Tour Guide, Bologna, Italy
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Bologna is a city with many nicknames: The "Learned" due to the university, the "fat" due to the rich gastronomic tradition and the "red" due to the colour of the buildings. Perhaps not everyone knows that Bologna received in 2006 another very precious recognition by UNESCO as a “Creative City of Music”. With this attribution, UNESCO wanted to recognise the important musical tradition of the past and its connection with the present scene. The musical tradition in the city begins far back in time when the Basilica of San Petronio was not yet completed. In the year 1436, the first musical chapel in the world was founded, and that old institution is still alive today. Again inside the Basilica, we can admire some of the oldest organs in the world, such as the one with separate registers and pipes by Lorenzo da Prato, dated 1475. This is a real "musical tip": it's the one on the left, facing the church's bottom!
The real turning point for the city's musical history came in 1666 when the Philharmonic Academy was founded in Palazzo Carrati, which became one of the most important institutions together with the Municipal Theater. During the 1700s and in the following years, the Philharmonic hosted some of the most important composers in history who came here to study music and obtain the composer's license. Among the illustrious people who passed or lived in Bologna, we remember Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Father Martini, Farinelli, and Gioacchino Rossini in the nineteenth century.
The Bolognese musical tradition continued even in more recent times. For example, between the end of the fifties and the early seventies, the city hosted about fifteen editions of the European Jazz Festival. Some of the most significant names in the entire history of jazz performed on city theatres' stages and at the Sports Palace: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chet Baker and John Coltrane. There remains a memory of those times in via Capraie where stars are set in the sidewalk, Hollywood style, with the names of jazz musicians.
Even today, many musicians and songwriters live in the city and contribute to celebrating it through their work. A musical tradition still alive and well, which does not take long to disappear.
Anyone wishing to learn more about the Bolognese musical tradition can visit the International Museum and Music Library of Strada Maggiore. The same building hosted for some years the "Maestro" Gioacchino Rossini.
If you are planning to visit Bologna and are a music lover, you are in the right place. Don't hesitate in contacting me for any other information or enquiries about your stay in the city!