A new “home” in Ravenna: San Romualdo

The Mayor of Ravenna Michele de Pascale: “San Romualdo will become the ‘home’ of the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra” 

“I am very happy to announce, especially in such hard times for culture and music – said the Mayor of Ravenna – that the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra will soon find a ‘home’ in town, a suitable place to host such an extraordinary experience. The Orchestra, founded by Riccardo Muti in 2004, has the Municipality of Ravenna and the Fondazione Ravenna Manifestazione among its associates; since then, it has given the city unforgettable moments of great international exposure.

With Maestro, to whom we are deeply grateful, we have inspected the church of San Romualdo within the complex of the Classense Library. The place has been judged, according also to the technical experts’ advice, suitable to create an auditorium to host the Cherubini Orchestra permanently. The relationship between music, the heritage of the Library, and the study and reading rooms, will further multiply the cultural opportunities in town. Of course, the auditorium will be available also to the other orchestras and musical subjects of the city, starting with the Institute for Musical Studies G. Verdi.

We are starting to plan, in collaboration with the Foundations Ravenna Manifestazioni and Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, the works which will adapt, acoustically and structurally, the church; the works will start when the exhibition ‘Dante gli occhi e la mente’ will be concluded, in order to be finished in October 2021.

Maestro Muti’s consistent commitment toward the next generations is not only a gesture of great generosity and selflessness toward his own country, but also a permanent encouragement for us all to do what we can to support the young artists in their personal and professional growth, with a view to pass on, from one generation to the next, the uniqueness of the Italian culture.  

The difficult times are those when we also think more about the future and turn new projects with a wider scope into reality; this is one of those cases. It is a great honour for our community to give life, here in Ravenna, to a place where young musicians can feel welcome and continue on the path which will bring them to play in the orchestras of all Europe”.