History

The Academy is apolitical and nonprofit. It pursues the goal of research, study and dissemination of the historical musical heritage, with particular regard to the Italian heritage, in the European context.

The Academy's activities are carried out in the following ways:

1. recovery of original musical documents, instruments and musical scores, in their aesthetic, historical and cultural wholeness, according to philological principles and taking into account the most accredited musicological and organological studies;
2. publications
3. audio and video recordings
4. courses, lectures, seminars and conferences
5. contests
6. concerts, exhibitions and performances

(Statute, Art. 3)

The Academy of Early Music of Rovereto, founded in 1979, has been operating for more than forty years on the regional, national and international territory with the aim of researching, studying and disseminating music according to principles of historical fidelity, respecting the characteristics of the interpretation of works, the sonorities of the voice and musical instruments. This activity takes place through the organization of concerts, performances, conferences, exhibitions, publications, recordings, courses and competitions. The main characteristic of the Academy of Early Music is that it directly produces much of this activity through the efforts of its members: these include scholars, teachers and professional musicians, and a good number of students and amateurs advanced in musical practice.

Founded by a group of passionate musicians and scholars-including organologist Marco Tiella and musician and musicologist Romano Vettori-on the basis of activities carried out by forerunners in Rovereto who, as early as the 1950s, were the first in Italy to introduce an interest in the performance of music on historical bases, the association immediately integrated itself into the local and national fabric with research, musical performances, record releases, exhibitions and publications.

Beginning in the late 1990s, the activity found its more decisive focus in Euregiomusica, an international project born out of collaboration with musical entities from the main European countries, particularly from the central area (Austria, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary), in order to offer a moment of study and dissemination of the Central European musical civilization, in which the Tridentine and Rovereto area was also included with its peculiar dynamics.

Characteristics of Euregiomusica are research, which is documented through publications, recordings, and exhibitions, and musical staging in master classes entrusted to orchestral and choral tutors and established or emerging conductors from the international scene. Among the orchestra's guest conductors the project includes well-known specialists ( B. Kuijken, P. Neumann, P. Németh, A. Marcon, L. van Dael). The programs are structured with special attention to the composers and musical environments of the cultural-historical area of the participating countries, their peculiarities, mutual relationships and stylistic influences.

See under Main Music Productions various audio-video links related to concerts.

As part of Euregiomusica, the Academy has since 1996 organized the PremioBonporti,  International Competition for Chamber Music on Original Instruments (21st edition in 2021), since 2012 alternating with the Ferrari Prize dedicated to the Rovereto musician Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari (4 editions), with the prestigious jury presidency of Gustav Leonhardt, one of the greatest harpsichordists, organists and conductors specializing in this repertoire, and many other greats (C. Banchini, L. van Dael, E. Gatti, S. Kuijken, M. Bilson, B. van Oort). All these activities have led the Academy to be considered by public, national and local Italian bodies as a reference point in the field of historical music. Since 2004, the Accademia di Musica Antica has been accepted into the R.E.M.A. (Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne): thanks to this further collaboration, the vocation to "synergies" of the Rovereto institution has received a further boost, allowing a more effective promotion of the young musicians awarded at the Bonporti. For the 2006 Mozart celebrations (250. of his birth), the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities co-opted the Academy to represent Trentino in the National Committee "Le vie italiane di Mozart," together with the State Conservatory of Music of Trent, the only provincial music institutions on the committee.

The Academy has been organizing and producing the Concert in Honor of St. Mark (1989 - 2024) for more than 30 years: following the historical example of important ancient institutions, the Academy celebrates its founding anniversary in proximity to the Feast of St. Mark, in the main church of Rovereto, and for which it has staged the most significant musical productions in the area dedicated to sacred music from the history of Trentino and in general from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, combining local interest with the high level of research and musical interpretations, entrusting them to performers of international caliber, always flanked by instrumental and choral ensembles formed by the academy in the territory, contributing to their cultural and artistic growth (see the section Main musical productions various audio-video links).

The Accademia di Musica Antica's openness to European realities coexists with its rootedness in the territory, which translates into research work on the musical history of the city and the region, in close collaboration with the main public institutions. First housed at the Civica Scuola Musicale di Rovereto (1979-1991), Palazzo Alberti (1992-1997), and Palazzo Balista (1998-2006), since 2007 the Accademia has been based at Palazzo Adami (formerly Palazzo Carpentari von Mittemperg) in Piazza San Marco, where it has collected a remarkable specialized music bibliomediateca and historical musical instruments, enhanced in the portal Archivum Musicum in collaboration with the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto. The Academy's commitment to the musical training of young musicians is developed both in the territory (from its foundation to the present it has contributed to training and developing the professionalism of at least a dozen city musicians, and involving more than fifty enthusiasts in choral activities), and at the national and European system level, providing for substantial collaborations between conservatories, public academies and private institutes. In this context, the Academy of Ancient Music has operated in agreement with, among others, the State Conservatory of Music "F.E. Dall'Abaco" in Verona and the Conservatory C. Monteverdi of Bolzano, also offering public concerts (in the Concert in Honor of St. Mark and in Rovereto Estate) to graduating and newly graduated students. In the near future similar agreements are planned with various foreign Academies and Musikhochschülen. On the popularization side, the Academy has also frequently collaborated in Rovereto Estate for the City of Rovereto.

The past few years have seen alternating editions of the Ferrari Prize 2016 (chairman B. van Oort, Holland) and Ferrari Prize 2018, in collaboration with the Ala Museum of Ancient Piano, chairman A. Schoonderwoerd, Netherlands) with those of the Bonporti Prize 2017 (president E. Gatti, Italy) and the Bonporti Prize 2019 (president C. Mackintosh, UK). As of 2021, the alternation between Bonporti Prize for baroque violin (2021 R. Gwilt, 2023 R. Terakado) and Bonporti Prize for ensemble (2022, 2024 P. Memelsdorff) has resumed. The Academy also participated from 2017 to 2019 in the Festival project "Settenovecento" with its own productions, specifically in the context of the traditional Concert in Honor of St. Mark. Of particular note are:

• 2017: C. MONTEVERDI, Vespers of St. Mark, in the original historic venue of the ducal church of S. Barbara in Mantua - first celebratory concert in Italy for the 450th anniversary of the composer's birth - concert later repeated in Rovereto;
• 2018: G.F. HANDEL, The Messiah first performance in the 18th century Italian language version, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the Florence premiere in 1768.
• 2019: J.D. ZELENKA, Missa Paschalis, a joyful Easter Mass, resurfaced from the most tragic shadows of the twentieth century (the manuscript returned from Kiev to the Berlin State Library following the return of cultural property stolen during the wartime events of World War II).

• 2020 - June- September: Online seminar activities in executive practice
• 2020 - December: Study Day "Culture and Music in the Eighteenth Century between the Habsburg Empire and the Venetian Republic" on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Giuseppe Tartini's death, live streaming in collaboration with the Accademia degli Agiati and the Levi Foundation of Venice
• 2021
  • Bonporti Prize Events 2021
    • International training and seminar moments in DAD (Distance learning: June-September)
    • Dec. 5-12 International competition stage (Bonporti Prize for solo violin October).
  • Productions as part of Rovereto Summer
  • Ancient Dance Concert (July)
• 2022
  • Concert in Honor of St. Mark 2022: Chandos Anthems by G.F.Handel, Te Deum by D. Pasqui (with S. Floriäner Sängerknaben, Austria) - Bonporti Baroque Orchestra
  • Bonporti Prize 2022 for ensemble - 1st International Historical Composition Competition
• 2023
  • Concert in Honor of St. Mark: Meraner Baroque Ensemble (Cantatas by J.S. Bach)
  • Viola da gamba and Renaissance Dance Courses and Concerts (Castel Toblino)
  • Study day "The Musical Frescoes of Castel Toblino" (in collaboration with Schola Cantorum Basiliensis)
  • Bonporti Prize 2023 for Baroque Violin
• 2024
  • Bonporti Prize 2024 for Ensemble - 2nd International Historical Composition Competition