[Festivals Stories] Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza

The Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza takes place in two towns in the north of Andalusia, Spain, famous for their Renaissance architecture and so the perfect surroundings for the performance of early music.

If the recent and dramatic emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has taught anything, it is the high level of global interdependence between people and the new dimension acquired by human values, such as responsibility, solidarity and professionalism. The FeMAUB 2020, marked by the spread of the virus, aimed to put people at the centre by means of the evocative title De Mvsica Hvmana, a concept used from the early Middle Ages to refer to the inner harmony that links the soul with the human body. The notion of mvsica hvmana exerted an important influence on the Renaissance, flourishing period in Úbeda and Baeza crystallised in humanist thought.

Putting health measures and restrictions in place led to integral changes in the programme just one week before the festival's inauguration. Eventually, though, all the concerts and activities programmed for the FeMAUB 2020 took place: seventeen concerts in Úbeda and Baeza and eighteen as part of the Vandelvira Provincial Circuit, in addition to a webinar on the future of the past: the Spanish historical music sector in the COVID era. It had a twofold objective: to discuss the situation resulting from the pandemic and its consequences and to explore the challenges and strategies required for the adaptation of a particularly fragile sector to the new landscape. The main innovation of FeMAUB 2020 has been its digital transformation, using social networks and live streaming as a meeting point for the community for the first time in the festival's history. FeMAUB 2020 was dedicated to the group of people who have made the festival possible for nearly a quarter of a century: artists, audiences, organisers, sponsors, suppliers and, ultimately, all those who in a direct or indirect way have participated and continue to participate in an ideal and expressive, small-scale metaphor for universal harmony. The most characteristic of the festival has been the recovery and dissemination of Hispanic musical heritage in the exceptional artistic settings provided by the cities of Úbeda and Baeza.

More info: festivalubedaybaeza.com

(General Editor: Simon Mundy)