Message from Mº Gioacchino Longobardi, President, NMS

At the time of the American Revolution, Naples was the center of the musical world. For more than a century the Neapolitan School of Music dominated the entire musical scene of Europe. When Thomas Jefferson made a catalog of his personal music collection in 1783, it featured names like Piccinni, Hasse and Pergolesi, all important composers trained at the famous music conservatories of Naples.

Although the Neapolitan Masters laid the foundation of classical music and produced some of the most beautiful music ever written, only a fraction of their masterpieces are known and performed today. The principal goal of Neapolitan Music Society is to enlarge communities of study, research and a reevaluation of these musical works, forgotten or lost for over two centuries.

Prof. Robert Gjerdingen, Professor, Music Theory and Cognition, Northwestern University, put it this way: "Suppose in 50 years, someone is writing the history of rock-n-roll and they conclude: "The French rock scene was where it all began...they were the best and developed the whole genre." Obviously, that would be completely absurd, but it's the sort of distortion that has marginalized the Neapolitans. The Neapolitan Masters were the most famous classical musicians of the 17th and 18th centuries. They were hired and traded, Gjerdingen says, "like star baseball players between the competing royal courts in Europe."

Our mission is to reintroduce the Neapolitan Masters to a new audience through concerts, recordings, presentations and Master Classes. Our hope is to rewrite the history that has distorted the contributions and one hundred year history of the Neapolitan Masters.

Photo by Studio Stence

The first Master Class of the Neapolitan Music Society was in November 2008 at the McCallum Fine Arts Academy in Austin, Texas. Working with the students through hands-on rehearsal, performance, and intensive study of music theory, the Master Class brought the rigorous approach to music study characteristic of the eighteenth century Neapolitan conservatories. What worked for Leonardo Leo at the Conservatorio S. Maria della Pietá dei Turchini in 1712 also works, on a smaller scale for students today.

Visit our event section to see and hear our work at McCallum Fine Arts Academy, and Albany High School along with presentations from Prof. Gjerdingen, audio excerpts from the premiere concert of the Neapolitan Symphony Orchestra and the audio and video presentation of works by Niccoló Jommelli performed by the Sofia Festival Orchestra under the direction of Mº Gioacchino Longobardi and Concertmaster Mº Alberto Vitolo.

Thank you for visiting our site,

Mº Gioacchino Longobardi

State Academic Orchestra of Ukraine Concert

It is our pleasure to announce that our Artistic Director/President was recently in Kiev, Ukraine, to conduct the State Academic Orchestra of Ukraine in new works by NMS's Giuseppe Devastato and also works from Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Cimarosa. More ...

Please watch the video about the Neapolitan Music Society and its work:
Uncovered Music

The Neapolitan Music Society is pleased to announce it is the recipient of a City of Austin Cultural Arts Division, Community Initiatives Grant of $2000 for FY2010.