There are two cultural traditions that merged into the Associazione Amici delle Musica di Padova in 1957: that of the Società Bartolomeo Cristofori – the concert society of the C. Pollini Musical Institute founded in 1920 – and the more recent tradition of the Student Art Center of the University of Padua, founded in 1945. Two equally prestigious traditions that had ensured a musical life of significant artistic importance in Padua. But two equally important traditions in terms of intellectual vivacity and attention to the new, which characterized the programs: the Italian tour of Pierrot Lunaire with A. Schoenberg stopped in Padua in April 1924 and there had been numerous appearances of greatest composers of our century such as I. Pizzetti, A. Casella, L. Dallapiccola, P. Hindemith, K. Stockhausen. From the organizational coordination of the Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Art Center, in 1952, the activity of the Amici della Musica took life, defined institutionally in 1957 by absorbing the two previous realities. The structure of the Association was then redefined in 1979 with the refoundation of the Association and the renewed autonomy of the University Student Art Center, with which a consolidated, very close cultural and organizational collaboration still remains. In 2003 the Association obtained the legal status by the Veneto Region.
