Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – Roma

The origins of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia are closely linked to choral singing: In the second half of the 15th century, Pope Sixtus V, with a papal bull, suggested the foundation of the Congregazione dei Musici sotto l'invocazione della Beata Vergine e dei Santi Gregorio e Cecilia, a precursor of today's Accademia, based in Rome. The goals of the institution have changed over the centuries, but the promotion of musical culture has always been the starting point of all its activities. The Choir of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, composed of about 90 members, performs during both the Accademia's winter and summer seasons, accompanying the orchestra in performances of great classical and modern choral symphonic works.

Since its foundation in 1908, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia has worked with the most important conductors of the 20th century, including Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy and Camille Saint-Saëns, among others, to the best artists of today such as Christian Thielemann, Valery Gergiev and Gustavo Dudamel. The orchestra's musical directors have been Bernardino Molinari, Franco Ferrara, Fernando Previtali, Igor Markevitch, Thomas Schippers, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Daniele Gatti and Myung-Whun Chung. From 1983 to 1990, Leonard Bernstein was associated with the orchestra as honorary president.

With Sir Antonio Pappano, musical director in Rome since 2005, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia has achieved an exceptional position internationally. With Pappano at the helm, the orchestra has appeared at numerous prestigious music festivals such as the London Proms, the St. Petersburg White Nights Festival, the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival. It performs in the world's finest concert halls, including the Berlin Philharmonie, Musikverein and Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall in London, Salle Pleyel and Philharmonie in Paris, La Scala in Milan, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Semperoper Dresden, Carnegie Hall New York and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia was the first orchestra in Italy to devote itself exclusively to symphonic repertoire, with an emphasis on premieres of major contemporary works such as Ottorino Respighi's Fontane di Roma and Pini di Roma, Hans Werner Henze's Opfergang and Arvo Pärt's Cecilia, vergine romana.