The Ketevan World and Sacred Music Festival is celebrating its fifth edition with a
number of musical concerts. Besides bringing together the musical traditions
from different eras of the East and the West, the festival will give music
lovers the opportunity to enjoy and learn about the various musical traditions
from around the world. Inspired by St Ketevan, Queen of Georgia, the soulful
festival aims to promote religious coexistence by connecting and fostering
dialogue among multiple cultures through the beauty of music.
The Ketevan Sacred Music Festival is named
after St Ketevan, whose relics were brought from the Middle East to Old Goa and
were found just a few years ago, after being buried for almost 400 years. The
festival offers concerts in Western Classical, Carnatic, Orthodox Christian,
Catholic, Sufi, Hindustani, Jewish and many others. This year’s line-up over
three days has an exciting blend of programs with over 70 talented artistes
from Argentina, Spain, UK, France, Georgia, Australia, Japan, Russia, Vietnam,
Portugal, Switzerland and, of course, India.
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The festival will be opened on March 13,
2020 at the Church of Santa Monica at 7pm with ‘Sacred Sounds From The Jungle
To The Caucasus Mountains’ with the Lux Vocalis Ensemble (India) and Aghsavali
Choir (Georgia) followed by a ‘Jazz Mass’ by Braz Gonsalves (India), Matteo
Fraboni (Italy) and Jazz Ensemble and Goa University Choir (India) Conducted by
Santiago Lusardi Girelli.
The second day of the festival, March 14, will have three
concerts at St Augustine Ruins, Old Goa beginning at 6:30pm. The first concert
will have an interesting performance by 22 Vietnamese artistes celebrating the
THÒ MAU – Worship of Mother Goddess of Three Realms, an Intangible Cultural
UNESCO World Heritage Art, sponsored by the Vietnam Embassy. The next concert
will be by Aghsavali Choir (Georgia), an ensemble of artists from Tibilisi, Georgia,
sponsored by the Georgian Embassy. The last concert of the day will be
‘Al-Andalus the Reign of Co- Existence’ by Daniel Thomson (UK), Lina Leon
(Spain) and Ignacio Montverde (Argentina).
The concluding day of the festival will be held at St Anthony
Chapel on March 15, at 7pm. The concert will be the World Premiere of the ‘A
Vox Clamantis Deserto Poema Humano Ii’ will be performed by Goa University
Choir and Ketevan Multicultural Ensemble with Maria Meireles (Portugal), Daniel
Thompson (UK), Lina Leon (Spain), Matteo Fraboni (Italy), Ingrid Nazareth
(India), Mika Nishimura (Japan), Tatiana R (Russia), Rahul Sengupta (India) and
Lionel Da-SAZ (Switzerland) and Festival resident composer composed by Santiago
Lusardi Girelli.
Based on the mystical experiences of French monk, Blessed
Charles de Foucauld, this Cantata explores the mystical experiences of Foucauld
and his reconstruction of the ancient Desert Fathers Tradition – the early
Christian hermits, ascetics and monks lived in desert of North Africa, around
the 3rd century AD. The figure of Foucauld and his concept of Universal
Brotherhood are very interesting and reinforce the ideas behind the Sacred
Music Festival, the interreligious dialogues, the concept of co-existence among
cultures and religions. As a Christian monk, Foucauld exposed himself to the
interaction with tribes and communities from North Africa with the hope of
experiencing the Universal Brotherhood that lead his life until he was killed,
and died as a Christian martyr on 1916.
The piece is part of a series of cantatas called Poema Humano –
(Human Poem). This cantata explores, with a minimalistic styles different
aspects and texts of the life of the hermit. The eclectic ensemble for which
the piece is written for, violin solo, flutes, arabic voice, tenor solo, cello,
choir, piano, bells and percussion, and acousmatic performance (electronic
processed sounds), allows the composer to create different soundscapes and
atmospheres to represent the desert and the mystical experiences of the monk.
The
donation passes for the Festival will be available at Furtados in Panjim and
Margao and on arrival at the venues. Passes bought for March 13 and 15 will
include a free pass for the March 14.
