To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello in Venice, a prestigious AFAM institution housed within the monumental Palazzo Pisani at Santo Stefano, Marsilio Arte publishes the photographic volume Conservatorio di musica Benedetto Marcello Venezia 1876–2026, retracing its history through a dialogue between music, art, and architecture.

Established in 1876 as the Liceo e società musicale Benedetto Marcello, in honor of the celebrated Venetian composer, the Conservatorio was transferred in 1897 to the premises of Palazzo Pisani, the ancient residence of the noble family of the same name in the San Marco sestiere. In 1940, under the direction of Gian Francesco Malipiero, it took on the title of Regio Conservatorio di Musica, establishing itself among the most important Italian musical institutions recognized at an international level.

Through eight specialist contributions, an extensive iconographic apparatus, a chronology of events, and synoptic tables, the volume traces the life of the institution and the historical-artistic events that affected the Palazzo, which still houses the Conservatorio today.

Built in the seventeenth century and subjected to continuous alterations up until the first two decades of the eighteenth century, carefully reconstructed in Andrew Hopkins’s essay, it is today one of the most emblematic examples of Venetian noble residences. The prestige of the family here intertwines with an innate drive toward self-celebration, made manifest in the sumptuousness of the decorative schemes: ceilings and walls embellished with canvases, frescoes, stuccowork, and ornamental friezes, whose genesis is recounted to the reader in the joint contribution by Massimo Favilla and Ruggero Rugolo.

Alongside this artistic heritage is the documentary and archival heritage preserved in the music library, founded together with the Conservatorio itself, whose evolution is traced in the text by Paolo Da Col and Silvia Urbani.

The heart of the publication lies in the photographs by Alessandra Chemollo, which capture with rare sensitivity the soul of the Conservatorio, bearing witness to the lived experience of its community and the vitality of an institution that continues to preserve and perpetuate its own memory within its spaces.

Texts by Andrew Hopkins, Massimo Favilla, Ruggero Rugolo, Antonio Trampus, Claudia Denk, Paolo Da Col, Silvia Urbani, Paolo Pinamonti, Francisco Rocca, Matteo Messori, Elena Moretto, Mattia Ometto.