The Zipoli Festival was born in 1998 in the Tuscan city of Prato, the native town of the great organist and composer, Domenico Zipoli. The main purpose of the festival is to offer the immortal music of the Pratese maestro to the public through the organization of concerts, but also lectures, guided tours and lessons for students. The biennial festival takes place the months of November and December. Its locations – that reach out from the city to all the surrounding territory corresponding to the modern province of Prato – are churches, especially those with organs, but also historic palaces, theaters and schools. In the course of the various editions of the festival the program has presented masterpieces of Italian, European and Latin American Baroque music with special regard to the Zipoli repertoire, often programmed in comparison with that of other composers of his period. Some programs have included musical pieces in their first modern execution, such as the cantata O Daliso composed by Zipoli in the Italian period and recently published in a modern edition. The musicians invited have always been of the highest level of excellence, starting with the great Dutch maestro Gustav Leonhardt (deceased 16 January 2012), who performed his last organ concert on the ancient instrument of the Chapel of the Sacro Cingolo of the Cathedral of Prato on 18 November 2011 in the context of the VII edition of the Zipoli Festival.
The Artistic Director of the Zipoli Festival since its foundation had been M° Gabriele Giacomelli.
Here you can find the
programs of the previous seasons.
