Cultural association not for money, constituted on Novembre 23, 1976. Founding members: Antonino Biondo (+), Salvatore Cammarata, Claudio Lo Cascio.
Activities begun on January 21, 1977. Seat in Palermo: since November 1976 to June 1990 at “Villa Pantelleria”, since June 1990 to December 1998 at Via Sciuti, 71 – from January 1999 at Via Palasciano 24.
Present directors: Maestro Claudio Lo Cascio (President), Prof. Luigi Cocuzza (Vice-President), Marcella Mazzarese (Secretary General).
Present at the inauguration (21/1/1977): RADIOUNO for “First NIP”, RADIODUE for GR2, Regional RAI for “Emme Come Musica”, and the RADIO DE LA SUISSE ROMANDE in pool with RADIOTELEVISION BELGE, ORTF (France) and CANADA RADIO NETWORK.

The Center, since its inauguration, was born as a cultural, interdisciplinary structure that in the various spaces of Villa Pantelleria on January 21, 1977 met together: the varnish of an art gallery of the Yugoslav painter Ratko Soc, a recotal of xspanish popular music of guitarist Antonio Catalano, a concert of the “Cantori Nuovi” of Norino Buogo, the free-jazz group of pianist Piero Costa, the “New Jazz Society” of Claudio Lo Cascio, a show of Puppets Opera, a concert of Renaissance musics for recorded, and a series of experimental radio broadcasts (also via satellite) of the Association of Italian Radio-Amateurs according to special authorization (IZ9ARI) of the Ministry of Communications.
For fourteen years the Reinhardt Center has been at Villa Pantelleria, the most open, cultural, pulsating and live ever existed in Sicily, organizing or giving hospitality to a great deal of artistic, cultural and scientific activities of every discipline: archaeology (seminars and courses by Vittorio Giustolisi), psychology (courses of Group Research Center by Gigliola Lo Cascio), painting galleries, cinema d’essai, poetry, theatre (Group 5), conventions: “60 Villas to Save” (with the Tourist Agency), the “Solar Energy: a future for Sicily” (with ENEL), “On The Methane: for what development?” (with ENI), musical reviews:

“Musicaincontri a Palermo” and “Sicilia Jazz Youngsters” (both in collaboration with the 3rd RAI network), philosophy (seminars on “Interpretations od the Contemporary” (with the Deoartment of Arts and Phylosophy of the University of Palermo), jazz laboratories, electronic music (in collaboration with the Institute of Technical Physics and with the Institute of History of Music of the University of Palermo and the “Massimo Theatre” of Palermo, and with the Music Conservatoire of Palermo), art publishing: books “Restoration and Recovery of Villa Pantelleria” (in joint venture with “Novecento Publishing House”), “60 Villas to Save” ((in joint venture with the Tourist Agency of Palermo), disc editing (“MODERN ART QUARTET”, “NO STOP BAND”, “ON TOUR AGAIN”, “SYNCRONIES”, “COMISO CONCERT”, “JAZZ D.O.C.”, “LET ME TRY AGAIN”, “SICILIA JAZZ BIG BAND”, “NEW ORLEANS MEMORIES”, “BIG BAND STORY”), symphonic concerts with the orchestras of EAOSS and Massimo Theatre of Palermo.
Of primary importance also the musical didactics made by the Popular School of The Center Music for which on December 1978 the weekly “L’Espresso” was writing about the Center as the most qualifying experience in the South.
The most clamorous resoult of the didactic activities has been the “SICILIA JAZZ BIG BAND” (formerly “REINHARDT JAZZ STUDIO ORCHESTRA”) directed by Claudio Lo Cascio who, for sixteen years, has made about 400 concerts and has recorded live 13 LP and CD, presenting as guest soloists musicians of international fame, such as Dusko Gojkovich, Gianni Basso, Rudy Migliardi, etc.
In latest times, and however before the trasfer from Villa Pantelleria, the Reinhardt Center has potentiated prevalently the sector music, with many concerts made in various Sicilian provinces, and laboratories of instrument and jazz alphabetisation creating with the best young elements of band groups and jazz orchestra, best of all the “Triona Valley Jazz Band” of Chiusa Sclafani, was able to exibit in concert together and synchronically with the “Reinhardt Orchestra” realizing a video document showing the quality and thickness of the passionate engagement of teachers and students.
The last engagement of the Center is the institution, in collaboration with the Municipality of Salaparuta, of an international prize titled to “Nick LaRocca”, the famous trumpeter originary of Salaparuta – who made in 1917 the first record in the history of jazz.