Monday, March 7, 2011: Bellarmine University Music Department Ensembles perform in Naples

This morning, the group has the option to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Pompeii before they continue to Naples for an orientation tour and authentic Neapolitan pizza lunch. Schola Cantorum and the Louisville Vocal Project perform a concert at 4:45PM today at la Chiesa di Santa Teresa degli Scalzi in Naples. 

The church is the eponym for the street on which it is located, just around the corner to the north of the National Archaeological Museum. The interior of the church is a treasure trove, with works by painters Paolo de Matteis and Battistello Caracciolo and the sculptor Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, among many others. Also, the church holds a painting of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII. It is by Giacomo Colombo and is from 1715, the era of the brief Austrian Hapsburg vice-realm in Naples. The chapel of St. Teresa within the church was designed by Cosimo Fanzago and is considered relevant in the history of Neapolitan Baroque art.

The Bellarmine University Jazz Ensemble will perform a concert of well-known American jazz standards at 7:00 this evening at Naples' Oratorio di S.Giovanna Antida Thouret, the 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.

The concert is followed by an informal jam session, during which 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 Naples 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.