Musica Sacra International unites five world religions in one festival

For almost 30 years, Musica Sacra International has brought together at Whitsun singers from all countries and world religions to make music together in Marktoberdorf. For the year 2020, once more, a festival full of variety was planned with nine ensembles from all over the world and an exciting programme.

The situation brought about by the global corona pandemic has made it impossible to hold the festival in 2020 in its usual form. Therefore, the MODFestivals e.V. together with the relevant authorities, the committee and the artistic direction have made the decision, for the first time not to hold the festival in the Allgäu but to realise it online, as a virtual festival.

The aim of MSIonline is to make the ideas and content of Musica Sacra International available, despite a prevailing ban on gatherings and events due to the world wide pandemic. As a result, on the Whitsun weekend, when the actual festival should have taken place, (exclusive) videos has been published on the website as well as on various social media channels. These are made available for the viewers free of charge.

Inspired by the initially set order of Musica Sacra International events, the following components are available as part of MSIonline:

Opening concert
Parallel to the actual opening concert every ensemble is shown here. The presentation was recorded in advance in the MSI studio, which has specifically been set up. The welcoming speeches was recorded there, too.
This way a 60 minute long programme is developed, consisting of presentations, welcoming speeches and one song per ensemble.

Evening concerts
Three evening concerts are planned on three evenings. Each evening is focused on three of the nine ensembles. A short introduction provides an overview of the musical and religious world of each ensemble. These introductions are given by the festival director and was also recorded beforehand. Three venues has been requested (the former synagogue in Fellheim, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche in Kaufbeuren, the mosque in Marktoberdorf. Thereby the venues are mentioned, as it is an important aspect of the festival to perform the concerts by musicians from various religions at sacred venues.

Concert workshops
On the three mornings of the evening concerts so called concert workshops has been published online.
It is the aim of the workshops to offer the listeners a unique insight into the art and culture of the ensembles. This way two different approaches was pursued in the online edition: firstly, all ensemble conductors has been asked to create videos, in which they can give the viewers an understanding of their music through audio samples and explanations.  Secondly, the MSI studio was used to record a conversation between the ensemble conductor and the artistic director via video chat. Thereby, similar to the evening concerts, three ensembles and their religions are discussed each morning.

About Musica Sacra International
As the festival visitors of 2020 will not have the opportunity to personally experience the festival, a film will provide a short insight: what is Musica Sacra International? Who are the organisers? Which ensembles could one have experienced live in 2020? What does the online edition look like?