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Private concerts · Historical interiors · Played on historical Italian cellos

The geography of sound.

Private concerts by cellist Max Beitan, staged within heritage palaces and noble estates — curated by the Beitan Music Foundation.

Arms of the Tomasi di Lampedusa family, with the motto SPES MEA IN DEO EST

A private New Year’s EveGala Night

A Private New Year’s Eve Gala Night at Palazzo Lanza Tomasi

in the last home of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of The Leopard

31 December 20269 pmVia Butera 28, Palermo

Duchess Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi will receive each guest with a guided visit of the palace

Sicilian & Slavic cuisine · Caviar · French Champagne · Selected Sicilian wines

Reserve Programme and menu
A dinner table set by candlelight beneath the chandelier at Palazzo Lanza Tomasi
The dining room, Palazzo Lanza Tomasi
Programme, menu and booking

The last night of the year, as a guest in a Palazzo.

Forty selected guests will spend New Year’s Eve in Palermo, in the magnificent Palazzo Lanza Tomasi. The Duchess of Palma, Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi, will open her home for that night and welcome each guest personally.

About forty guests. One palazzo. One midnight.

The Palazzo and our hostess

Palazzo Lanza Tomasi stands in the heart of the historic centre of Palermo, at Via Butera 28. It was built at the end of the 17th century atop the 16th century Spanish ramparts. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the celebrated author of The Leopard, spent here the last years of his life, until his death in 1957, after the destruction of his family palazzo during the bombings of 1943. The Palazzo is now the home of the Duchess of Palma, Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi. On the last night of the year, she will receive her guests in the splendid ballroom, the libraries and the grand dining rooms.

Duchess Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi and Max Beitan
Duchess Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi and Max Beitan

The evening

  • AperitifAperitif and Appetizers in a Ballroom, and a private guided tour of the historic rooms and library with the Duchess
  • MusicSolo cello by Max Beitan
  • DinnerGala fusion dinner with Sicilian and Slavic specialties and caviar
  • WineSelected Sicilian wines and French Champagne
  • MusicLive performance by Simply Four Sax
  • MidnightChampagne toast overlooking the glittering bay of Palermo
The library of Palazzo Lanza Tomasi, with a chandelier and a long set table
The library

The New Year’s Table

Two culinary traditions share one dinner: Sicilian cuisine from the island and from family heritage, and Slavic New Year’s Eve dishes brought to Palermo for this evening. Caviar and French Champagne mark the gala dinner.

The dining room of Palazzo Lanza Tomasi in the evening
The Dining Room

The gala menu

Starters

  • Panelle Stars
  • Apple Caponata
  • Champagne Arancine
  • Baby Potatoes with Caviar and Smetana
  • Ricotta Croquettes
  • Mint & Citrus Flavoured Swordfish Croquettes
  • Polenta Bites with Truffle Pecorino
  • Dumplings with Tuma & Chestnut Honey
  • Caper & Black Olive Puff Pastry Twists

First and second courses

  • Anelletti Timbales
  • Salmon & Beetroot “Shuba” Salad
  • Potato Draniki with Caviar and Smetana
  • Traditional Salad Olivier
  • Pork Terrine with Wild Fennel, Pine Nuts & Pistachio
  • Turkey Terrine with Whisky, Cranberries & Walnuts
  • Sicilian Style Seafood Salad
  • Sicilian Fennel, Orange & Black Olive Salad
  • Traditional Cotechino with Lentils

Desserts

  • Tangerine Jelly
  • Cinnamon Jelly with Lemon Leaves
  • Artisanal Panettone & Pandoro

Selected Sicilian wines and French Champagne accompany the dinner.

One cello, four saxophones

Sax Quartet

Simply Four Sax

Max Beitan plays solo cello in rooms built for conversation, where the instrument sounds like a voice. Simply Four Sax also performs live during the evening, and the music enhances the pleasures of the table.

Midnight, facing the sea

At midnight the guests will cheer to the New Year, champagne glasses in their hands, overlooking the glittering bay of Palermo from the balconies of the Palazzo.

The library window of the Palazzo facing the sea at night, with candles
The library window, facing the sea

What is included

  • Personal welcome from Duchess Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi
  • Guided visit of the historic rooms and the library of the Palazzo
  • Aperitif and gala dinner, Sicilian and Slavic, with caviar
  • Selected Sicilian wines and French Champagne
  • Live music: solo cello by Max Beitan, and Simply Four Sax

Programme subject to final confirmation.

Date
31 December 2026
Venue
Palazzo Lanza Tomasi, Via Butera 28, Palermo
Guests
About 40
Dress code
Black tie
Time
9 pm
Price
€700 per guest
A silver candelabra with lit candles
Candlelight in the salon

Curated Accommodation

We are pleased to assist with reservations at boutique residences and historic five-star hotels, subject to availability.

Palazzo Lanza Tomasi Boutique ApartmentsBoutique apartments in the Palazzo
Villa IgieaA luxury Rocco Forte sea-view hotel
Grand Hotel et des PalmesHistoric five-star hotel on Via Roma
Grand Hotel WagnerBelle Époque elegance in the city centre

Forty places

To reserve, email or call

Reserve

· +41 77 929 44 77

The Foundation

"An instrument built in 1689 carries centuries of human resonance. When we bring these masterpieces into spaces of equal historical depth, music ceases to be mere performance — it becomes an act of architectural stewardship."

Max Beitan · Founder & Artistic Director

The Architecture of
Shared Resonance

Musica Viva removes the distance between the stage, the room and the listener. We do not arrange tours; we host small private gatherings where a performance, a historic interior and considered hospitality become a single unhurried evening.

An enfilade of palace salons
An enfilade of salons — the room as instrument

The Custodians

Max Beitan with his cello
Founder & Artistic Director

Max Beitan

Cellist Max Beitan founded Musica Viva to perform where music and place carry equal weight. He trained at the Royal College of Music in London, the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, and the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, where he took his Master's and Soloist diplomas, and studied with Daniil Shafran, Natalia Gutman, Bernard Greenhouse, Victoria Yagling, Johannes Goritzki and pianist Ivo Pogorelich. He performs on historical Italian instruments, among them the Stradivari "Archinto" (1689) and "Magg" (1698), a David Tecchler (1698) and a Giovanni Rota cello. Each programme is written for the room in which it will be heard.

Natalya Armolovich
Co-Founder & Director of Guest Experience

Natalya Armolovich

Natalya Armolovich shapes the human fabric of every journey. With an academic background in pharmacology and nutrition and more than two decades of dedicated practice, she designs each programme around the real comfort of the guest — from menus calibrated to the rhythm of an intensive cultural schedule, to the care that carries a patron from the first enquiry to the final dinner. Under her direction, every guest is received not as a client, but as an invited guest of the Foundation.

"Beauty is not decoration. It is the language through which we remember who we are."

Natalya Armolovich
Max Beitan performing on a historical Italian cello within a heritage salon
On the instrument

Each evening begins with the instrument. Trained at the Royal College of Music and in Lugano, Max Beitan draws from historical Italian cellos — the Stradivari "Archinto" of 1689 among them — and matches each one's voice to the acoustic and the century of the room in which it will sound. What follows is a synthesis of bel canto line and a speaking, vocal phrasing: opera fantasies, Heifetz and Kreisler transcriptions, Buxton Orr's Carmen Fantasy, and his own works.

Selected Stages
Library of Congress, Washington United Nations, Geneva Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, St. Petersburg LAC Lugano Venice Film Festival Villa del Balbianello, Lake Como Large Guild, Rīga
"An impressive and memorable, deep performance."
Vladimir Ashkenazy · on Shostakovich Concerto No. 1
"I hear an Italian voice."
Riccardo Muti · on Rachmaninoff's Vocalise
The 2027 season

One gathering. Eight seats.

A baroque Palermo facade
01 Sicily · May 2027

The Mediterranean Nocturnes

Palermo's Private Palazzi

Day 1

Arrival in Palermo and an intimate welcome dinner at a historic city venue — an introduction to Sicilian hospitality and fine local wines.

Day 2

A concert by Max Beitan, followed by dinner hosted by Duchess Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi at Palazzo Lanza Tomasi — the last home of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, where the original manuscript of The Leopard is preserved.

Day 3

An exclusive cooking class with the Duchess di Palma — ranked among the world's top five by Forbes — a market visit and a Planeta-paired lunch within the palace.

Day 4

A guided walk through Baroque Palermo and its Arab-Norman basilicas, then a concert by Max Beitan and guest musicians, followed by a candlelit dinner at Palazzo Raffadali, hosted by Princess Stefania di Raffadali.

Day 5

A relaxed farewell brunch — the last flavours of Sicily and the close of an unforgettable journey.

€2,900 per person · full five-day programme

Accommodation and transfers arranged individually upon request.

Request an Allocation Briefing
Attendance

Request an Allocation Briefing

Each gathering is limited to eight seats. Allocation for the 2027 season is by application, accompanied by an institutional or patron reference.

+41 77 929 44 77 · · Registry Office, Lugano, Switzerland
Partners & Foundations
The Patron Foundation Beitan Music Foundation beitanmusicfoundation.org The Artistic Director Max Beitan maxbeitan.com