Nuova Consonanza Festival

Sixty years of sound research in Rome

The Nuova Consonanza Festival is Italy's longest-running contemporary music event. It grew out of the composers' association of the same name, founded in Rome between 1959 and 1960 by musicians such as Franco Evangelisti, Mario Bertoncini, Mauro Bortolotti, Domenico Guaccero, Egisto Macchi, and Daniele Paris, with the explicit goal of giving a home to musical avant-garde in Italy. The name, suggested by critic Alberto Pironti, draws from a 17th-century preface and alludes to the need for constant renewal in musical language. Since 1964, the festival has been held annually, becoming a benchmark for the European classical scene.

A festival spread across the Capital

The event does not have a single venue: every year, it is distributed across some of the most significant cultural sites in the Municipality of Rome, in the Lazio region. The Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, in the Flaminio district, hosts symphonic concerts and international guests; the Teatro Palladium in Garbatella and the converted industrial spaces of the Mattatoio La Pelanda in Testaccio host the more experimental offerings, electroacoustics, and installations. Some editions have even ventured outside the city, with events in Trevignano Romano, Ardea, and Rieti, bringing research-based music to unusual settings in Lazio.

What you will hear

The program alternates genres and formats with great freedom, while remaining faithful to a precise vision: the music of our time, often performed for the first time. A typical edition features:

• Concerts by specialized ensembles from Italy and abroad, with world premieres commissioned from the association's composers;
• Electroacoustic and acousmatic sections, featuring multichannel diffusion systems and research into sound spatialization;
• Sound installations and multimedia works that engage with the architecture of the host spaces;
• Tributes to historical figures of contemporary music, re-examined through a critical lens;
• Talks, seminars, and presentations, almost always free of charge, making the festival accessible even to those approaching this repertoire for the first time.

The Space – Time – Sound trilogy

With the 62nd edition in 2025, the association launched a three-year cycle titled Space – Time – Sound, which will run until 2027. The first chapter, dedicated to Space, explored sound as extension, directional movement, timbral spectrum, and a place of physical or virtual diffusion. Subsequent editions will develop the other two terms of the triptych, in a long-term project that is, in itself, a statement of method: the festival does not just list concerts, but builds a narrative.

A commitment beyond the stage

Nuova Consonanza is also an association active year-round: it organizes the composition competition named after Franco Evangelisti, publishes works, maintains a historical archive, and supports emerging composers. In recent years, every evening of the festival has opened with the reading of poems on peace by the members, a sign of the civic vocation that has always accompanied their artistic research.

Who it is for

The festival's audience is not limited to industry professionals. Ticket prices are intentionally kept low, subscriptions offer discounted rates for students and conservatory teachers, and many side events are free. For those visiting Rome in autumn, it is an opportunity to discover a side of the city far from the usual tourist circuits: that of a capital that, for over sixty years, has continued to question what music actually is.