About us

"Classical music: a heritage of humanity, a possibility of beauty to live"

The Imola International Academy Foundation “Incontri con il Maestro”  is a school of high education and musical improvement located in the Rocca Sforzesca, a mediaeval fortress in Imola. Its specificity has come into the world’s public eye, having collected an honours list of 100 first prizes in the major international music contests, thus creating a students community applauded in the main concert halls. The Academy’s teachers are heirs of the greatest international performing schools, who guarantee a high-quality standard in the study programs.

The Academy’s pupils are from Italy and from all over the world. Over the last 10 years, the countries of origin have been 50: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bielorussia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, United Arabian Emirates, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Japan, Greece, United Kingdom, Iran, Israel, Kazakistan, Lettonia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mexico, Mongolia, Norway, New Zealand, Holland, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, United States of America, South Africa, South Corea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Venezuela.
The ability to attract talents from all over the world is the result of students and alumni touring along with national and international live music production markets, along with their winning big international contests.

The Academy was born at the beginning of the ’80s, thanks to Maestro Franco Scala, who was teaching piano at Pesaro’s Conservatory. It was an important educational revolution, which immediately turned out to be very effective. The pupils haven’t attended the traditional standard music study ever since, while now “they meet the Teacher” more suitable for their artistic potential and the single personality’s features, thus creating the best educational way.

In 2014 the Academy got the Prize “Presidente della Repubblica” from our Italian President Giorgio Napolitano for artistic credit. The main goal has always been to educate students letting them get introduced into the professional world through a very specializing educational path.
One of the primary elements of this journey is represented by a very careful selection of the teachers: they are extremely professional and with many international experiences they can follow the evolution of music and the musicology field, besides live shows arts, in a crucial moment of the intensive dialogue student-teacher. The building up of a Teacher-Student community, featuring a constant interchange of educational experiences in the whole world Community, represents a solid element of the Academy, in a general will of clearing any provincial side of the students abilities, considering each one’s musical background and human troubles in learning.

Some of the world’s best-known personalities have helped Maestro Scala in founding and directing the school, with an innovative cultural approach, which leads to a complex cultural synthesis among different educational models: among these people there are Maestro Lazar Berman and Vladimir Ashkenazy.

From 2020 the teaching activity is divided into eight Academies specializing in the musical education of different instruments, as many as the University Degree Courses.

The Academies are directed by outstanding teachers and musicians: Franco Scala Piano Academy, Boris Belkin Violin Academy, Enrico Bronzi Cello Academy, Antonello Farulli Viola and String Quartett Academy, Andrea Manco Flute Academy, Giovanni Puddu Guitar Academy, Marco Zuccarini Chamber Music Academy, Marco Di Bari Composition Academy.

Each Academy has highly professional Professors who guarantee values ​​and guidelines of the Imola Foundation.

Our Values ​​ are those that Franco Scala fixed thirty years ago, that have allowed the institution to qualify itself as an excellent school in the national and international music scene: talent selection, high quality Professors, didactic research and innovation.