The Jazz Ensemble of Bellarmine University Music Department performs at Oratorio di S.Giovanna Antida Thouret (Naples) on Monday, March 7 at 7 PM

On Monday, March 7, 2011 the Jazz Ensemble of the Bellarmine University Music Department, of Louisville, Kentucky, will present a concert of well-known American jazz standards featuring the music of Ellington, Mancini, Rodgers & Hart, Young, and Garner under the direction of Mr. David Clark in Naples. The venue will be a no-more-sacred church, now used as an oratory and concert hall, called Oratorio di S.Giovanna Antida Thouret (former Chiesa dei S.Bernardino e Margherita a Fonseca). The Chiesa dei S.Bernardino e Margherita a Fonseca was built in the XVII century by Pietro de Martino. At the end of the century, chapels were added as well as a dome. After an earthquake in 1980, it was restored and since then has been used as an oratory where the youth meets for performances and social activities.

For the jam session, the Jazz Ensemble of the Bellarmine University Music Department will get support from the local jazz class of the Naples Conservatory "San Pietro a Majella". The director is Pietro Condorelli, one of the best jazz guitar players in Italy. The conservatory and adjacent church are today part of the old San Pietro a Majella monastic complex, built at the end of the 13th century and dedicated to the monk Pietro da Morone, who became Pope Celestine V in 1294. The conservatory houses an impressive library of manuscripts pertaining to the lives and musical production of composers who lived and worked in Naples, among whom are Alessandro Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Domenico Cimarosa, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. The historical museum has a display of rare antique musical instruments.