The University Orchestra

The University Orchestra of Florence was established in 1996 to offer students and university staff the opportunity to experience the practice of ensemble music and to enrich individual and collective technical-musical knowledge.

Since its founding, the Orchestra has participated in official ceremonies and the many cultural initiatives promoted by the University, also in collaboration with other musical realities and with national and international soloists.

From 2012 to 2015, the Orchestra found its privileged stage in the Tempio delle Muse, a concert series conceived by the Delegate for Artistic and Performing Activities of the University, Professor Teresa Megale. The series was held for five editions in the various sections of the Museum of Natural History. In a happy union of music, art and science, the Orchestra opened up to the Florentine citizens, offering free concerts, during which, alongside a classical repertoire, unpublished or expressly created and arranged pieces by contemporary composers who participated in the project were presented. Opening up to musical exchanges with other universities, in October 2013 it hosted the Belgian Orchestra of Leuven and in 2024 it performed in the Cortile of Palazzo Nonfinito, with The Concordia Symphony Chamber Nucleus of the University of Concordia in Edmonton (Canada) in the concert Canadian impressions.

On October 26, 2016, it was the protagonist of a musical flash mob at the Social Sciences Library, an initiative for which it received the appreciation of the then Minister of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism, Dario Franceschini.

In 2017, it was the protagonist, together with the University Choir, of Bright 2017 the Researchers' Night at the Teatro Verdi in Florence (September 29). In order to promote a continuous exchange of knowledge with other symphonic realities, it participated in the festival of university choirs and orchestras organized by the University of Pisa (Pisa, Palazzo dei Congressi, November 4, 2017).

In 2018, it collaborated in the realization of the event Università in Musica, held in its sixteenth edition within the Church of Santi Michele e Gaetano in Florence together with the University Choir (May 24, 2018). As an ensemble, it participated in ScienzEstate 2018 (Florence, Auditorium Sant'Apollonia, June 11, 2018).

An essential appointment is the traditional Christmas concert, during which the three artistic companies of the University, Choir, Orchestra and Theater Company, perform. For the 2023 edition, the concert Voci di Pace, Note di Pace was held in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata.

Directed first by Nicola Paszkowski, then by Marco Papeschi, since May 2016 the Orchestra has been re-founded and is currently under the guidance of Maestro Gabriele Centorbi.