Sold out on Tuesday, March 7th at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence for the concert by the Erasmus Orchestra, which, as tradition dictates, opened Didacta Italia, the most important national event on school innovation.

Sara Funaro, the Councillor for Education, Welfare, and Immigration of the Municipality of Florence, hosted the event, describing Didacta as a unique event capable of creating synergies between different institutions to achieve significant results. Funaro emphasized the significance of the Erasmus Orchestra as an extraordinary initiative for the opportunities it offers young people to engage with each other through music. For the Councillor, “being in the Hall of the Five Hundred means opening the place of citizens, giving it a home, and in this case, building bridges of culture, education, and music together.”

Alessandra Gallone, representing the Ministry of University and Research, announced the Ministry’s intention to include art among its competencies, fully equating the sector of Higher Artistic and Musical Education with university courses.

Sara Pagliai, coordinator of the Erasmus+ INDIRE Agency, briefly recounted the history of the orchestra, which since 2017 has appeared on stage each time with a lineup that is never the same, composed of Erasmus students hosted by Italian conservatories and music institutes, as well as Italian students on Erasmus. “The Erasmus Orchestra represents, at the European level, an innovation in the communication and promotion of the Program. It is a symbolic symphony orchestra of all the values of Erasmus and Europe.”

Conducted by Maestro Elio Orciuolo, the talented musicians filled the Hall of the Five Hundred with enchanting music by Cimarosa, Mozart, Rossini, Mascagni, and Piazzolla, concluding with an encore by Nino Rota.

“A completely new concert compared to previous experiences,” Maestro Orciuolo told us, “for the first time without singers and with a program aimed at highlighting individual elements, part of the orchestra’s ensemble, who performed as soloists, emphasizing the concept of the Erasmus Orchestra as a training project.”

Following the collaboration with Egypt, which recently saw the Erasmus Orchestra perform three concerts in Cairo, Luxor, and Alexandria as part of the Study in Sicily project, the Egyptian flutist Huda Mahmoud also performed in Florence. Among the musicians were also students from China and Armenia, while the first violin, Andrii Kulis, is a Ukrainian student hosted at the Monopoli Conservatory, demonstrating that Erasmus+ is now open not only to Europe but to the entire world.