Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

[1] During the first century of existence, the Congregation was the workshop of a number of prominent musicians and composers of the day, including Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

The institution in that period was often in rivalry with the other important musical organization of Papal Rome of the day, the Sistine Choir.

In 1716, Pope Clement XI decreed that all musicians practising their profession in Rome were required to become members of the Congregation.

The Accademia suspended operations during the revolutionary period of the Napoleonic Wars but opened regularly again in 1822 a few years after the Restoration brought about by the Congress of Vienna.

The list of active and honorary members of the Accademia during that period is formidable and includes Cherubini, Mercadante, Donizetti, Rossini, Paganini, Auber, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Gounod, and Meyerbeer.