Faculty in the College of Performing Arts (CoPA) continually work on outside projects within their areas of expertise. In December 2017, CoPA’s Dean Giulio Ongaro submitted two new scholarly contributions in the area of 16th-century Venitian music. The first work, on musical life in 16th-century Venice, appeared in a volume published by the Fondazione Levi in Venice that accompanied a major exhibition on music theory in the 16th century held in Venice. The exhibition was accompanied by other events, including concerts of music of the period. The second work is a chapter on music at the church of Saint Mark’s, Venice, in the 16th century, part of a scholarly book, A Companion to Music in Sixteenth-Century Venice, which includes contributions by virtually all the major scholars in the field of Venetian studies from both sides of the Atlantic. The book was published in January 2018, ws presented to the public during a special event in Venice on Friday, December 1, 2017.

Ongaro is a scholar of Venetian music in the 16th century, and has devoted many years to research in Venetian archives and libraries, studying documents of the period to piece together information about the musical life of the period, the social status and work environment of musicians, the business of music in all its facets, and the development of music at the basilica of Saint Mark’s.