Musicultura, historical record of registrations

1328 registered: it is the highest number of applications in the history of the festival, an absolute record at a national level, with 85% of soloists and 15% of groups.

Ezio Nannipieri, artistic director:

“I didn’t think we could grow further and instead it happened. This avalanche of registrations is a wonderful sign of trust that comes to us from all over Italy. Now it’s up to us to interpret it with the passion, curiosity and seriousness we always have. There’s a lot of work to be done, an exploit like this is a good omen.”

The 2026 registration record follows and surpasses those set in the last five editions, when the final figure of registered artists annually stood at around 1,100 units.
Among the 1,328 participants, the most represented regions of origin are Lombardy and Lazio, followed by Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.

Its phases unfold over a period of several months: from the Live Auditions at the Lauro Rossi Theater in Macerata, to the finalists’ concert at the Persiani Theater in Recanati, to the concert in Rome at Sala A in Via Asiago broadcast on Rai Radio1, up to the final evenings at the Arena Sferisterio in Macerata.

The competition does not provide contractual constraints for young artists

One of the novelties of the 2026 edition is the entry of Tricarico into the Artistic Guarantee Committee.

Tricarico joins the members of the Committee, whose first signatories were Fabrizio De André and Giorgio Caproni in 1990, and who in this XXXVII edition of the competition are: Francesco Amato, Enzo Avitabile, Claudio Baglioni, Diego Bianchi, Francesco Bianconi, Maria Grazia Calandrone, Giulia Caminito, Luca Carboni, Guido Catalano, Ennio Cavalli, Carmen Consoli, Simone Cristicchi, Gaetano Curreri, Teresa De Sio, Cristina Donà, Giorgia, Mariangela Gualtieri, La Representative di Lista, Ermal Meta, Mariella Nava, Piero Pelù, Vasco Rossi, Ron, Tosca, Paola Turci, Roberto Vecchioni, Sandro Veronesi and Margherita Vicario.