Francesco Santelli, a native of Rome , Italy , is the founder and artistic director of `New Jersey Music and Arts, Inc.` a performing arts series based in Clifton that has received grants from Passaic County Cultural and heritage Council since 2003. Mr. Santelli, is also the artistic director of the Garden State Opera is. He has been music director of the Henry Street Opera in New York City from 1988 to 2000, guest conductor of the Brooklyn Opera Theatre and the Connecticut Opera Theatre, the Henry Street Symphony, the Vivaldi Camerata Orchestra and music director of the New York City Symphony.

As a composer he has written, among other works, 5 operas: "Un Destino Immortale" (on the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World), Mississippi, "Il Poverello" (on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi ), "The Marriage Counselor and An Angel in the Park". With the Assisi Music Festival in Italy he has performed his "Assisi Concerto" for organ and orchestra, in Assisi , and "Il Poverello" in Assisi and Cortona at the Teatro Signorelli. Mr. Santelli is also a writer of articles on aesthetics.

New Jersey Music and Arts, Inc., is a performing arts series, of music, drama and dance, with also poetry reading and art exhibits, based in Clifton . It is a recipient of grants from Passaic County Cultural and Heritage Council since 2003.

The NJMA performing arts series was founded in 1998 and provides a family oriented entertainment for audiences of northern New Jersey at inexpensive ticket prices. The series gives training and performance opportunities to young people in professional productions in the area of music, drama and dance, it also presents professional artists along with the NJMA students.

NJMA sponsors the One Heart International Festival in the Spring and the Fall Fest in the Autumn as well as a year round drama and dance school for students from the area. NJMA has also co-sponsored in 2006 with Passaic County Cultural and heritage Council the “First Symposium on the Arts” on the theme "Arts and Values" at the Passaic County Community College featuring renown artists from the field of music, drama, visual arts, poetry and dance and with the participation as guest of honor of the renown Metroplitan Opera artist Lucine Amara.

NJMA has received in 2005 a special award for ‘exceptional service to the community through the arts’ in the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Passaic County Cultural and Heritage Council.

Teatro Signorelli

Assisi

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