San Pietro a Majella Conservatory of Music

This is a list of music conservatories in Naples, Italy.

The Naples Conservatory of Music is a music school located in Naples, Italy. It is situated in the complex of San Pietro a Majella.

It was originally located in the church of the former monastery of San Sebastiano and was called the Conservatorio di San Sebastiano, formed in 1807 by the merger of the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto, the Conservatorio di Sant' Onofrio in Capuana, and the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini. It also became known as the Real Collegio di Musica, and after 1826 when it moved to its current location, as the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella.

The conservatory and adjacent church are today part of the old San Pietro a Majella monastic complex, built at the end of the 13th century and dedicated to the monk Pietro da Morone, who became Pope Celestine V in 1294. The conservatory houses an impressive library of manuscripts pertaining to the lives and musical production of composers who lived and worked in Naples, among whom are Alessandro Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Vincenzo Battista, Domenico Cimarosa, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. Vittorio Monti, who around 1904 composed the famous Csárdás, studied violin and composition at this conservatory. Another student was Leonardo De Lorenzo, flautist of many American orchestras and teacher at the Eastman School of Music. The historical museum has a display of rare antique musical instruments.

San Pietro a Majella is the last in a long string of establishments that have been music conservatories in Naples. Their existence goes back to the Spanish rule of the city as a vicerealm starting in the early 16th century. These early conservatories were Santa Maria di Loreto, Pietà dei Turchini, Sant'Onofrio a Capuana, and I Poveri di Gesù Cristo. They enjoyed a considerable reputation as training grounds not only for young children to be trained in church music, but, eventually, as a feeder system into the world of commercial music once that opened up in the early 17th century.

Santa Maria di Loreto was built in 1535 and was the original conservatory in Naples, coming at the beginning of the Spanish expansion of Naples under the city's most famous viceroy, don Pedro de Toledo. It is the first secular music conservatory. Alumni include Salvatore Lanzetti and Domenico Cimarosa.

Text adapted from “Music conservatories of Naples” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

San Pietro a Majella Conservatory of Music ranks #1,924 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #144 of the 452 mapped in Italy. Founded 1808, it is older than 12% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 562 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,912 times in the last 60 days, more than 65% of the atlas. 24 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Naples, 2 km away. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

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