Mº Gioacchino Longobardi

Neapolitan Music Society, a nonprofit organization, inspired by and dedicated to the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Neapolitan Masters trained at Neapolitan School of Music (1503-1826), was founded in The United States, on October 8^th, 2007.

Although the Neapolitans 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.

I have been working for the last thirty years researching and studying circumstances and places where the most marvelous golden age of classical music unfolded. The Society is committed to restoring their place in the history of music through research, scholarship, education and performance.

What attracted the Austrian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the French Henri Beyle Stendhal and Honoré de Balzac, the German Richard Wagner, and the American diplomat and President, Thomas Jefferson, to name just a few, to the masterworks of these great Italian composers two hundred years ago, is what still charms and inspires audiences today.

Friends, music lovers, professional musicians, and music historians have joined with me to establish the Neapolitan Music Society.

It is my privilege to welcome Dr. Robert Gjerdingen, Professor of Music, Northwestern University, Chicago, as the Historian to our Society. In his recent book Music in the Galant Style, through hundreds of musical examples, he documents the link between training in Partimenti and the student musician's cognitive development of a repertory of preferred schemata. His current research focuses on the methods for training composers in the conservatories of Naples, Italy, during the eighteenth century.

On April 13th, 2008, at our first concert in the City of New York, we have been honored by the presence of The Honorable Mario Cuomo former Governor of New York State and Mrs. Matilda Raffa Cuomo, who are among the organization's distinguished supporters. The program co-presented by the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, at New York University, included works by Durante, Leo, Scarlatti, Fiorenza and Hasse performed by the Neapolitan Symphony Orchestra under my direction.

In November of 2008, Alberto Vitolo and I, will be presenting the Neapolitan School to young students of all ages with two endeavors. We will be in Austin, Texas at the McCallum Fine Arts Academy, in master classes culminating in a concert at the end of the week. Also we have the pleasure to be a "Work of Art" for the Capital Region Arts in Education, in Albany, NY. You can read more about these exciting projects from their links.

I believe the Neapolitan Music Society has tremendous potential and our accomplishments so far have been remarkable. I would like to thank Mrs Matilda Raffa Cuomo and Governor Mario Cuomo for their generous support, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo, NYU, the Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts for their service in establishing our corporation and the Council of Community Services of New York State, Inc. for their assistance. My thanks also extend to the Board, and especially the Chairman, Dr. Peter Ravella, for his tireless devoted efforts. We also have many friends to thank including  Ms. Ana Constandino for her work on behalf of the Society along with Richie Hilton from Hilton Pianos, Mary and Francis Cosgrove, Maureen Pagano, Michael Coughlan and so many others who have been ardent cheerleaders.

We hope that this unexplored musical world will attract the old and the new generations of musicians and lead them towards understanding and appreciation of what truly represents the most marvelous chapter of a golden century.

However, a strong financial foundation is necessary. I would be deeply grateful for your support in our future endeavors toward the advancement of the universal and only language of all people, Music.

Read a letter of support from Mrs. Matilda Raffa Cuomo.