Accademia Chigiana

The Accademia Musicale Chigiana (English: Chigiana Musical Academy) is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Classes in the major musical instruments as well as singing, conducting and composition. During the summer months a series of concerts are held under the title of Estate Musicale Chigiana.

Amongst the teachers at the academy in the 1950s were Clotilde von Derp and Alexander Sakharoff who stopped their international touring to teach here at the invitation of the Count.

In 1983 the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Fulvia Casella Nicolodi and Guido Turchi created an International Composition Competition named after Alfredo Casella, for the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. The International Accademia Musicale Chigiana Prize has been assigned, and among the winners’ names are some of the most famous ones in international concert circles: the violinists Gidon Kremer (1982), Shlomo Mintz (1984), Anne-Sophie Mutter (1986), Viktoria Mullova (1988), Frank Peter Zimmermann (1990), Gil Shaham (1992), Maxim Vengerov (1995), Julian Rachlin (2000), Hilary Hahn (2002) and Sarah Chang (2005), the pianists Peter Serkin (1983), Krystian Zimerman (1985), Andras Schiff (1987), Andrei Gavrilov (1989), Evgeny Kissin (1991), Andrea Lucchesini (1994), Lilya Zilberstein (1998), Leif Ove Andsnes (2001) and Arcadi Volodos (2003), as well as the orchestral conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (1993), the Hagen Quartet (1996) and the Artemis Quartet (2004), the violist Tabea Zimmermann (1997) and the violoncellist Matt Haimovitz (1999). These names join the history of the Accademia Chigiana, already studded with illustrious presences. In (2006) the Prize has been assigned to the pianist Paul Lewis. The 2010 Prize goes to Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz.

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