History
The Musical Institute Istituto Vincenzo Bellini of Catania is today an Advanced
Institute of Musical Studies of university level, forming part of the European
circle of Academies and Conservatories. Although Catania was the native city
of the composer Vincenzo Bellini, it had never had a Conservatoire of music.
The first organized initiatives of musical education are recorded at the hospice
'Ospizio di beneficenza' (ancient Institution, originating from April 7 1555 as a
Jesuit College, in the historic building of via Crociferi 17) and, more recently,
at the theatre Teatro Bellini. Immediately after the war, in 1947, the city council
of Catania thought of regulating the activities of the opera house Teatro Bellini,
instituting a delegation and a superintendence for the purpose of expanding
that theatre; it was the first Superintendent, Gioacchino Di Stefano, to
institute a choral school and an orchestral school in order to renew the
mediocre chorus and to expand the orchestra (Santo Santonocito was called to
direct the orchestral school, where his teaching skills proved useful, while the
choral school was directed by the tenor Franco Lo Giudice). In just a few years,
the school of Teatro Bellini was proving to be fruitful but at the same time it
revealed its limits, because of this, there arose the ever more pressing question
of a lyceum institute of music in Catania. The celebrations for the 150th
anniversary of the birth of Vincenzo Bellini remain memorable for the City
of Catania. In fact, in a climate of great festivity and in the wake of vast national
éclat, on the morning of November 3 1951 the people of Catania had the
chance to listen to Renata Tebaldi, engaged in the performance of the Requiem
by Giuseppe Verdi in the Cathedral, and, in the same evening, to Maria Callas,
protagonist of a memorable interpretation of Bellini's opera Norma, at Teatro Bellini.
The next day, on November 4 1951, the city and provincial councils of Catania with
the house of commerce, through Act no.36076 granted by notary Eusebio Mirone,
constituted a Consortium for the instituting of a music Lyceum that would have the
responsibility "of instructing, within the various spheres of musical art, according to
the rules laid down by internal Regulations, whomsoever would apply there and be
admitted to the attendance of the courses; of spreading and cultivating the art of
music by means of public and private manifestations"; exceptional importance was
given, in the city of Catania, to the emergence of the institute, as testified by the
great support of the first public assembly of the Consortium, that took place in the
great hall of the university; prefectorial recognition arrived the following year with
Decree 41583 of September 13 1952. Soon the success of the Music Lyceum took
shape in all its amplitude with the rapid increase of the number of students and
with the forming of new courses. The appointment of Superintendent was made
to engineer Domenico Di Salvo, while Santo Santonocito and Antonio Savasta,
a great teacher, were called to be director and honorary director respectively,
then Lucio Librizzi (appointed through public competition) took over as director;
amongst the professors numbered the celebrated Bellinian scholar Francesco
Pastura, after whom the library of the Institute is named today. Librizzi maintained
his appointment from 1958 up to his death in 1972 and, during his directorship,
the classes of piano, strings (less viola) and wind (less oboe and bassoon) became
officially recognized. The first residence of the music Lyceum was an old building,
specially restored, in via Vittorio Emanuele 182, in the same area as the birthplace
of Vincenzo Bellini, and looking out, from the back, on to the ruins of the greek-roman theatre.
Carla Gemmellaro succeeded Librizzi as director, then, in 1977, Santi Di Stefano
was appointed as new director; it was thanks to him and to the professors' and students'
active initiative, that, in 1979, the music Lyceum was transfered to a new residence,
at number 29 of via Santa Maddalena, where the notarial archives used to be.
Five years later, on November 19 1984, the municipal administration
purchased the building of the Collegio del Sacro Cuore in via Etnea, destining it for
the exclusive use of the music lyceum, with the end of transforming it into a state
conservatoire; the move to via Etnea took place on April 27 of the year 1985
(the 150th anniversary year of Bellini's death).
In 1994 Santi Di Stefano left the direction of the Institute and the
appointment was held temporarily by Professor Angela Giuffrida, until the adoption
of the new elective procedure on the part of the teaching body. The first Director
elected was Pietro Cavalieri, who directed the institute from 1995 to 1998.
In September 1998 the teaching body elected to the Direction Carmelo Giudice,
who is still in office as Director today. Regarding the administrative profile, in 1996,
after a long period of having an external Commissioner for the governing body,
the city and provincial councils of Catania made way for a transformation of the
Consortium (without the house of commerce), denominating the "Music Institute
Vincenzo Bellini" as the officially recognized "Conservatoire Vincenzo Bellini", and
allowing the new board of governors, chaired by Mario Libertini, to take over; the
board also included so prestigious an exponent of Catania's culture as Domenico
Danzuso (one of the halls of the institute is today named after him). In 2000 Mario
Canterella succeeded Mario Libertini as President, until 2007, when the current president,
Angelo Munzone took up office. In the nineties, some courses, still lacking,
were provided for the institute, and were brought up to conservatoire level.
On June 4 2004, with the approval of the new statute on the part of the Ministry
according to the terms of the D.P.R. 132/03 (Managerial decree M.I.U.R. n.114)
the Istituto Bellini was transformed into an Advanced Institute of Musical Studies;
through this passage of formality, that has brought recognition to the status of
the advanced study Institution of university level according to art.33, paragraph
6 of the Constitution, conjunctly with the acquisition of the Erasmus University
Charter and with the acceptance within the circle of the European Association of
Conservatoires (AEC), the Istituto Musicale Vincenzo Bellini of Catania has become
an Institute of advanced musical studies fully part of the international circuit and
operating within the constitution prospective for a common space for european
university instruction expected for 2010.