Genoa Conservatory

The school was founded in 1829 as the Scuola Gratuita di Canto, and was originally intended as a private institution to train singers performing at the Teatro Carlo Felice.

Originally located in a building near the Chiesa di Nostra Signora delle Grazie in the Molo neighborhood of Genoa, the conservatory moved into the facilities of the former monastery attached to that church in 1834.

It remained at that location until 1866 when the conservatory relocated to the premises of the San Filippo Neri, Genoa; inhabiting the former church until it was reclaimed by the Holy See in 1928.

[3] One of the school's initial pupils was Michele Novaro who later gained fame for composing "Il Canto degli Italiani", the national anthem of Italy.

[4] The school's first public concert was a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem led by conductor Nicolò Uccelli on 17 June 1830.

After Costa's death, the impresario Francesco Sanguineti became interim director of the school while a decision was made over the future direction of the institution.

[6] The disastrous defeat at the Battle of Novara in March 1849 during the First Italian War of Independence further imperiled the future of the school as the economic and political situation in Genoa worsened.

However, a group of Genoese citizens led by the president of the school's trustees, Nicolò Sauli, stabilized the finances of the institution through raising charitable funds.

[10] Giuseppe Verdi declined the offer of succeeding Serra as director of the Genoa Conservatory, but recommended that Serafino Amedeo De Ferrari be appointed to the position in his place.

When the public education department took over the management of the school, the classes for women and for piano were immediately restored, and ultimately many of Ferrari's reforms were approved in 1884 just months before his death in March 1885; including establishment of an academic chair for music composition.

[19] During his tenure he acquired several instruments made by the Italian luthier Cesare Candi for the conservatory and significantly expanded the library's holdings of music manuscripts and scholarly materials.

War rationing and supply interruptions made it difficult to obtain heating fuel and the school had to close longer in the colder months.

Other factors resulted in the displacement of both students and staff from their lives at the conservatory such as conscription and the damage done to people and property by air raids and the bombing of Genoa in which 2,000 civilians were killed and more than 120,000 Genoese citizens were left homeless by the end of 1943.

This placed the conservatory's staff and students in danger, as it made their home a likely military target of the Allied Powers of World War II.

[22] The school was unable to take a significant portion of their resources with them due to the limited space offered to them at their new home; including the contents of its large music library.

In a private letter from that period, director Pasquale Montani described the situation as intolerable, with the German command taking over almost the entire school, leaving very little space for music instruction to continue.

Frequent appeals to the commanding officer Captain Nippert for more space were met with counter threats of taking away the few classrooms the school was allowed to use.