The beginning, more than 100 years ago:

Italy, at the end of the nineteenth century, was a country with an economy based mainly on farming, but slowly, industry was beginning to grow with the social and economic changes. In a small village called Mondaino, in the area of Romagna, Antonio Galanti lived with his family, and earned his living travelling to towns and village with his Merry-go-Round, bringing pleasure thru music to the local inhabitants. But, music was his real passion and he devoted much of his time to designing and developing the first Galanti musical accordion.

Electronic Musical Instruments: 

In 1959, Antonio’s nephews sons, of whom one was Marcello establishes a new company heralding the entry of Galanti musical expertise into electronic musical instrument. As usual, ahead of the times, they developed and built the first electronic organ to be made in Italy. The first technology used sound generators with neon lights, then followed by transistors, integrated circuits, until the present day of "PCM" and "modeling" working on DSP. In 1969, Marcello left his brothers and founded Intercontinental Electronics S.p.A., to dedicate himself to the manufacturing of electronic classic organs. Initially, technical and sales efforts were directed especially towards the Dutch and American markets, where organ culture was more spread into population. The company created an interest and desire for musical accomplishment, and its technical and sophisticated instrument were demanded by its many buyers.

Viscount International SpA

In 1999 unfortunately Marcello died; his son Mauro and his daughter Loriana continued to develop the company. The actual Viscount company, represents a unique example of engineering and musical instruments production centre in Europe. There are many reasons behind the worldwide success of Viscount classic organs, recognized everywhere as among the best sounding instruments. First of all the unique experience in electronic organ sound, started with analog through the digital era (Viscount was among the very first to produce PCM classic organs) down to the physical modelling of the pipes; the worldwide contact network in the different cultural fields from baroque to romantic, from French to German styles; the wide library of sounds in all areas; all this makes every Viscount organ a real state of the art piece. Actually Viscount is the only classic organ manufacturer that produces with both available technology: Sampling (PCM) and Pipe Acoustics Modeling (Accupipe), offering for each of those the right instrument for the best artist.

(in the picture: Marcello Galanti)

 Andrea Angelini, Director of the Competition

The Competition can boast to have received the Sponsorship by
the President of the European Commission, the President of the Republic of Italy, 
the Region Emilia Romagna, the Province of Rimini, the  Mondaino Town Council.

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