Inspired by an artistic idea put forward by Maestro Giuseppe Sinopoli, the International Sacred Music Festival “Anima Mundi”, which began in 2001, is one of the most important and prestigious events of its kind both in Italy and abroad.

From the sixth edition in 2006 to 2017 for 12 editions, the new artistic director of Anima Mundi was Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who has considerably strengthened with his choices the extraordinary relationship between music and architecture that houses the event.

In 2018 for the eighteenth edition Daniel Harding, once again one of the most important conductors of today, succeeds Sir John Eliot Gardiner and leads the event for two editions. English, raised at the school of Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, at less than twenty years of age he began a career that took him to the podium of the major orchestras in the world, with many significant appearances in Italy, especially at La Scala, and already a guest of Anima Mundi in 2006. After having been Principal Conductor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, of which he is still Honorary Conductor, since 2007 he has been Principal Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The pandemic prevented the twentieth edition from taking place in 2020, but the forced stop only postponed it to the following year. In 2021 Anima Mundi 2021 offers a new artistic director, once again chosen from among the most famous names in the international field: the Englishman Trevor Pinnock, an extremely authoritative protagonist of the investigation into the music of the past, both as an orchestra director and as a harpsichordist.

The Festival, consisting of 7 concerts held in the incomparable setting of the Cathedral and Camposanto, is generally scheduled between September and October.