For fifty years, the University of Music of the provinces of Treviso and Belluno
The Agostino Steffani Conservatory of Castelfranco Veneto is a network of culture and beauty production that has been creating careers and music professionals for fifty years. 150 events in the area punctuate the year in Castelfranco, Treviso, Belluno, Bassano del Grappa and different centers in the two provinces with concerts, seminars, master classes, cultural evenings.
With a population of 500 people including students, faculty, external collaborators and non-teaching staff, it is the only independent university in the province of Treviso. An institution that has learned to dialogue with the living and active forces of the territory. Born in Castelfranco Veneto in 1969, it is now the University of Music in the province of Treviso and Belluno thanks to the management of the Antonio Miari School, the oldest institution in the Dolomites.
Two provinces, one territory, one musical heritage rooted in the Baroque.
The Conservatory is in fact named in memory of Agostino Steffani, composer, bishop and ambassador, who was born in Castelfranco in 1654 and died in Frankfurt am Main in 1728.
The mission statement
For more than fifty years, the Conservatory has been training talents who now work in the world's most important institutions-from La Scala Theater to La Fenice, from the Rome Opera House to Carnegie Hall, from the Royal Conservatory of Copenhagen to the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Alumni include cellist Mario Brunello, then briefly teaching chamber music and finally president. Giancarlo Andretta, celebrated conductor; Andrea Marcon, organist, harpsichordist and celebrated baroque conductor; and Alessandro Misciasci, vocal trainer at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. The violinist Giuliano Carmignola also passed through these classrooms as a lecturer. Then Dino Sossai, violinist at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, and Alessandro Cappelletto, now second violinist at Teatro La Fenice, Marco Schiavon, first oboe of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana. Among the voices coming out of the Conservatory are sopranos Ines Salazar and, for recent generations, Francesca Dotto and Claudia Pavone. Recent graduates of the Steffani Conservatory include Francesca Michielin, a name that tells the story of the University of Music's evolution toward pop and jazz.
Internationalization and citadel of music
Castelfranco is the city of Giorgione, Preti, and Agostino Steffani. The ancient walls guard architectural gems and ancient palaces. Here the Conservatory will take center stage in the birth of the citadel of music, the new venue funded by the Ministry of Higher Education to the tune of more than 10 million euros. The intervention will see the rebirth of the medieval Servite compendium. The project affects 3 buildings located between Riccati and San Giacomo streets and the Musonello canal, east of the walls. Internationalization is one of the priority objectives of the Agostino Steffani Conservatory of Music in Castelfranco Veneto, which was the first institution in Italy for funding on non-European projects for 2023 with a trend of Erasmus and Erasmus+ mobility quadrupled in three years. In addition, the Agostino Steffani Conservatory of Music is the leader of the WWM 2.0 project that brings together 13 Italian conservatories for internationalization and incoming projects.
International projects
In 2024 the Conservatory was the winner of a PNRR 5,280 million grant as the lead partner of an International Project dedicated to Italian opera involving twelve Italian university institutions. The action is aimed at the dissemination and digitization of the Italian libretto heritage and audience development projects targeting new generations. Partners include Accademia della Scala in Milan, Accademia delle Belle Arti in Venice.
Concerts
In Treviso, the Conservatory has chosen to join the City Council in the challenge of a new management of the Francesco Manzato Music Institute. An 'operation of attention to the capital city and its history. Today work is under way on a new home for the historic Treviso institute. The Conservatory has chosen to bring live music to the area. Feltre, Asolo, S.Biagio di Callalta, Castelfranco, Montebelluna, Belluno, Treviso Giavera del Montello, Susegana,Castelfranco, Dosson di Casier. These are the stages of the events created thanks to the support of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso and Belluno. A unique agreement in Italy that brings trade associations close to the art world, concrete sponsors of the diffusion of live music in the area. But the Conservatory of Castelfranco is also a partner of the most important cultural institutions in the region: the collaboration with the Regional Institute of Venetian Villas and with Confindustria gave rise to the participation in the Premio Campiello Giovani 2019, but also the carnet of concerts at Villa Chiminelli and Villa Farsetti.
Collections
Beauty must also be preserved: among the latest projects is the arrangement of the collection of ancient instruments owned by the City of Castelfranco. An intercontinental, democratic collection, open to the suggestion of "other" musical cultures, the result of the curiosity of a cosmopolitan traveler, Alberto Cosulich, placed on preview display at Villa Barbarella and Casa Costanzo.
The opening of the academic year
As every year, on November 22, Saint Cecilia's Day, the opening ceremony of the academic year of the Agostino Steffani Conservatory is held at the Teatro Accademico in Castelfranco Veneto. It is an important occasion to recount the numbers and goals of the institute, as well as its policy of music production in the territory, with 150 musical events between the provinces of Treviso, Belluno and Vicenza. New president is Annalisa Bisson, 58, director of the International Relations Office of the Veneto Region and coordinates activities with national authorities and European institutions through the support of the Brussels liaison office. Starting this year, the Agostino Steffani Conservatory establishes the Steffani d'oro, a merit roll for people who in life make the values of merit and solidarity their own. First awarded figure is Anna Mancini Rizzotti president of Advar onlus "For the high value of her social action and for the recognition of the spiritual function of musical art."
Current director of the Agostino Steffani Conservatory of Music is Paolo Troncon, a composer, musicologist and member of CNAM (National Afam Miur Council) of the Ministry of University and Research.
The small Cities of Art (such as the splendid Asolo) as well as the numerous Palladian Villas of which Castelfranco's territory is very rich, visited every year by thousands of tourists from all over the world, constitute ideal stages, scenic and very popular, in which concerts and artistic events are organized and in which students are the protagonists. The center of the "Marca nobilissima" the region of Treviso, Castelfranco is strategically placed at an equal distance from an ideal circle of Cities of primary importance (Belluno, Treviso, Venice, Padua and Vicenza) all excellently connected and reachable in less than an hour by train, offering the possibility of participating in their vibrant cultural life, while avoiding the typical inconveniences such as air and noise pollution, crowding and dispersion, which would be inevitable living in a big city.
Students will be able to earn Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Steffani Conservatory, as well as post-graduate degrees and PhDs fully integrated into the European system, and take advantage of the very rich network of exchanges between our institution and many others in Europe for stimulating periods of study abroad.