With over 200 years of history, the “G. Verdi ” Conservatory of Music Milan was established by Royal Napoleonic Decree in 1807 by the Viceroy of Italy, Eugène de Beauharnais.
The inauguration, with the contemporary issue of the first study regulations, dates back to 3 September 1808.
Since then, the Conservatory has been housed in the historic former convent next to the Church of Santa Maria della Passione.
And since then the Milanese Conservatory is one of the most important institutions for the study of music, well-established at national and international level, with more than 1,500 students enrolled and 236 teachers.
The educational offer consists of more than 100 academic study programs at bachelor and postgraduate level, I and II level master courses, workshops, master classes and seminars with internationally renowned teachers.
Scholarships and competitions such as the the Conservatory Award are also offered.
There are more than 200 concerts every year in the two large halls, the Puccini (400 seats) and the Verdi Hall (1420 seats), but also in other locations outside the Institute, in collaboration with the major Milanese artistic production Institutions.
The Conservatory, in addition to being a center of artistic production, is also an active research center. The symbolic place of research activities is the historic Library which houses more than 500,000 bibliographic units. Open to the public, it hosts scholars and students from all over the world every day,
The Conservatory hosts three permanent exhibitions: the “Verdi. La mano, l’errore, il trionfo” exhibition, inaugurated on the occasion of Verdi’s bicentenary; the “Lotto Toscanini” exhibition recently donated to the Conservatory – among the memorabilia the famous tailcoat of the Maestro, a gift from Riccardo Muti, another excellent pupil of the Milan Verdi Conservatory – and a collection of ancient and historical instruments hosted in the Foyer of the Verdi Hall and the Hall of the Columns.
Two en plein air exhibitions are set in the Conservatory Cloister: an exhibition of contemporary sculpture, born thanks to the collaboration with the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation; an exhibition of historical pictures that tell the story of the Conservatory from the years of the reconstruction after World War II until today.
