The Friends of Music Association of Perugia was born in 1946 thanks to the enlightened vision of Alba Buitoni, whose legacy was subsequently collected by his son Franco Buitoni, great animator of Umbrian musical life.
Since 2003 the Friends of Music Association of Perugia merged into the Perugia Classical Music Foundation Onlus whose founding members are: the Municipality of Perugia, the Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia Foundation, the Friends of Music Association of Perugia and the Umbrian Music Festival. There Perugia Classical Music Foundation Onlus has over time developed a sober, sustainable and reliable management model in an attempt to enhance music with respect to structural costs.
In its more than seventy-five years of life, the Friends of Music of Perugia / Perugia Classical Music Foundation Onlus have created 2,680 concerts with the participation of the most prestigious international orchestras and choirs and the most renowned and appreciated artists and conductors of the world music scene. They are remembered among all Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Martha Argerich, Daniel Harding, Antonio Pappano, Zubin Mehta, Andras Schiff, Maurizio Pollini .
The collaboration with the BBT Borletti-Buitoni Trust , which supports the career of the most promising young international artists, offers the opportunity to listen to the new promises of the musical world in Perugia, repeating a tradition that the Friends of Music of Perugia / Fondazione Perugia Musica Classica Onlus have consolidated since its origins.
From the 2017-2018 season the Friends of Music of Perugia / Perugia Classical Music Foundation Onlus have established a collaborative relationship with the Brunello and Federica Cucinelli Foundation , in order to offer the public an ever richer and more varied musical offer.
The “Roscini Padalino” Award, which since 2021 has become “Roscini Padalino Cucinelli Foundation” Award , which offers young Umbrian musicians, through scholarships, the opportunity to improve their musical training.
More recently, always dedicated to young musicians, the San Lorenzo di Montenero competition aimed at the best students of the Perugia Conservatory.
The activity of listening education , which carries out diversified interventions from primary school children to high school, Music to Grow , has made 470 concerts with an attendance of 125,000 involving about 50 young Umbrian musicians.
A special project has been activated for some years in collaboration with the Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia Foundation “Music as a Gift” with concerts in particular places such as the hospital, the prison, and a program dedicated to people with memory deficits.
After the seismic events of 2016, the Friends of Music of Perugia / Fondazione Perugia Musica Classica Onlus did their utmost in concrete gestures to bring comfort to an upset community, coordinated events within the Crater Project of the Umbria Region: two editions of “Live Bells” (Valnerina and Val Castoriana), “Currents of the Nera” and in Norcia itself, the “Restanza” , concerts of the Umbrian Music Festival e Workshops in the schools of Norcia, Cascia and Preci .
The Friends of Music of Perugia / Perugia Classical Music Foundation Onlus for some years have supported and collaborated with a new symphonic complex born in Umbria composed almost exclusively of young Umbrian musicians: the Perugia Chamber Orchestra . Amici della Musica di Perugia / Perugia Classical Music Foundation Onlus are helping the Orchestra to grow not only by creating opportunities for shows and concerts, but also by developing an entrepreneurial management model of the Orchestra itself.
The Association of Friends of Music of Perugia / Perugia Classical Music Foundation Onlus is associated with AIAM (Italian Association of Musical Activities) and is part of the AMUR Committee for the realization of common projects together with prestigious Italian concert associations such as the project Music with a View in 2020 and the Season in streaming Silence in the hall to the music .