The Accademia Musicale Chigiana, thanks to its particular origins and the model of culture and of valuing and promoting music that it has represented in the past century and continues to represent, it is internationally recognized still today as one of Italy’s most prestigious musical institutions.

The establishment of the Academy was the most characteristic and distinctive of the ideas implemented by Count Chigi, the Sienese nobleman who not only made his home the center of intense musical activity but also, with his personal initiatives, succeeded in transforming the atmosphere of his beloved city, contributing in this way to opening it up and welcoming people from all over the world. Because it was mainly foreign students who came to Siena in 1932 to take part in the first course in musical training held in Palazzo Chigi, taught by prestigious musicians such as Fernando Germani for organ, Claude Gonvierre (and later Casella) for piano, Giulia Varesi Boccabadati for voice, Ada Sassoli Ruata for harp, Arrigo Serato for violin, Arturo Bonucci for cello, and Vito Frazzi for composition. Over the years, the number of students coming from every continent gradually grew, today representing about fifty nations, and the number of master classes increased in an ongoing exchange between older and younger generations as students became teachers and an integral part of the history of the Academy, whose classrooms have welcomed the best in international music.

Besides the master classes, which were preceded from as early as 1923 by a winter concert season that continues still today, named after the Chigi family motto Micat in Vertice, the Academy is also synonymous with the Settimana Musicale Senese, a weeklong festival which takes its place in the more extended concert season of the Estate Chigiana (“Chigiana Summer”).