FESTIVAL OUDE MUZIEK UTRECHT - Netherlands

The Organisatie Oude Muziek is responsible for running and developing two major events: the Utrecht Early Music Festival and the Early Music Season.

The Utrecht Early Music Festival is the largest festival of its kind in the world. For ten days at the end of August, Utrecht city centre becomes the hub of the international early music sector. Since its first edition in 1982, the Utrecht Early Music Festival has presented repertoire from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, in more than 250 concerts and other events per edition, to an annual audience that has grown exponentially to more than 70,000 festival visitors. During the Early Music Festival, internationally renowned figures from the music world fraternize with talented young musicians, some of whom they coach during a series of 70 fringe concerts. The International Van Wassenaer Competition has been part of the Utrecht Early Music Festival since 2014.

---

The Early Music Season offers the same combination of established careers and young professionals, but the formula is radically different. Where the festival stands for concentration through the unity of time and place, the season describes the exact opposite movement: during the Early Music Season we travel around the country throughout the concert season. In this way we have been reaching a large audience of early music lovers since 1986. Finally, the Tijdschrift Oude Muziek (TOM) is the only specialized publication in the field of early music in the Netherlands, published four times a year.

Seville will be the theme of the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht 2024. With the music of Morales, Guerrero and Peñalosa as core repertoire, we create a rare opportunity to hear a substantial chunk of Spanish polyphony. With artist in residence Música Temprana by Dutch-Argentinian Adrián Rodríguez Van der Spoel, we delve into the South American mixed baroque in which folk music and music of the conqueror often forcibly converge. Middle Eastern expert Koert Debeuf argues that the Renaissance, which we consider the pinnacle of Western culture, actually originated in Baghdad and conquered the European continent via Al-Andalus.

---

Expect concerts by ensembles such as L'Arpeggiata, Cantoría, Música Temprana, La Tempête, Hespèrion XXI, Gabrieli Consort, Vox Luminis, ĀRT HOUSE 17 and many others, both in Utrecht and online via Early Music Television (EMTV)!