Marica Tacconi

Professor of Musicology and Associate Director of the School of Music at the Pennsylvania State University. A native of central Italy, she holds a B.A. in Music from Williams College and a Ph.D. in Musicology from Yale University.

Her interdisciplinary research interests focus on the music, art, and culture of late medieval and early modern Italy. Her scholarly work has been presented at conferences and symposia throughout North America and Europe, and has appeared in numerous journals, collections of essays, and exhibition catalogues. She is the author of the books I Libri del Duomo di Firenze (with Lorenzo Fabbri; Centro Di, 1997), and Cathedral and Civic Ritual in Late Medieval and Renaissance Florence: The Service Books of Santa Maria del Fiore (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Professor Tacconi’s research has been supported by several institutions and grant agencies, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Robert Lehman Foundation, and the American Musicological Society. In 2002-03 she was a post-doctoral research Fellow at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy. She returned to Villa I Tatti in 2011 as the Robert Lehman Visiting Research Professor in Residence.

At Penn State since 1998, Professor Tacconi is the recipient of the 2001 Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching, the 2013 Achieving Women Award (faculty category) from the Penn State Commission for Women, and the 2016 President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration. She has served as director of the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities (2005-10) and as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council (2009-15).

IN COLLABORATION WITH VENICE MUSIC PROJECT
HIDDEN TREASURES FROM THREE FORGOTTEN MANUSCRIPTS
Concert Saturday, 22nd June 2019

“Enter the world of 17th-century solo song and opera! Musicologist Marica Tacconi, professor at the Pennsylvania State University, has uncovered three exquisitely produced manuscripts housed today at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana of Venice. They preserve a total of sixty solo songs and arias by many of the most prominent Italian composers of the time. Yet, a number of these works have remained in obscurity for centuries. The Venice Music Project Ensemble and Professor Tacconi will bring this music back to light in a program that will include several newly transcribed gems. She will provide some historical context and illustrate what makes this repertoire so fascinating and significant. Be part of this exciting experience: hear music unheard for centuries; experience what delighted audiences before the time of Vivaldi!”