TREVISO

ITALY

The city and Marca of Treviso, with their wealth of noble musical traditions, have a considerable number of instruments of historical and artistic interest, which are the heritage of organ art from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Famous organ makers worked in Treviso, starting with, at the dawning of this art, Jacomello dagli Organi with his workshop in San Leonardo, Mastro Lorenzo dai Organi, frate Nicolò de Alemagna, Domenico di Lorenzo or di Lucca, Orazio Napolitano, Vincenzo Colonna through to 1750, when the great Pietro Nacchini built the Santa Maria dei Battuti organ and created the preliminaries to form a Veneto School with the works of Gaetano Callido, De Lorenzi, Moscatelli, Dacci, Barbini, Merlini and many others.

From 1769 to 1793 Gaetano Callido built eleven instruments for the City’s churches and one for a church on the outskirts, fi ve of which can still be found in their original form. Callido’s work, which commenced in the Veneto and extended along the Adriatic and east Mediterranean coasts, resulted in the construction of 430 instruments, the last of which is found in Soligo Parish Church in the province of Treviso.

Aware of this great heritage and the need to salvage these jewels by renovating them, in 1989 a group of enthusiasts established the Organ Festival, aimed at creating an initiative which highlighted this extraordinary legacy of antique instruments and reviving the general public’s interest in organ music. Decisive action by the Cassamarca Foundation allowed all the historical instruments found in Treviso’s churches to be restored to their former magnifi cence and the recovery of many others distributed throughout the province, and led to the building of a new organ in Italian Renaissance Style, which has been housed in the Santa Caterina museum. Treviso, with its tradition and culture of hospitality has in these years become a reference point for enthusiasts who wish to listen to these authentic masterpieces of organ art.

Giancarlo Gentilini

Mayor of Treviso

Gianfranco Gagliardi

Chairman of the Promoting Committee