Founded in 1974 by Piero Farulli, violist of the legendary Quartetto Italiano, the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole has grown thanks to the dedication of passionate teachers and has been an international point of reference for more than fifty years, with 1,700 students, 15 orchestras, 5 choirs and more than 180 musical events held each year.
Numerous Fiesole-trained musicians are active as professional performers. Many of them acquired the professional skills they needed through the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana – the first orchestral training course established in Italy and one of the school’s most successful educational projects – and subsequently joined orchestras around the world.
Extraordinary artists have contributed their teaching and performing expertise to the institution, including Riccardo Muti, Salvatore Accardo, Bruno Canino, Luciano Berio, Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, Maria Tipo, the Trio di Trieste, Natalia Gutman, György Kurtág, Gabriele Ferro, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jeffrey Tate, Daniele Gatti, Pavel Vernikov, Gianandrea Noseda, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Elisso Virsaladze, Andrea Lucchesini, Alexander Lonquich, Martha Argerich and Antonio Pappano.
Always at the forefront of educational methodologies, the school now offers a comprehensive learning pathway that begins in early childhood and continues through every stage of development, with ensemble music at its heart.
Accredited to award AFAM Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, the institution has also long offered annual postgraduate courses taught by renowned performer-teachers, as well as spring masterclasses as part of the Festival Mousikè, whose first edition was held in 2024.
Participation in Erasmus+ and the development of innovative educational projects have placed the School within a dense network of international relationships, strengthened in recent years: from the three-year partnership with Universität Mozarteum Salzburg (2011–2013) to the IMPACT PNRR project (2025–2026) and the COMMON project (2024–2026) for students enrolled in the basic courses, students and teachers at Fiesole have numerous opportunities for mobility and further study.
As one of the founders of the Sistema italiano di orchestre e cori infantili Onlus, the school has established free collective-learning educational programmes in several neighbourhoods of Florence, offering orchestra, big band and white-hands choir programmes. It has also provided the expertise required by teachers who, through the In-Armonia association, run the Orchestra Regionale Inclusiva della Toscana.
In 2002, the school founded the ECMA (European Chamber Music Academy) together with several of Europe’s most prestigious music academies. The international training programme created through this initiative has enabled many ECMA string quartets to establish themselves in major international competitions, including the ARD Competition in Munich, the Haydn Competition in Vienna, the Shostakovich Competition in Moscow, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and the Prague Spring International Music Festival.
The school’s activities are made possible by financial support from MIBAC, the Regional Adrministration of Tuscany, the Municipality and Metropolitan City of Florence and the Municipality of Fiesole. Fondazione CR Firenze is an indispensable patron of the School’s projects, while numerous private donors provide scholarships for its most deserving students, as Claudio Abbado did in 2013 by donating his senatorial remuneration to the school. Since 2025, the school has been among the institutions whose donors can benefit from the national Art Bonus and the Art Bonus of the Region of Tuscany.
Awarded the Premio Abbiati in 1981 for the best musical initiative, the school received the Premio Nazionale Presidente della Repubblica from Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2005 and the Premium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists from the Japan Art Association in 2008. In August 2016, the school’s Orchestra dei Ragazzi won the World Orchestra Festival, organised by the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Musikverein in Vienna.
Since October 2020, the school’s Artistic Director has been Alexander Lonquich.