Message from the President

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.

Photo by Studio Stence

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, the Neapolitan Music Society's music historian from Northwestern University in Chicago, 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 work is to reintroduce the Neapolitan Masters to a new audience through a scientific approach and to rewrite the history that has distorted their contributions.

Photo by Studio Stence

We believe we can achieve these goals, particularly by working with and therefore teaching younger musicians, as they would hopefully become the continuaton of, otherwise, a lost legacy. 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 and piano, the Master Class brought to mind 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 events section to see and hear our work at McCallum.