The "Luglio nel Chiostro" festival kicks off, in Rome from July 17 to 31

From 17 to 31 July 2026, Luglio nel Chiostro returns to Rome, the festival hosted in the Chiostro del Buon Pastore, in the Bravetta neighbourhood, with a second edition that confirms and expands the project built around one of the area's most evocative locations. Promoted and organised by Musica e Arte ETS, a Rome-based organisation active since 1994 in the promotion, organisation and dissemination of musical activities, the festival was created with the aim of giving the neighbourhood back a space for encounter, listening and participation through a free, accessible and cross-cutting programme.

The Chiostro del Buon Pastore, the heart of the monumental complex designed by architect Armando Brasini between 1929 and 1943, thus becomes the centre of a cultural journey that looks to music as a tool for connecting languages, generations and communities. An intimate, history-laden place, opened in recent years also through guided tours and exhibitions curated by students and teachers of the Liceo Malpighi, which for the occasion once again welcomes the public in a shared listening experience.

The 2026 edition of Luglio nel Chiostro brings together three distinct musical strands: Bravetta Music Fest, now in its fifth edition, Chiostro d'Autore, in its first edition, and Passione Lirica, also in its first edition. Three sections that build a programme spanning Mediterranean music, jazz, world music, singer-songwriter repertoire, opera and instrumental music.

Bravetta Music Fest, running from 17 to 19 July and from 23 to 26 July, is dedicated to cross-pollinated music, spanning folk, jazz, fusion, world music, Mediterranean traditions and new forms of sonic research. At the heart of the programme is multiculturalism, understood as the possibility of encounter between different languages, instruments, stories and geographies.

Chiostro d'Autore, on 21 and 22 July, instead brings singer-songwriter music to the stage, with artists coming from different backgrounds and musical paths. Two evenings designed to explore the contradictions, intimacies and most contemporary forms of Italian songwriting, also giving space to emerging talents who grew up on the Roman scene.

Passione Lirica, from 28 to 31 July, closes the festival with four events dedicated to opera and instrumental repertoire, ranging from musical farces to comic and serious operas, great female figures of opera, and a closing Gran Gala Lirico devoted to some of the most celebrated pages of Italian and international opera.

Opening the programme on Friday 17 July will be Matri Pi Sempri, an evening dedicated to the Sicilian reworking of La Buona Novella by Fabrizio De André, curated by Francesco Giunta. At 9pm the docufilm Matri Pi Sempri will be screened, inspired by the project and distributed worldwide on Amazon Prime, with director Andrea Walts in attendance. This will be followed at 9.45pm by a concert bringing to the cloister an intense, choral reinterpretation of De André's work, in which the Sicilian language gives the lyrics a more earthy, visceral and ritualistic dimension.

On Saturday 18 July the stage will host Gabriele Buonasorte It's Time meets Hamid Drake, a meeting between the Sicilian saxophonist, composer and sound designer and one of the most active and acclaimed drummers and percussionists in contemporary jazz.

Sunday 19 July will see RÛM – Canti dall'Asia Minore, an ensemble that researches and brings back to life the music of Smyrna, the multicultural city on the Aegean coast of Anatolia, through a repertoire that spans the Mediterranean, memory and musical migrations.

Tuesday 21 July will kick off Chiostro d'Autore with an evening featuring Giulia Mei, a singer-songwriter and pianist from Palermo known for her sharp, contemporary songwriting, Alessandro Ragazzo, a singer-songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist from the Veneto region, and Milton, the songwriting project of Pasquale Dipace, blending folk roots, contemporary sounds and civic tension.

Wednesday 22 July continues the singer-songwriter strand with Gnut, a Neapolitan singer-songwriter capable of blending English folk, Neapolitan song and singer-songwriter craft, Cristiana Verardo, a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Lecce, winner of the Premio Bianca d'Aponte and one of the eight winners of Musicultura 2023, and Coppola, a Roman singer-songwriter born in 1997, active with a project that combines singer-songwriter roots, alt-rock and American-inspired folk.

From Thursday 23 July the programme returns to the Bravetta Music Fest strand with Moreno Viglione Gypsy Jazz Quartet, an event dedicated to gypsy jazz and the vitality of a musical tradition born from the encounter between Romani culture and American jazz.

Friday 24 July will feature Art Work Quartet, an avant-garde ensemble exploring the boundary between classical and contemporary music, reinterpreting the repertoire of Béla Bartók through live electronics, acoustic interplay and timbral research.

Saturday 25 July will bring Javier Girotto e Aires Tango to the stage, a project weaving Girotto's Argentine roots together with the freedom of jazz, turning tango into a living, open material capable of uniting memory, rhythm and improvisation.

Sunday 26 July will close the Bravetta Music Fest segment with Hysterrae, a project blending polyphonic voices, ritual percussion and electronic contamination, between tradition and contemporaneity, building a sonic dimension that spans body, ritual and landscape.

After a day off, Passione Lirica will open on Tuesday, July 28 with La Serva Padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, a comic intermezzo performed by the Orchestra da Camera Benedetto Marcello conducted by Maestro Simone Veccia, with narrative and musical introduction by Alessandro Avallone.

On Wednesday, July 29 the Orchestra da Camera Benedetto Marcello will present an instrumental program featuring music by Samuel Barber, Edward Elgar, Ottorino Respighi and Béla Bartók, in a journey between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spanning tradition, stylistic renewal and folk influences.

On Thursday, July 30, marking the 80th anniversary of women's first vote in Italy, the program will be dedicated to the great female figures of opera, with arias and duets from Puccini, Mozart, Bellini, Verdi, Cilea, Bizet, Donizetti and Delibes.

On Friday, July 31 the festival will close with a Gran Gala Lirico, an evening devoted to some of the most celebrated arias, duets and ensemble pieces from Italian and international opera, blending singing, theatre and poetry.

All events in Luglio nel Chiostro 2026 are free admission and will take place at 9 pm in the Chiostro del Buon Pastore, Via di Bravetta 383, Rome.

The festival thus confirms its aim to turn the Chiostro into an open, accessible cultural hub rooted in its local area, able to engage with the city through music, the history of the place and community participation.

PROGRAM

Friday, July 17
Matri Pi Sempri
9 pm screening of the docufilm
9:45 pm concert Matri Pi Sempri, a Sicilian-dialect reworking of La Buona Novella by Fabrizio De André, curated by Francesco Giunta

Saturday, July 18
Gabriele Buonasorte It's Time meets Hamid Drake

Sunday, July 19
RÛM – Canti dall'Asia Minore

Tuesday, July 21
Giulia Mei
Alessandro Ragazzo
Milton

Wednesday, July 22
Gnut
Cristiana Verardo
Coppola

Thursday, July 23
Moreno Viglione Gypsy Jazz Quartet

Friday, July 24
Art Work Quartet

Saturday, July 25
Javier Girotto e Aires Tango

Sunday, July 26
Hysterrae

Tuesday, July 28
La Serva Padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Orchestra da Camera Benedetto Marcello
Conductor Simone Veccia

Wednesday, July 29
Orchestra da Camera Benedetto Marcello
Music by Barber, Elgar, Respighi and Bartók
Conductor Simone Veccia

Thursday, July 30
Great Female Figures in Opera

Friday, July 31
Grand Opera Gala

MUSICA E ARTE ETS

Musica e Arte ETS is a Rome-based association founded in 1994 with the aim of promoting, organizing and spreading musical activities, working steadily across music education, concert programming, musical theater and the enhancement of local heritage. Active in training students of all ages through its own Music School, the association has staged over the years more than 500 concerts and 70 theatrical productions, collaborating with public institutions and cultural bodies including the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the City of Rome, the Lazio Region, Municipalities XII and XIII, Zètema and Rai Radio Tre.

Organization
Musica e Arte ETS
Artistic direction
Alberto Laruccia

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