From 7 to 12 July 2026, the Accademia Internazionale di Smarano APS will host, for the first time, the “Le Arpe in Villa” Festival, a festival dedicated to the world of the harp, now in its eighteenth edition. The initiative is organised in collaboration among Musica d’Arpa, Salvi Harps, and the Accademia Internazionale di Smarano APS, with extraordinary funding provided by the Municipality of Cles. The Festival’s debut in Smarano marks a significant expansion of the Academy’s cultural programme. Alongside its long-established activities devoted to early keyboard music, the Academy now embraces an international project that brings together advanced musical training, artistic research, and public engagement through the rich and diverse world of the harp. For one week, the Academy will welcome students, faculty, and performers from several countries for a summer school devoted to the many traditions of the harp: from the modern and jazz harp to the medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque harp. This educational programme fosters dialogue among diverse repertoires, performance practices, and musical traditions.

Alongside its educational activities, the Festival offers a rich programme of concerts, lectures, and public events. The Festival will open on Wednesday, 8 July, at 9:00 p.m., at the Palazzo Assessorile in Cles with “A Musical Promenade,” the opening concert featuring Anna Loro (modern harp), Marcella Carboni (electroacoustic harp), and Mara Galassi (double harp, triple harp, and hook harp). The programme will continue on Thursday, 9 July, at the Concert Hall of the Accademia di Smarano, with Massimiliano Busatto’s lecture, “The Harp in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries” (6:00 p.m.), followed at 9:00 p.m. by the public lecture “Harps in Images: Secrets They Reveal – and Hide,” presented by Mara Galassi and Heidrun Rosenzweig, exploring the relationship between iconography and the history of the harp. Friday, 10 July, will focus on historical repertoire. At 6:00 p.m., Anna Loro will present “Il faudrait mélanger. Autour de Pierre Jamet,” a lecture-recital exploring the dialogue between the French and Italian harp traditions. At 9:00 p.m., Céline Pasche and Giovanna Prodan will perform works by Krumpholtz, Hindemith, Godefroid, Smetana, and Trneček. The final day of the Festival, Saturday, 11 July, will begin at 6:00 p.m. with Marcella Carboni’s presentation, “More Than an Angelic Harp: Jazz Stories and Surprising Sounds,” dedicated to the expressive possibilities of the harp in jazz. At the same time, at the Palazzo Assessorile in Cles, the exhibition “The Useful and the Ephemeral in Ceramics” will be inaugurated, accompanied by musical performances by students of the harp courses. At 9:00 p.m., the Festival will conclude with its traditional Closing Concert, featuring the summer school participants.

Through this collaboration, the Accademia Internazionale di Smarano APS further strengthens its vocation as a meeting place for advanced musical education, artistic production, and public engagement. By expanding its dialogue with other leading musical institutions, the Academy offers audiences new opportunities for musical discovery and cultural exchange.

Download the programme of public events: Festival “Le Arpe in Villa 2026”