Canto Aperto - Organising Partners

Alamire Foundation

The Alamire Foundation, International Centre for the Study of Music in the Low Countries, was established in 1991 as a non-profit co-operative association between the Musicology section of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and Musica, Impulscentrum voor muziek, Neerpelt. The Alamire Foundation undertakes and coordinates musicological research into the musical past of the Low Countries during the Ancien Regime. The Foundation’s rationale lies in inventorizing, preserving and studying the musical heritage of Flanders.

It aims to make its results accessible to the widest possible public. Focusing on both plainchant and Franco-Flemish polyphony in the 15th and 16th centuries, the research covers a period in which Flanders played a leading role in the international scene of musical life. Close collaboration with scholars of various disciplines results in music and its performance practice being analysed from a broad historical socio-cultural, political and economic point of view.

Through its association with numerous prestigious academic institutions, and through organizing and attending international seminars and conferences, a continuous dialogue is maintained with scholars throughout the world. The organization of groundbreaking exhibitions and concerts featuring renowned musicians and ensembles, together with the publication of its Journal of the Alamire Foundation, monographs, and articles endows this research with a lasting social relevance.

www.arts.kuleuven.be/alamire and www.alamirefoundation.org (opening soon)

Musica

Musica is an ‘impulse-centre’ for music. We aim to offer a hand to people involved with music at any level. Musica offers a dynamic guide to professional musicians and music lovers, on their fascinating path between SoundArt (Klankkunst) and musical heritage, between experiment and tradition, between listening and creating. Experienced artists guide children and youngsters in reflecting on sound and tone. They learn to listen differently and get a grip on how artistic ideas can grow and get to work with sound. They will get to work with sound. Musica encourages young and old to discover the richness of sound and to handle it in an inventive way in the SoundArt (Klankkunst) route by means of a large number of projects. Artists, philosophers and pedagogues are stimulated to find new ways to unveil the vast character of sound and to learn to appreciate it.Everyone can find something to their taste in the route Art and Musical Heritage, whether an interested listener or an internationally renowned artist. Musica challenges professional musicians, broadens the perspective of fans and stimulates young artists to consciously work with our musical heritage. In a word, Musica stimulates the musical world on all levels and with effective means. Not as a pedantic institution, but by accompanying the public. Musica creates opportunities, supports and makes initiatives. In a word, indeed, an ‘impulse-centre’.

www.musica.be

Resonant

Resonant is a dynamic and open network organization that charts the musical patrimony in Flanders and Brussels Capital Region, stimulates its preservation, and discloses it in an innovative way. By calling upon experts in musical patrimony, Resonant plays a coordinating role between all partners involved in the preservation and validation of musical heritage. Through the sharing of knowledge, an interdisciplinary approach and the creation of an international network, Resonant aims at broadening the basis for musical patrimony, and stimulates an integral approach. By actively working with this threatened cultural patrimony, Resonant wants to contribute to an open society.

www.muzikaalerfgoed.be

Villarte

Villarte offers a different view on music and the visual arts in religious and historical locations. In Sint-Truiden, Villarte works with three main locations. The Academiezaal (Academy Hall) is in the center of the city of Sint-Truiden and is part of the famous Benedictine abbey. Lodewijk Roelandt was the architect that took care of the renovation of the complex after the French Revolution; the Academiezaal was built between 1843-45. The Keizerszaal (Emperor's Hall) is part of the Abbey of St Trudo as well. The late-Roman, early-Gothic church of the beguinage boasts a rightly famous series of thirty-eight wallpaintings, dating from the 13th to the 17th century. These are unique testimonies to medieval devotion. Together with the oldest homogeneously preserved organ in Belgium (Ancion, 1644) it is of great historical importance. In 1998, the beguinage was included in the Unesco list of World Heritage, together with twelve other beguinages.

www.villarte.eu

CANTO APERTO Plainchant Festival is part of the network EUREGIO grégorien / gregorianik / gregoriaans, an international cooperation between organizations and institutions in Belgium (Alamire Foundation, Centrum Gregoriaans Drongen), Germany (Folkwang University Essen), and The Netherlands (Conservatory The Hague, Amici Cantus Gregoriani).

www.folkwang-uni.de/de/home/musik/institut-fuer-gregorianik/euregio