Musco Center for the Arts, Orange, CA Saturday, February 21, 2026, 10 a.m.
Orange, Calif. – The Ferrucci Institute for Italian Experience and Research invites the public to the tenth installment of its celebrated “Italian Perspective” series, this year devoted to the interplay between Language and Culture. The free-admission event will unfold inside Chapman University’s Musco Center for the Arts on Saturday, February 21, 2026, beginning at 10 a.m.
Under the patronage of the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, the morning will blend scholarship and performance: scholars will trace how Italian has shaped—and been shaped by—centuries of art, politics and daily life, while actors and musicians bring the language to life through live poetry and song. A reception in the Musco foyer, open to all attendees, follows from noon to 1 p.m.
“Every year we ask what Italy can teach us when we look through a single lens,” said Federico Pacchioni, director of the Ferrucci Institute. “In 2026 we turn to language, the DNA of any culture. Our hope is that guests leave not only with richer vocabulary, but with a deeper sense of belonging to a conversation that began in Dante’s Florence and continues today in classrooms, kitchens and piazzas around the world.”
The series, launched in 2016, has previously explored Business, Music, Cinema, Science, Food, Design, Theater, Song and—most recently—Space. Each edition draws faculty, students and community members into the same elegant hall normally reserved for touring orchestras and Chapman’s own performers.
Tickets and program updates are available at www.chapman.edu/italianperspective. Early registration is encouraged; seating is general admission and doors open at 9:30 a.m.


