The Festival - takes place in the autumn in the Papal Basilicas of Rome with the Wiener Philharmoniker the Orchestra-in-Residence.

The purpose of the event is to increase the public's awareness of the institutional activities of the Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra which raises funds for the restoration of religious artefacts and buildings. The Festival Internazionale di Musica e Arte Sacra is central to its benevolent activities.

The Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra was established on 21st June 2002 and is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is the promotion of sacred music at the highest level and the restoration of sacred art treasures by organising the annual International Festival of Sacred Music and Art and other special events.

Since its foundation in 2002, the Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra has always aroused great excitement in the public attending the International Festival of Sacred Music and Art with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in residence. After the interruption due to the COVID-19 emergency in 2020, it was particularly meaningful to participate again in this extraordinary event and to listen once more to the well-known Viennese Orchestra in 2021. Over the years, the festival, which takes place every autumn, has been attended by the world's most renowed orchestras, enriching the series of artists who performed in it.

Other choirs and orchestras capable of great artistic performances joined the Vienna Philharmonic to the Festival. Alongside the Vienna Philharmonic, we have been able to hear the Westminster Cathedral Choir, King's College Choir, Wiener Sängerknaben, Moscow Synod Choir, UK Parliament Choir, Choir of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre Suisse Romande, IlluminArt Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Choir and Orchestra of the Cappella Ludovicea, Orchestra and Choir of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, and many others. Numerous important and talented conductors have performed sacred music works in Rome's magnificent papal basilicas, among them: Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Ton Koopman, Seiji Ozawa, Tomomi Nishimoto, Jakub Hrůša, Ildebrando Mura. Indeed, the cycle of Festival events in the Papal Basilicas of Rome aims to promote the preservation and restoration of cultural goods located in the same Basilicas.