HOLY LAND – The Terra Sancta Organ Festival arrives in Israel and Palestine with the Holy Land Pipe Organ Weeks, eight concerts in two weeks, which will be held in the church of St. Peter in Jaffa (23rd and 30th October), in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth (24th and 31st October), in the church of St. Saviour in Jerusalem (25th October and 1st November) and in the church of St. Catherine at the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem (26th October and 2nd November).
The Terra Sancta Organ Festival, organized by the Custody of the Holy Land in all the countries where it is active, is a way of showing the presence of the Christian communities in the Middle East and in the Levant in the field of music and culture. Organ music here represents an exceptional artistic repertoire, perceived as specifically Christian, as the pipe organ is present almost only in churches. The concerts take place in churches but the audience is made up of music lovers of all religions: the Terra Sancta Organ Festival is one of the rare occasions in the Middle East and in the Levant when the sound of a pipe organ can be heard outside the normal liturgical context.
The concerts of the Holy Land Pipe Organ Weeks will feature Spain’s Pedro Alberto Sanchez, organist at the Monastero Reale of the Escorial in Madrid, who will perform in the first week from 23rd to 26th October, and the talented young Italian, Davide Mariano, a soloist of international level who has won some of the most important competitions, in the week from 30th October to 2nd November.
The concerts in Nazareth on 24th and 31st October can be followed in live streaming on the website of the festival – www.tsorganfestival.org – where it is also possible to consult the complete programme of this and the previous four seasons.
The Holy Land Pipe Organ Weeks have been organized with the support of the Consulate-General of Spain in Jerusalem / AECID for the Jerusalem and Bethlehem concerts, the Italian Cultural Institute of Tel Aviv for the concert in Jaffa and the Italian Cultural Institute in Haifa for the Nazareth concert.
The fifth season of the Terra Sancta Organ Festival opened on 20th September in the Basilica of Mount Nebo in Jordan, continuing on the island of Rhodes (Greece) from 28th September to 6th October with the Organ & Music Festival Rhodes, in Harissa, Lebanon on 20th October for the inauguration of the new organ and the dedication of a street to St. Francis, and then in Israel and Palestine. In November, the festival will be in Syria with the fourth Damascus Pipe Organ Week to then start the new year in Lebanon with the Lebanese Organ Week and concerts in Cyprus.
The Terra Sancta Organ Festival can take place thanks to the collaboration of the convents and organizational resources of the Custody of the Holy Land, such as the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, the Magnificat Institute of Jerusalem, the Christian Information Center, the Christian Media Center, Custodia.org and ATS Pro Terra Sancta.
For more information about the festival, please click here.
For the program of the festival, please click here.
Source: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
