Boom of enrollments for the competition. Mayor Marco Bucci inaugurated the new headquarters of the Premio Paganini in Palazzo Doria Carcassi. The prestigious venues, made available thanks to the agreement between the Municipality and the CARIGE Foundation, have been enhanced by a project as part of the competition's relaunch strategy. «We have set the record of participants. It is truly a great success not only for the Premio Paganini, which this year marks the 70th anniversary of its establishment, but also for Genoa. After Ocean Race, our city will be protagonist of another extraordinary international Competition, this time in the musical field. The wide pool of candidates for the 57th Prize edition confirms its prestige and testifies, once again, to the validity of the choices made - Mayor Marco Bucci declared – Due to the importance of history and prestige at international level, the Paganini Competition deserved to have its own offices and therefore an autonomous and recognizable headquarters where to operate and develop its full potential. These locations could only be in the heart of Genoa, a few steps from the Carlo Felice Theatre, temple of musical culture in the city. I am very satisfied with the work carried out in the name of quality, cost-effectiveness and a system vision I have always believed in: networking, integrating different skills, creating synergies on the territory. This is how Genoa wins, even in culture».

«Record of candidates and a new location, we couldn't do better - the representative Councilor Barbara Grosso commented - When, exactly one year ago, together with Mayor Bucci and the new President Panebianco we imagined the instruments to relaunch the Competition, the need of an autonomous site appeared immediately clear. Following the approval of the new regulation, contacts with the CARIGE Foundation and the inspections of the technicians, the agreement was signed last June. Today the organization of the Paganini Prize, that in the upcoming edition will welcome many members from all over the world, is finally equipped with adequate offices, areas where to place and enhance the archive, a specific dimension to approach young people to the Prize and carry out many projects, especially with schools».

«Significant results have been achieved in just one year. The total number of participants to the 57th edition is the highest in the history of the Prize - the President Giovanni Panebianco stated - The numerical data is not the only aspect to take into account, but it is certainly emblematic, especially considering that our time for publishing the competition notice and promoting it adequately was lower than in the past. The choice of an artistic director of high level as Nazzareno Carusi, has allowed to define a series of Prize concerts without precedents; an illustrious figure like Salvatore Accardo at the head of the jury; a communication plan designed ad hoc with the renewed website, the activation of social profiles and the planning of other side events in Italy and abroad; the support of professional abilities also in non-musical field: these are the success factors, among them I would also like to mention the introduction of the Paganini Ambassadors program and the agreements reached with Italian cultural institutes abroad. We worked as a team, thanks to a close-knit group whose commitment made it possible in accordance with the agreed time - Panebianco continued - If the relaunch operation started on the 240th anniversary of Paganini's birth, the inauguration of new offices takes place in the year of another evocative anniversary: the 70th anniversary of the Competition establishment. The venue was organized on the basis of a specific project conceived by the experts. On the one hand, spaces are traditional workplace and on the other, they are identifying places strongly evocative, able to represent, narrate, promote. The new offices reflect the memory, the international Competition prestige and its Genoese history: we therefore felt it was necessary to pay homage to some illustrious personalities who linked their lives to the Prize, to the study and dissemination of Paganini's work, such as Luigi Cortese, Carlo Marcello Rietmann, Edward Neill, Alma Brughera Capaldo and Renato De Barbieri.

Interesting archival materials, that previously were lying in an inadequate and inaccessible deposit, have been restored: proceedings, documents, photographs and music collections telling the Prize history, such as enrollment records, press reviews, committees and juries minutes, up to get to the x-rays and documents regarding the ‘Cannone’ conservation. The cataloging activities are already underway, with the collaboration of the Berio Library. We would like to be able to promote digitalization activities and carry out cultural and scientific initiatives, activating fruitful collaborations with other institutions, foundations and associations, starting with those of the territory.

Consultation of library holding will take place in a venue where contemporary art works of the Genoese heritage are enhanced, from the Tacchini and Wolfson Collections, as well as books, publications and musical scores. In addition to the entire Prize staff - the President concluded - I would like to thank everybody who made these results possible and in particular Paolo Momigliano of the CARIGE Foundation, Serena Bertolucci and Elvira Bonfanti of Palazzo Ducale, Raffaella Besta of the Civic Museums. I extend feelings of deep gratitude to Cesare Mazzonis, former artistic director of the Prize, for donating volumes, scores, vinyls and music collections for the newly established library, to Caterina Fasolini, Paganini Ambassadors, for providing free of charge a painting from 1831 depicting Niccolò Paganini and the Cannone. Such an intention was proposed by Enrico De Barbieri who intends to grant the personal archive of his father Renato, to whose memory public spaces in the city were recently dedicated».