During the first week of March, the film concert tour came to an end for students and teachers from the F.A. Bonporti Conservatory in Trento and Riva del Garda, who had travelled to Tallinn (Estonia) and Cluj-Napoca (Romania). Conceived and organised by the SISS project, this production was of considerable importance and significance for the Trentino conservatory. 

The project began with the selection and research of historical films from Italy’s cinematic heritage, involving the Fondazione Cineteca in Bologna, the Moving Image Department of the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York (USA), the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, the Videa Group in Milan and Viggo Srl in Rome. Simultaneously, efforts were made to locate the original music scores in collaboration with the Fondazione Cini in Venice and the Centro Internazionale di Studi “Riccardo Zandonai” in Rovereto. Commissions were also signed for new orchestral and ensemble arrangements of the scores. The composers involved were Emanuele Casale, Cosimo Colazzo, Rares-Ionuț Ghimpu, Vittorio Montalti, Paolo Orlandi, Andrea Siano and several students from composition classes at the conservatoires in Naples, Lecce, Trento and the Saint Louis College of Music in Rome.

Rehearsals for the Bonporti ensembles, conducted by Prof. Andrea Raffanini, began in Trento in December 2025. Around forty orchestra members, including students and teachers from Trentino, were joined by students from three foreign academies: the Academia Naţională de Muzică ‘Gheorghe Dima’ in Cluj-Napoca; the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EAMT) in Tallinn; and the Muzička Akademija Sveučilišta in Zagreb. Following the extensive rehearsal period, two concerts were recorded in January 2026 at the ‘Mascagni’ Auditorium, the concert hall of the ‘Bonporti’ Conservatory. Some excerpts from these recordings have been published on the Conservatory’s YouTube channel. 

In February, the great adventure began, with the aim of bringing Italian cultural heritage abroad, rediscovering forgotten films, and breathing new life into the original music with a contemporary twist. The first stop was the modern concert hall of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre on 7 and 8 February, and the second stop was the equally new and splendid Héritage Hall at the Academia Națională de Muzică ‘Gheorghe Dima’ in Cluj Napoca on 2 and 3 March. These were two exciting trips for the students involved, and a great success for the Bonporti, with a large and enthusiastic audience giving the SISS project a standing ovation.

«On 3 March, there was also a roundtable discussion entitled ‘Roman Vlad as a film composer’» explains Fabio Cifariello Ciardi, general coordinator of SISS and lecturer at Bonporti. «The discussion was coordinated by Francesco Finocchiaro of the Pesaro Conservatory and featured Adrian Borza (lecturer in composition and multimedia), Ionut Ghimpu (author of the ensemble adaptation of Roman Vlad’s music for Luciano Emmer’s Il dramma di Cristo, which was performed in the concerts), and Cristina Eleonora Pascu (researcher at the Academy specialising in Vlad’s film music). On 4 March, I held a seminar for the Academy’s composition students entitled ‘The use of prosody in instrumental music’, dedicated to the SISS commissions of the sub-project ‘Screening Sounds: Re-imagining speech».