MUSA) is the museum holding the instruments collection of musical instruments of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Its location is the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Italy. It was designed by architect Renzo Piano and inaugurated in February 2008. In the exhibition gallery some 130 instruments are on display and about 50 luthiery tools in an open-air laboratory where the museum luthiers work.
Kristiyan Koev is a Bulgarian flutist. Maestro Koev is also known as "Kristiyan Koev – The Golden Flute".
Sergio Rendine is an Italian composer of operas, symphonic, ballet and chamber music.
Roberto Cacciapaglia is an Italian pianist and composer. His compositions blend electronic experimental music with the classical tradition.
Filippo Maria Bressan is an Italian conductor.
Lucio Gregoretti is an Italian composer. He composed stage operas, symphonic and chamber music, electro-acoustic music, as well as incidental music for theatre plays, musical comedies, and film scores.
Paolo Restani is an Italian classical pianist.
Mariangela Vacatello is an Italian Classical Professional Pianist from Naples.
Nicholas Carthy was a Principal Conductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (1993–96), is Professor of Music and Opera Music Director at the University of Colorado, and is visiting tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music.
The Italian Navy Band is an Italian military band based in Rome which serves under the Italian Navy. The band was established in 1870 in La Spezia and is one of the oldest Italian military band units in the Italian Armed Forces. In 1965, it was transferred to Taranto before it was finally relocated to Rome in 1991. The band conducts concerts both in Italy and abroad, performing for international audiences as well as performing for charity, as is in the case of the concert held in 2004 at the International Center for Peace among the Peoples of Assisi. Common Italian venues the band performs in includes the Milan Auditorium, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Parco della Musica, and the Teatro di San Carlo. The band is currently composed of a conductor, a vice conductor, an archivist, as well as 102 NCO musicians drawn from music universities all over the country.
Cecilia Fusco is an Italian operatic soprano and voice teacher. In a long career, she appeared regularly at La Scala in Milan, and leading opera houses in Italy and abroad. Her broad repertoire includes works from early Italian opera to premieres of contemporary opera.
Franco Venturini, is an Italian musician based in Paris. From the earliest age he demonstrated an uncommon attitude towards classical music, which led him to pursue a musical career. He started as a pianist, later devoting himself to composition mainly in the fields of contemporary classical music and electronic music.
