Laudonia Olga

Olga Laudonia teaches History of Music at the Conservatory of Cosenza where she is a member of the editorial board of the journal auditoriuM. She has taught Theory, Rhythmics and Musical Perception at the Conservatory of Cagliari.

A pupil of Vincenzo De Gregorio and Wijnand van de Pol, she completed her musical studies at the Conservatories of Naples and Perugia, where she obtained five diplomas: V.O. Diploma in Organ and Organ Composition, V.O. Diploma in Harpsichord, Level II Diploma in Organ, Level II Diploma in Harpsichord (thesis published for Armelin, Padua), Level II Diploma in Pianoforte (thesis published for PVH, Switzerland) and at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, where she completed the Post-Master's Degree Course in Organ under the guidance of Roberto Marini and the Post-Master's Degree Course in Organ and Orchestra under the guidance of Michele Manganelli (the only student selected for the final concert). She has followed advanced courses on performance practice with Pier Damiano Peretti, Francesco Cera, Emilia Fadini, Klemens Schnorr, Jean Guillou. A finalist and semi-finalist in national and international competitions, in 2004 she was awarded the medal of the President of the Senate at the Giarda National Organ Competition. For about twenty years she has been performing as a soloist in Italy and abroad in prestigious venues such as: Catedral de Málaga, Catedral de Cadiz, Iglesia Mayor de la Encarnacion in Marbella, Monasterio de San Jéronimo in Granada, Sala Scarlatti in Naples, Sala Accademica del PIMS in Rome (Vatican), Real Basílica de Nossa Senhora e de Santo António in Mafra (where he gave a concert for six organs as part of the Festival Internacional de Órgão). He has played with the Orchestra Scarlatti of Naples and the Orchestra of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome (Vatican). As accompanist organist, he has collaborated with the Schola Gregoriana of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome conducted by Franz Prassl. He has recorded for the Da Vinci record company. Recently, at St. Mary Cathedral in Cape Town (South Africa), he premiered, at the invitation of the Consular Corps, his latest disc, Kaire Maria, recorded for NovAntiqua. For the same label, he recorded a disc, Ninno Bello, dedicated to the organ pastoral in Naples from the 17th century to the present day.

She graduated in Modern Literature - specialising in Music and Performing Arts at the University of Naples Federico II (supervisor Enrico Careri, co-rapporteur Renato Di Benedetto, thesis on the organist F.M. Napolitano published by Di Mauro, Naples). She continued her musicological studies at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, where she defended her doctoral thesis in Applied Musicology summa cum laude (supervisor Roberto Marini, tutor Federico Del Sordo, thesis on the organ pastoral published by Turchini, Naples). Identified as the recipient of two scholarships within the scope of the First Level Master's Degree in Music Theory and Analysis at the University of Calabria in agreement with the Istituto Liszt di Bologna and the GATM, she obtained the relative degree with top marks and honours (supervisor Egidio Pozzi, co-rapporteur Rossana Dalmonte, thesis on Liszt's Präludium und Fuge über den Namen BACH, S.260).

As executive editor of the Unpublished Naples series for the publishing house Pizzicato Verlag Helvetia (Switzerland), in which big names such as Giovanni Acciai and Gaetano Panariello collaborate, she has edited numerous editions of unpublished works from the Neapolitan school. She has published for Di Mauro, Momenti, GDE, Ledizioni, Armelin, Fondazione Pietà de' Turchini, Nota, Serassi, Accademia Organistica Campana and Società italiana di Musicologia. She recently received a special mention in the musicological competition Premio Buscaroli (2022 edition).