MHA - Music, history and art

Musiques Religioses del Món is a series of concerts for the enjoyment of sacred music from every culture, no matter the beliefs and ideas of each listener. A space for reflection on issues that are rarely tackled in the secular society and that we find in almost every religions: death, forgiveness, eternity, soul or goodness.

All religions start from a basic premise: that we are imperfect. We become disoriented and repeat the same mistakes over again, and therefore we need a voice that frequently reminds us the old doctrine of good and evil; an institution that structures a routine to forgive and empower our ability to share and love. Faced with the constant demand to be happy and to face with a naive optimism the overwhelming problems of existence with motivational phrases which help very little, the religions send a compassionate message towards the way we think and act.

To a large extent, the resources they use to do this transcend verbal language: music, art and sacred space have helped us for centuries, placing us in a wide temporal and spatial perspective. Listening to a complex sacred polyphony or the ancient language of the liturgy puts us in contact with something very old and deep, far from our daily reality. Entering a cathedral, a synagogue or a mosque and looking up at the vast space above us reminds us of how tiny we are in this mysterious universe, and thus our concerns seem insignificant to us as well.

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Since its creation in 1999 MHA Festival has hosted the best national and international performers, placing the Valencian Community and Valencia in the line of the most important territories of the musical panorama and allowing the Valencian people the possibility to enjoy early music in historical spaces of singular beauty, seeking the conjugation of history, music and art into the hands of one of the early music pioneer groups in Valencia: Capella de Ministrers. The most emblematic historical spaces of the city of València have been its scenarios, among them, the Patriarch's Church, the City Museum, the Glass Hall of the València Town Hall, Las Reales Atarazanas, L'Almodí, the Palau de Cervelló or La Llotja. Many activities have also been organised by the Region of Valence as an extension of the Festival (MHA_EXT) in cities such as Xàtiva or Morella or in historic areas such as the Valldigna Monastery. Since its first edition, the Festival has been very well received and recognized by the public, becoming a fully consolidated activity in the city and the Region of Valence. In each edition, the concert program is complemented, among others, with conferences offered by prestigious musicologists, master classes taught by guest artists or exhibitions of historical instruments.