The Accademia Musicale Chigiana — the Chigiana Music Academy — is one of Italy’s most prestigious musical institutions. It was founded in Siena in 1932 at the behest of patron and music lover Count Chigi Saracini. Today it offers special advanced courses in music for the cultural education of young Italian and foreign musicians who, according to tradition, will study with teachers who are among the greatest exponents in their field. The Academy also holds concerts, in a program series restructured in 2015, to offer a winter program (“Micat in Vertice”, whose first season dates back to 1923) and a summer festival, the Chigiana International Festival, which, entirely redesigned in 2015, brings together the Academy’s entire summer concert season in one single program, divided into different thematic categories.

Every year, the Chigiana carries on a series of projects: the “Chigiana Global Academic Program, C-GAP”, a study-abroad program that also includes a new Winter & Spring Academy, begun in 2018; A spring series of concerts: Primavera Chigiana; “Tradire – the roots of music,” a series of concerts that incorporate traditional music and new sounds; “For Organs,” a concert series dedicated to music for organ; “Giovani Talenti Musicali Italiani nel mondo“ (Young, Talented, Musical Italians Abroad), a project for sending Italian musicians to perform in concerts in other countries, with the support of the Foreign Ministry; “ChigImola Musica 2019,” a project in cooperation with the Piano Academy of Imola, with concerts, masterclasses, and more.

The National Academy of Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world.
Officially founded in 1585 and transformed over the centuries by an association of “local” musicians into a modern academy and symphonic concert organization of international fame, it unites an academic body composed of 100 members among the most illustrious exponents of culture and musical artistry with a symphonic orchestra and choir that are among the most accredited on the international arena. It offers advanced music studies while preserving a rich historical heritage, reflecting its centuries-old history.

Since 2005, Antonio Pappano has been the Musical Director of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia Orchestra.

The Friends of Music Association of Florence was established in 1920 and is one of the oldest and most prestigious concert organizations in Italy.

The Association’s contribution to the development of musical culture in Italy has been far-ranging. From the beginning, it organized concerts on an international scale (among the first performances were artists of such caliber as the Busch Quartet, Wilhelm Backhaus, Arturo Toscanini, Alfred Cortot, Gaspar Cassadò, Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, Bela Bartok, Rudolf Serkin, and Vladimir Horowitz), which gave rise to Vittorio Gui’s “Orchestra Stabile Fiorentina” (which has since become the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino) in 1928. It also had an active role in creating the Maggio Musicale in 1933.
Since its historic origins, the Friends of Music Association is still active today, organizing concerts on a par with the most prestigious European institutions, featuring major, world-renowned artists.

The Association’s numerous performances are held in Florence, in the historical and central Teatro della Pergola on a weekly basis (Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings) from October to April. The program covers a wide range of programs from the classics, to chamber music to contemporary music (often with world premiere performances), as well as jazz and traditional music.

Le Dimore del Quartetto is an association that supports young string quartets in the early phase of their career and promotes the cultural heritage of historic houses. In collaboration with ADSI – Association of Italian Historic Houses, FAI – Italian National Trust, EHH – European Historic Houses, as well as the Fundación de Casas Históricas y Singulares, the association has created a network of locations willing to host musicians for free for a period of intensive study in preparation for important artistic engagements. In exchange for hospitality, musicians give a house concert. Quartets are selected by Simone Gramaglia, violist of the Quartetto di Cremona.

Le Dimore del Quartetto association fosters encounters in unconventional and usually inaccessible venues, bringing new audiences to chamber music.

The network also aims to lend logistical support to concert organizations hiring young music ensembles that take part in the project.

In 2017, the project was presented at the Chamber of Deputies, upon invitation by the Cultural Commission, as part of the research on “Best practices of cultural diffusion.”

In 2018, the project was selected by the Fondazione Cariplo among the 20 winners (out of 321 participants from all over Italy) of the “Cultural Innovation” competition.
In 2019, Le Dimore del Quartetto was among the winners of the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award 2019, the most prestigious prize in Europe, in the “Education, Training and Awareness-raising” category.

In the spirit of all that Piero Farulli has stood for, the Association seeks to support initiatives in favor of spreading the love for classical music — and the critical awareness and practice that go with it — to the disadvantaged segments of the population, on its own or in cooperation with public and private institutions. Specifically:

1) support for young talented musicians living in disadvantaged economic conditions, providing occasions for public performances, as well as encounters with the great masters, including by means of scholarships;
2) supporting training initiatives for innovative instrumental teaching techniques aimed at providing access to musical culture despite economic and social barriers;
3) promoting and supporting all amateur forms of music-making, especially ensemble playing, chamber music, and orchestral playing;
4) encouragement for string quartet playing from a very early age by means of competitions for juniors and youths up to the age of 18 years of age, promoted by the Association as a single entity or in collaboration with other institutions,;
5) collaborating on projects that view music as a valuable asset to social integration;
6) offering economically disadvantaged, pre-professional string players support in the form of quality instruments from the Farulli collection;

7) making available the sound and iconographical archives of Maestro Farulli, as well as his writings and letters, to the members of the Association.

The Luigi Cherubini conservatory of music in Florence, the city of art par excellence, has long been the site of music schools, dating back to at least the fourteenth century, the epoch of the Ars Nova. At the time, such schools were private and came into being by means of the personal initiatives of famous artists or through the interest of patrons, without becoming public institutions. Under the French government, between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, the first municipal music schools came into being, but few details are known about how they were structured. In the various academies existing in Florence, among them the Accademia Fiorentina, the Accademia della Crusca, and the Accademia degli Apatici, regular lessons were held, but music doesn’t seem to have had a place among the classes offered. There is more precise information about the Accademia delle Belle Arti, already active in 1811 and divided into three classes, one of which was dedicated to music and declamation. Music schools with their own teachers were connected to the Academy, and held classes in counterpoint, singing, piano, violin, declamation and theater arts. A decree from the Grand Duke on August 6, 1849 converted the music school of the Accademia delle Belle Arti into an independent music school. Giovanni Pacini, a noted composer of the epoch and excellent operatic composer (he wrote ninety operas among them Saffo and Medea) was called to be the director of this school. Vittorio Emanuele Il, with the decree of March 15, 1860, suppressed the old schools, detaching them definitively from the Accademia delle Belle Arti, transforming them into the “Regio Istituto Musicale di Firenze” (Royal Musical Institute of Florence). The director was Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata, one of the more illustrious figures, together with Abramo Basevi, of the Florentine musical scene of the time. In 1910, the musical institute was given the name of Luigi Cherubini. Under the directorship of Arnaldo Bonaventura, the Royal decree of December 31, 1923 transformed the institute into the Royal Conservatory of Music. Today the Cherubini attracts an international student population from Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa. Through its ERASMUS offices, the conservatory has underwritten bilateral agreements with universities and musical institutions from all of Europe. As of today, agreements are in place with Antwerp, Berlin, Brașov, Brussels, Budapest, Cologne, Dijon, Freiburg, Graz, Hannover, Leipzig, Manchester, Seville, Stockholm, Trossingen, Turku, Vienna, and Zurich, providing student and teacher exchange programs within the ERASMUS program.

The CR Firenze Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation with origins as a financial institution, sponsoring projects of social interest in the Florence area, as well as the Grosseto and Arezzo provinces.

Founded in Florence in 1980 by the region of Tuscany, the province of Florence and the city of Florence, the Tuscan Regional Orchestra is considered one of the finest orchestras in Italy. In 1983, under the direction of Luciano Berio, it was named the Orchestral Concert Institute, by the Ministry of Theater and Tourism. It averages 44 musicians and may also be subdivided into smaller chamber configurations. The orchestra is based in Florence in the historic Teatro Verdi, where it holds its own concert season. The orchestra is a frequent guest of the leading concert venues in Italy, among them, La Scala, The Lingotto Auditorium in Turin, The Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the leading concert halls of Europe and the rest of the world, such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, in Hong Kong and Japan. Giorgio Battistelli is the artistic director while the principal conductor is Daniele Rustioni.

This orchestra’s artistic history has been marked by the presence and collaboration of eminent musicians such as Salvatore Accardo, Martha Argerich, Rudolf Barshai, Yuri Bashmet, Frans Brüggen, Myung-Whun Chung, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Daniel Harding, Eliahu Inbal, Yo-Yo Ma, and Uto Ughi. The ORT interprets a wide range of repertoires and distinguishes itself for the versatility and excellence of its member musicians allowing for the performance of music from the Baroque period to the Romantic, to XX-century repertoire with particular attention to contemporary music. The orchestra has been invited to participate in numerous important events such as the Venice Biennale Musica and the Strasbourg Festival. The ORT created the Festival “Play It!” dedicated to the Italian music of our time and received, in 2014, the “Franco Abbiati” Music Critics’ award for the best initiative. The orchestra’s concerts are broadcast on radio stations Radio Rai 3 and Rete Toscana Classica. ORT records for EMI, Ricordi, Agorà, VDM Records, Sony Classical, and Warner Music Italia.

The Fiesole School of music was the dream of a great musician who felt the urgency of sharing the extraordinary cultural heritage of music with all of his fellow citizens. This was Piero Farulli, whose untiring efforts made this dream become a reality. The experience of music would be offered to everyone, young and old. To this end, teaching methods at the school are specially tailored to answer the demands of its diverse student body, which ranges from very young children to advanced, pre-professional students, but what makes this school unique is that major emphasis is always placed on ensemble music — making music with others.
In the spirit put forth by its founder, the Fiesole School has organized, in recent years, free musical activities for children and youths in various Florentine neighborhoods, and an orchestral project open to students with special needs.

A European reference point for light wave research, based on a multidisciplinary approach. This is LENS, a center of excellence at the University of Florence since 1991, a place where physicists, chemists and biologists work together, sharing tools, experiences, research themes, scientific perspectives and ideas, with the common goal of using laser light to investigate matter from different viewpoints.
LENS offers advanced training to young researchers through high-level PhD courses and postdoctoral research grants.

The Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS) is a university institution of higher education based in Pisa and Florence, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students.

The SNS has the aim of cultivating the talent and qualities of its students through teaching that develops individual potentials and abilities within the context of collegial living, dialogue, and collaboration. Dozens of young people are selected each year, through a competition, on the sole basis of their talent and potential. Once accepted into the school, they are invited to live and work there together: Each year, the SNS helps them choose a future and fosters it with an investment that has no equal in Italy or Europe.

The SNS is above all a community, living, studying, and growing together. In this unique setting, teachers, researchers, and students work side by side, carrying out educational and laboratory activities, developing cultural events and experimental initiatives.

Students at the SNS follow a course of studies that incorporates the natural blend of experiences, research, insights, and moments of intuition. From the often unexpected encountering of experiences, hopes, and contrasting talents, a unique learning model emerges, integrating and harmonizing the attitudes of each one: individual capacities are able to progress through collective sharing.

The SNS model is based on some fundamental principles: students are chosen exclusively on the basis of merit; tuition, room, and board are completely free of charge; teaching, research, and community life are deeply interwoven with a broad openness to international exchanges.

Students who are accepted into the SNS are also required to take corresponding courses at the University of Pisa during the same period of study. This means respecting the rigorous educational obligations of two parallel and complementary teaching systems.

Study at the SNS is organized into two main courses: the undergraduate course (corresponding to a three-year degree and a master’s degree) and the postgraduate course (PhD). The teaching curriculum is divided into the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Science (based in Pisa), and the Department of Political and Social Sciences (based in Florence).

The Milan Quartet Society was founded in 1863 by Arrigo Boito, Tito Ricordi and other musicians and protagonists of Milanese cultural life with the aim of promoting classical music through a prestigious concert season with music and performers of the highest levels of excellence. It has since carried out its activities on a continuing basis, with as many as 154 concert seasons, interrupted once, for a few months, between 1944 and 1945, so as to avoid giving the officers of the German army occupying Milan, the obligatory access to its concerts.

The statute of the society, in its various formulations over the past 155 years of activity, has always provided for three different bodies to assure its regulatory and legal standing in the region of Lombardy: a deliberating body (shareholders’ assembly), a board of directors elected by the shareholders, and an auditing body appointed by the shareholders.

From 1864 to the present, they have held regular, annual concert seasons which, after the first few years and during the 1900s, were accessible to members only.

In the last decade of the 20th century, the Quartet Society began opening its doors to the city with important collaborations and co-productions with other local institutions, above all the City of Milan and La Scala. Alongside the ordinary concert season, additional concerts were organized that were open to the public, overriding the “members only” restriction.

A special, massive Bach project was carried out by the Society during the years from 1994 to 2004. For the first time, and the only time in Italy, until now, concerts were held, where the complete sacred and secular cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach — all 300 of them, were performed.

Since 2002 all Quartet Society concerts have been open to the general public.

In December of 2014, the Mayor of Milan conferred the Gold Medal of Civic Merit (Ambrogino d’Oro) to the Quartet Society, as “an institution beloved by all Milanese and a vital component of the city’s cultural heritage,” and “for having carried out its mission in exemplary fashion by organizing major concert seasons open to the whole community and by collaborating with the city’s musical institutions, beginning with La Scala.”

The Theater of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with its excellent acoustics and one of the largest theater stages in the world, shares its history and heritage with the Teatro Comunale, or municipal theatre, and shares its name with the Maggio Fiorentino Festival, the first in Italy and one of the oldest and most prestigious in Europe. From the outset, the “Maggio” and the Festival, thanks to the opera, symphonic and concert seasons, have been synonymous with innovation, new prospects, and an international, interdisciplinary vision of music and theater, recognized for its excellence