Since 2004, St. Mary’s College of Maryland faculty and students have participated in the International Alba Music Festival, a festival founded by Jeffrey Silberschlag and Larry Vote with the Italian flutist Giuseppe Nova.

Alba is a small ancient and historic town in the Piemonte region of Italy.  Nestled in rolling hills that are covered with vineyards and castles under the distant gaze of the Alps, Alba is the capital of the Italian wine industry. It is to Italy what Bordeaux is to France. Major industries in Alba, including Cerreto Wines and Ferrero Chocolates, make Alba Italy’s second richest area.  Since Roman times, Alba has been considered, even in Italy, a place of extraordinarily fine cuisine (Alba is where Italy’s finest truffles are harvested).

Alba has several pedestrian/shopping districts – and more to the point for the music festival – two concert halls plus five major churches that serve as wonderful performance venues.  In short, it is the ideal setting for our activities, one that provides the best educational and performing setting for our students in the context of a lively European music festival that features performers from throughout the world.

For our students, the International Alba Music Festival is an intensive two-week experience, combining study and performance under the guidance of SMCM faculty joined by an international roster of performers from throughout Europe and Asia. We all come together in Alba for two dozen concerts and much interaction (formal and informal).

For more information about the International Alba Music Festival, contact Jeffrey Silberschlag.