Jacopa Stinchelli is from Rome, not Florence, but she’s a Renaissance woman through and through — with the diverse tastes and lofty aspirations to match.
An art historian, essayist, and trained psychoanalyst, Stinchelli is the chief coordinator of the , which stages classical and contemporary performances by international musicians in intimate, only-in-Rome settings.
Stinchelli puts her mission simply: “There’s so much ugliness today. I’m fighting for beauty.”
When we meet one spring morning for an informal tour through the festival’s 22-year history, Stinchelli is knee-deep in preparations for the new edition (June 16-19 at the Auditorium della Conciliazione). Needing an energy boost, she suggests we stop off for quick refreshments near the Pantheon. But instead of espresso at Caffè Sant’Eustachio or some secretive haunt of her Roman literati crowd, Stinchelli giddily insists we get the “best bubble tea in Rome” at Tè amo. Soon after ordering, we’re standing before Teatro dell’Argentina, stirring our Taiwanese tea and tapioca pearls as we look out on the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated. It’s a scene that, like the festival itself, could only take place in contemporary Rome.
The road to Auditorium della Conciliazione
Inaugurated in 2003 by Robert McDuffie, an acclaimed American violinist, the Rome Chamber Music Festival’s early editions took place at Villa Aurelia, part of the American Academy in Rome. McDuffie had been a visiting artist at the academy in 2002; like many foreigners who fall in love with the city, he hoped to find a way to return regularly and give back.
Rome, Stinchelli says, was a different city then, and cultural life could feel impenetrable. Artistic events around town tended to be “very exclusive, very related to VIPs, politicians,” she explains. McDuffie needed year-round boots on the ground, and found them in Stinchelli: In 2007, hoping to expand the festival’s impact, she kickstarted its now well-known , which has since welcomed over 400 emerging musicians and helped launch international careers like that of .
But the musicians — young, old and in-between — are only one piece of the puzzle. The festival’s venues, for Stinchelli, are just as important, and have spanned much of Rome’s centro storico over the years: “The places that I always choose for events are never anonymous places,” she says. “My ambition is to build events that are commensurate with the beauty of Rome.”
It’s a tall order, but Stinchelli is on the right track. Our tour through some of the festival’s beloved locations through the years lifts the curtain on a Rome the majority of visitors never see. Here’s a roadmap you can replicate on your next visit.
Palazzo Barberini
Via delle Quattro Fontane 13
The quintessentially Baroque Palazzo Barberini was the festival’s home from 2012 to 2019. Concerts were held in the high-ceilinged grand salon, where Pietro da Cortona’s fresco Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power towers over the room. Stinchelli tells me to keep my eyes peeled for the symbol of the famously ruthless Barberini family, the tafani, or horseflies, which “buzz” about in unexpected corners of the palazzo, including in the monumental painting: “These tafani were very annoying insects that were usually found in the sticky air around pigs and cows,” Stinchelli explains. “What Pietro da Cortona did here was incredible because it mixed the divine with something so low, so earthly.”
Since the Covid years, events in the grand salon come with more restrictions, so the festival isn’t likely to return to Palazzo Barberini — but today, there’s extra incentive to visit with the blockbuster “Caravaggio 2025” exhibition that runs well into the summer.
Teatro dell’Argentina
Largo di Torre Argentina 52
The 18th-century Teatro dell’Argentina, with its sumptuous reds and golds and characteristically proscenium arch, is the most, well, theatrical of all the “theaters” we visit. (It helps that it was built atop the Theater of Pompey, the aforementioned site of Caesar’s assassination.)
The venue also has serious opera clout as the site where Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (1861) premiered, though today its programming tends to focus on plays.
But according to Stinchelli, whatever’s on the playbill should only be a small factor in whether you decide to book a seat. “Theaters are literally ‘places of seeing,’ from the Greek word [theatron],” Stinchelli says as we enter off-hours, waved in enthusiastically by the front desk attendant. “People aren’t just watching and listening [what’s happening on stage], but looking around at each other; each corner is its own theater, each person is part of their own scene.”
It’s an idea that’s honored in classic theaters perhaps more than those of other cultures, Stinchelli suggests.
Oratorio del Gonfalone
Via del Gonfalone 32a
Hidden on a side street just off the postcard-pretty Via Giulia, the was once the meeting site of a Catholic confraternity associated with the Church of Santa Lucia Vecchia. From the outside, it’s an unassuming gem that Stinchelli credits Camille McDuffie, festival founder Robert’s wife, with discovering. With its wooden ceilings, the oratory is “like a music box,” Stinchelli says — and happens to have some of the best acoustics in Rome.
An immersive 16th-century fresco cycle wrapping around the room depicts episodes from Christ’s passion, and has earned the space a reputation as the “Sistine Chapel of Roman Mannerism.”
Today, it’s the home of the Roman Polyphonic Choir; though it doesn’t keep regular visiting hours, the Oratorio del Gonfalone often hosts special open days, guided visits and, of course, concerts.
Auditorium della Conciliazione
Via della Conciliazione 4
Set on the road that links Castel Sant’Angelo to St. Peter’s Basilica — which Mussolini ordered, symbolically connecting the Vatican to the core of the capital — the Auditorium della Conciliazione is the largest of the venues on this list. Stinchelli describes it as a “temple of music” where many greats of the 20th and 21st centuries have performed. (It’s also an under-the-radar area hangout for weary travelers who want to rest at the bar; Stinchelli and I take advantage after a full morning on our feet.)
Auditorium della Conciliazione is set along a stretch of Rome that’s more visible than ever — given the once-in-a-generation papal election held during a Jubilee year. A themed Jubilee tribute by Vox Medicea and the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble is planned for this year’s opening night on June 16, but the festival program is more varied than Vatican-centric; other highlights include a piano-first performance of works by Ravel and Brahms (June 17); a klezmer selection from clarinettist David Krakaeur (June 18) and a closing night with Flavio Emilio Scogna conducting Gustav Mahler’s “Titan” symphony (June 19). The common thread in it all? The “fight for beauty” remains front and center.
If you go
Rome Chamber Music Festival
June 16-19, 2025
and (Italy Magazine Community, use code MUSIC50 for half-off tickets).
