Article

The Musicosophia method and the Italian association: Mauro Manferdini, Bologna – President of the Association

Interview with Mauro Manferdini

The Musicosophia method and the Italian association: Mauro Manferdini, Bologna – President of the Association

Interview with Mauro Manferdini

President Manferdini, what are Musicosophia's references in Italy?
Musicosophia has been present in Italy since 1991 through the Italian Association of Musicosophia, founded by Professor George Balan, a Romanian musicologist and the creator and founder of the method. George Balan was particularly fond of Italy, which he considered a musically fertile terrain. Today, the Association's registered office is located in San Lazzaro di Savena, in the province of Bologna, but it has several branches throughout the country.

What is the legal nature and what are its purposes of the Italian Association of Musicosophia?
The Italian Association of Musicosophia is a social promotion association. Its objectives include the organization and management of cultural, artistic, and recreational activities of social interest, including publishing initiatives dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of culture and the practice of volunteering.

How do these goals translate into the Association's concrete work?
Specifically, the Association promotes and values active listening to music, recognizing the listener as the third "subject" in the musical creative process, alongside the composer and performer. It also promotes musical meditation, complemented by melorhythm as a physical expression of consciously listening to music. Another key focus is the dissemination of musical education and knowledge among the population, as well as teaching music listening as a tool for social integration and integration for disadvantaged individuals. This also includes the promotion of volunteering, participation, and active citizenship.

Where can I find out about the activities offered by the Association?
Our website offers an updated program of all the courses, seminars, and promotional events organized annually by Italian leaders and those of the International School of St. Peter. Activities take place primarily at our locations in Bologna, Rome, Trento, and Varese. The 2026 program is also available.

Have you expanded your online training offerings in recent years?
Yes. In addition to in-person seminars in our Italian offices, since 2025 we have been organizing international online seminars in Italian, with simultaneous translation into Spanish. They are aimed at music lovers in Italy, Spain, Central and South America.

Do you also organize residential activities?
We periodically offer so-called "musical vacations," thematic residential seminars in locations of particular cultural and artistic interest. The most recent one took place in Venice in September 2025. It was a four-day exploration of the city, discovering places connected to music but off the beaten path, culminating in a day-long seminar dedicated to the music of Monteverdi and Stravinsky.

For those who wish to deepen or improve their knowledge of the Musicosophia method, what courses are available?
In collaboration with the St. Peter International School in the Black Forest, Germany, the sixth edition of the three-year training program was organized. The program began in March 2025 with Course A, consisting of four in-person sessions and eight online sessions, and will continue in 2026 with Course B, following the same format.

Who is this training aimed at?
The training is open to all music lovers who wish to sharpen their perception, experience mindful listening, and understand the message of the music of great composers. It is also aimed at educators, therapists, artists, musicians, and philosophers, as well as anyone who wishes to explore music as a tool for meditation and self-knowledge.

Link to the 2026 program: [ Courses and Seminars | Musicosophia Italia ]
For contacts: musicosophia@musicosophia.it is [ www.musicosophia.it ]

Musicosophia interview with Mauro Manferdini – 3:41

The image reproduced in the article is taken from Manesse Code, an illuminated manuscript from the first half of the 14th century, preserved in the Heidelberg Library. The Association selected it in 1992, shortly after its founding, recognizing in it a symbolic structure particularly consistent with the experience of conscious listening, understood as a musical and spiritual discipline.

The scene depicts a Knight in an attitude of inner contemplation, kneeling before a regal female figure, symbolically identified with Music. The colors of her robes—blue, green, and white—refer respectively to the dimensions of transcendence, balance, and purity, qualities considered essential to the path of conscious listening. Next to the Knight is a black horse, symbolizing passions and instinctive energy, yet depicted as tamed and guided, indicating the transformation and sublimation of emotional impulse.

Further iconographic elements reinforce this interpretation: the shield hanging from the tree, understood as a symbol of trust and a life oriented toward elevation; the birds perched on the branches, an allusion to higher states of consciousness; the peacock, associated with beauty as a transformative force; the eagle, an emblem of contemplation and spiritual regeneration. Taken together, these symbols outline a path that reflects the idea of listening proposed by Musicosophia, understood as a path of awareness, inner discipline, and knowledge.