The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia ( en, National Academy of St 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 Saint Cecilia ( la, Sancta Caecilia), also spelled Cecelia, was a Roman virgin martyr and is venerated in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox, Anglican Communion, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden. She b ...

, the patron saint of music. Since 2005 it has been headquartered at the Renzo Piano designed Parco della Musica in Rome. It was founded as a "congregation", or "confraternity", and over the centuries has grown from a forum for local musicians and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

s to an internationally acclaimed academy active in music scholarship (with 100 prominent music

scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...

forming the body of the Accademia), music education (in its role as a conservatory) and

performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

(with an active choir and a symphony orchestra, the

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia) is an Italian symphony orchestra based in Rome. Resident at the Parco della Musica, the orchestra primarily performs its Rome concerts in ...

). The category of alumni of the associated conservatory (which in 1919 succeeded a ''liceo'') includes many noted composers and performers.

History

The first seat of the Congregation from 1585–1622 was the church of Santa Maria ad Martires, better known as the

Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone St ...

. Successive relocations were to the church of San Paolino alla Colonna (1622–52),

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is a 5th-century church in Rome, Italy, in the Trastevere rione, devoted to the Roman martyr Saint Cecilia (early 3rd century AD). History The first church on this site was founded probably in the 3rd century, by Pop ...

(1652–61), San Nicola dei Cesarini (1661–1663), Chiesa della Maddalena (1663–85), and, finally, San Carlo ai Catinari in 1685. Academy santa cecilia musicians

During the first century of existence, the Congregation was the workshop of a number of prominent musicians and composers of the day, including Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The institution in that period was often in rivalry with the other important musical organization of Papal Rome of the day, the Sistine Choir. Rivalry centred on the rights to control access to the musical profession, to train musicians, and to publish music. The rivalry never really ended and can be said to have lasted through the entire existence of the Papal States, that is, until 1870, when the "temporal power of the Church" was ended by military action of the new nation state of Italy. The early 18th century is considered to have been a particularly glorious time for the Accademia. Among names associated with the organization during that period are Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro and

Domenico Scarlatti Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or Doménico Scarlatti (26 October 1685-23 July 1757), was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the deve ...

, and

Niccolò Jommelli Niccolò Jommelli (; 10 September 1714 – 25 August 1774) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic reforms including redu ...

. In 1716,

Pope Clement XI Pope Clement XI ( la, Clemens XI; it, Clemente XI; 23 July 1649 – 19 March 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721. Clement XI w ...

decreed that all musicians practising their profession in Rome were required to become members of the Congregation. The Accademia suspended operations during the revolutionary period of the Napoleonic Wars but opened regularly again in 1822 a few years after the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

brought about by the Congress of Vienna. The years between that reopening and the end of the Papal States in 1870 were ones of great change. The organization opened its membership to hitherto excluded categories, such as dancers, poets, music historians, musical instrument makers, and music publishers. In 1838, the Congregation of Santa Cecilia was officially proclaimed an Academy and then a Papal Academy. The list of active and honorary members of the Accademia during that period is formidable and includes Cherubini, Mercadante, Donizetti,

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

, Paganini, Auber, Liszt,

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

, Berlioz, Gounod, and Meyerbeer. Among the crowned heads of Europe who were honorary members was Queen Victoria. After the unification of Italy, the Accademia reestablished itself with the formation of a permanent symphony orchestra and choir, beginning in 1895. It went from being the seat of a

Liceo The Gran Teatre del Liceu (, English: Great Theatre of the Lyceum), known as ''El Liceu'', is an opera house in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Located in La Rambla, it is the oldest running theatre in Barcelona. Founded in 1837 at another loca ...

musicale—a music "high school"—to being a full-blown conservatory; also, it hosts the "Eleonora Duse" Drama School, as well as a centre for experimental cinema. The most recent innovation has been the digitisation and cataloguing of centuries of musical documents—including an important collection of traditional music in the ethnomusicological archives—and their preservation and eventual display in the Accademia's

multimedia library A multimedia library is a public institution functioning as a library, containing not only paper and electronic books, newspapers and magazines, but also multimedia materials like videos (movies, documentaries) and sound recordings (music, audio b ...

and archive also available to the public online. The Accademia also maintains a musical instruments museum (the MUSA).

Alumni

* Paolo Aralla *

Gaqo Çako Gaqo Çako (24 January 1935 – 1 August 2018) was an Albanian operatic tenor, awarded with the People's Artist of Albania title. He has been ranked among the best opera singers of Albania, along with Ramiz Kovaçi and Mentor Xhemali. Career � ...

Alfredo Costa Alfredo Costa (1874, Rome -1913, Naples) was an Italian operatic baritone who had an active international career from 1900 until his death in 1913 at the age of 39. He appeared in French and Italian language operas of the 19th century and early 2 ...

* Franco Donatoni *

Ferenc Farkas Ferenc Farkas (; 15 December 1905 – 10 October 2000) was a Hungarian composer. Biography Born into a musical family (his father played the cimbalom and his mother played the piano) in Nagykanizsa, Farkas began his musical studies in Budape ...

* Jorgjia Filçe-Truja *

Beniamino Gigli Beniamino Gigli ( , ; 20 March 1890 – 30 November 1957) was an Italian opera singer (lyric tenor). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tenors of his generation. Early life Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a shoem ...

Aristodemo Giorgini Aristodemo Giorgini (30 June 1877 – 19 January 1937) was an Italian opera singer who sang leading lyric tenor roles on the stages of Europe and North America during his 25-year career. He made numerous recordings in the early 20th century an ...

Aurelio Giorni Aurelio Carlo Pietro Teodoro Giorni (15 September 1895 – 23 September 1938) was an Italian-American pianist and composer. After immigrating to the United States in 1914, he toured the nation as a soloist and with the Elshuco Trio. He composed ...

Gaetano Giuffrè Gaetano Giuffrè (born Corfu, 14 September 1918 – 8 January 2018) was an Italian-Greek-Swiss composer and maestro whose father was Giovanni Giuffrè, also a composer and maestro born in Corfu, Greece. Biography Born into a musical family, Gi ...

Preng Jakova Prenk Jakova (27 June 191719 September 1969) was an Albanian composer, musician, and author of '' Mrika'' (1958), which is considered the first Albanian opera. A native of Shkodër, he studied under Martin Gjoka and Zef Kurti, and he was also a ...

Ramiz Kovaçi Ramiz Kovaçi (22 March 1929 – 1994) was an Albanian baritone. One of the most notable opera singers in his generation, he was the main baritone of the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania and a founder of the Academy of Arts of Albani ...

Sylvia Kersenbaum Sylvia Haydée Kersenbaum (born 27 December 1941) is an Argentine pianist, composer and teacher. Among other things, she is recognized for performing the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven piano sonatas twice (in 1989–1990 and 2003–2004), and her ...

* Giorgio Magnanensi *

Hersi Matmuja Hersjana Matmuja (born 1 February 1990), also known as Hersi Matmuja or simply Hersi, is an Albanian singer and songwriter. After winning the 52nd edition of Festivali i Këngës, she represented Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. L ...

Anna Moffo Anna Moffo (June 27, 1932 – March 9, 2006) was an American opera singer, television personality, and actress. One of the leading lyric- coloratura sopranos of her generation, she possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agil ...

Bruno Nicolai Bruno Nicolai (20 May 1926 – 16 August 1991) was an Italian film music composer, orchestra director and musical editor most active in the 1960s through the 1980s. While studying piano and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, ...

Piero Niro Piero Niro (born 1957) is an Italian composer, classical pianist, and academic specialising in the philosophy of music and aesthetics. Niro was born in Baranello in the southern Italian region of Molise and initially studied piano and compositi ...

Carlo Peroni Carlo Peroni (29 November 1929 – 13 December 2011), also known as Perogatt, was an Italian comic book artist. Born in Senigallia, Ancona, Peroni started his career in 1946 as a restorer and an icon painter. In 1948 he started collaborating w ...

* Zoltán Peskó *

Franco Piersanti Franco Piersanti (born 12 January 1950) is an Italian composer and conductor. Born in Rome, Piersanti graduated in double bass at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he studied composition under the guidance of Armando Renzi and conducting unde ...

Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

Diogenes Rivas Diogenes Rivas (born October 4, 1942) is a Venezuelan composer as well as a researcher of contemporary music. Additionally, he devotes time to teaching and the training of young composers. Rivas is the co-founder and artistic director of the Fest ...

Sonya Scarlet Theatres des Vampires is an Italian gothic metal band, mostly noted for the predominant theme of vampirism within their lyrics. The band's early material was credited as melodic black metal or symphonic black metal, but the group completely a ...

Victor Togni Victor Togni (15 March 1935 - 29 March 1965) was a Swiss Canadian organist, improviser, composer, and teacher. His compositions received positive reception. He won first prize at the American Guild of Organists' Improvisation Competition on June ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Music schools in Italy 1585 establishments in Italy Education in Rome Learned societies of Italy Educational institutions established in the 1580s