Concertando Festival

A chamber music festival in the heart of Rome

The Concertando Festival is the concert series hosted by the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music (PIMS), the university founded by Pope Pius X in 1910 to train church musicians. Originally conceived as an artistic showcase for the Institute, the festival has evolved into an international event, now presented as an International Chamber Music Festival: a few intense days where chamber music engages in dialogue with great choral literature and contemporary creation.

The main venue is the Academic Hall of the PIMS, located at Piazza Sant'Agostino 20/A, in the City of Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Lazio. Alongside the main hall, the Refice Hall is typically used for meetings and lecture-concerts, while the abbey church hosts programs featuring organ, choir, or vocal ensembles. It is a rare setting: a place of study that transforms into a public concert hall for three days, just a short walk from Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.

The guest composer, the heart of every edition

The hallmark of Concertando is its guest composer formula. Each year, the festival invites a prominent living author of international stature to meet with students and the public during a dedicated morning session, with their works performed in the evening concerts. It is a direct way to integrate contemporary music into a curriculum rooted in Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony.

In 2025, the guest composer was the Polish musician Paweł Łukaszewski, for an edition titled Συμπόσιον (Symposion). In 2026, the festival hosted the Scottish composer and conductor Sir James MacMillan, one of the most recognized voices in contemporary sacred music, to whom the Institute awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Sacred Music.

What to expect

• Chamber music: trios, quartets, and mixed ensembles, with repertoires ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century.
• Sacred and choral music: a cappella choir and organ works, the core identity of the Institute.
• Contemporary music: works by the guest composer and performances of recent scores.
• Student compositions: the festival provides a platform for works written by students of the PIMS composition department.
• Young performers: soloists and ensembles selected from the Institute's students and graduates, performing alongside their professors.

A mixed audience, an intimate atmosphere

Concertando is not a mass-market festival, and it doesn't aim to be. The Academic Hall has a limited capacity, ensuring an intimate listening experience where the audience is just a few meters from the performers, creating an atmosphere more akin to a 19th-century music salon than a modern auditorium. The audience is a blend of conservatory students, church musicians, clergy, Roman enthusiasts, and foreign visitors, as the dates fall in a period—early March, or early April in previous editions—when Rome is still far from the summer crowds.

Why it's worth the trip

For those visiting Rome, Concertando offers two things rarely found elsewhere: access to a pontifical institution normally reserved for academic study, and a program that seamlessly bridges ancient, sacred, and contemporary music. Evenings almost always begin at 8:00 PM (7:00 PM on the final day), leaving the afternoon free to explore the historic center and allowing guests to reach the venue on foot from most central districts.

The context: sacred music in Rome

The festival should be viewed within Rome's long musical tradition: for over a century, the PIMS has been training choir masters, organists, and conductors who serve in basilicas worldwide. Concertando is the public showcase of this daily work, as well as a small observatory on the evolution of sacred music in the 21st century. The festival is held annually: the twelfth edition is already announced for March 5–7, 2027.