Edition 2025

Early Music Day takes place every year on 21 March, at the initiative of REMA. This celebration of more than a thousand years of music, through concerts and events taking place simultaneously around the world, is an opportunity for Europeans to (re)discover our musical heritage!

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Pierre Gaultier and the birth of opera in Marseille

22/03/2025 18:00 CET

Pierre Gaultier and the birth of opera in Marseille On-site

Alessandra France
Auditorium du Musée d'histoire de la Ville de Marseille, 2 rue Henri Barbusse, 13001 Marseille

In 1685, Pierre Gaultier obtained Lully's permission to open the very first provincial opera house. From then on, opera became a Marseilles institution, central to the musical and cultural life of an entire region. Based on instrumental works by Gaultier, Concerto Soave has built a program around French opera of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Lully is obviously present, but also Campra and Mouret, immense opera composers born in our region.

Musicians
  • Concerto Soave
  • Gabrielle Varbetian, soprano
  • Romain Bockler, baritone
  • Federica Basilico, Charlotte Gerbitz, violins
  • Marine Rodallec, cello
  • Jean-Marc Aymes, harpsichord and conductor
Semele

21/03/2025 17:00 CET

Semele Online

Associazione Hendel Italy
Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo Da Vinci, Via San Vittore 21, 20123 Milan
Prepare to be amazed! Discover a fresh take on a familiar plot from Handel’s oratorio, featuring a surprising composer, breathtaking music, and extraordinary young soloists. Watch now!
Musicians
  • Emilia Bertolini,  Ino
  • Federica Napoletani, Cadmus
  • Piermarco Vinas, Athamas
  • Angelo Testori, Jupiter
  • Giacomo Nanni, Juno
  • Jiayu Jin, Iris
  • Maria Chiara Ardolino, Somnus
  • Francesco Masilla, Apollo
  • Francesco Masilla, Chief Priest
  • Alessandro Ravasio, 2nd Priest and 1st Augur
  • Emanuele Bianchi, 3rd Priest and 2nd Augur
  • Matteo Magistrali

LA PRIMAVERA DE LA RISONANZA

  • Ryo Terakado, Matteo Rozzi, Gabriele Cervia, Ruiqui Ren, I-Chun, Stefano Gerard – violins
  • Elena Gelmi – viola
  • Viktor Töpelmann, Agnieszka Oszanca – cellos
  • Guisella Massa – violone
  • Menglin Gao, Giorgia Zanin – theorbo
  • Fabio Bonizzoni – harpsichord and conductor
Renaissance à gogo, tous les hits du XVIe siècle

21/03/2025 20:00 CET

Renaissance à gogo, tous les hits du XVIe siècle On-site

Les Rendez-Vous de Musique Ancienne - Ensemble Céladon France
16 rue des Chartreux, 69001 Lyon

On stage, a bizarre instrument: the clavicytherium (a kind of small vertical harpsichord), its imperturbable keyboardist, a counter-tenor who is also master of the game, and a 12-sided die, each of which corresponds to a piece of music. Renaissance à gogo is a fun way to learn about 16th-century music! So, shall we play?

Musicians
  • Paulin Bündgen, countertenor and artistic director
  • Caroline Huynh Van Xuan, clavichytherium
Daheim bei Milán & Galilei

30/03/2025 18:15 CEST

Daheim bei Milán & Galilei On-site

ReRenaissance – Forum for Early Music Switzerland
Haus zum Kirschgarten, Historical Museum Basel, Elisabethenstrasse 27, 4051 Basel

Journey through mini lute concerts in a Basel mansion! The “queen of instruments” inspired renowned virtuosos such as Luys de Milán and Vincenzo Galilei, both of whom celebrate anniversaries in 2025.

Musicians
  • Julian Behr – lute
  • Xavier Latorre – lute
  • Orí Harmelin – lute
  • Marc Lewon – lute; direction
Masterpieces from the time of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

23/03/2025 17:00 CET

Masterpieces from the time of Jean-Jacques Rousseau On-site

Kammerata Luxembourg Luxembourg
St. Hubert Church in Merscheid (Putscheid), Luxembourg, 1-4 Wellerwee, 9380 Mierschent Pëtscht
Baroque music on original instruments between 1730 and 1750 | as part of the European Early Music Day ‘Celebrate early music! – is the motto of the European Early Music Day. Kammerata Luxembourg is celebrating the occasion with a concert on historic instruments at the Saint-Hubert church in Merscheid. The focal point of the evening is the Swiss philosopher, writer and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who said of himself: ‘I was surely born for music, since I loved it from childhood, and since I loved it constantly at all times’. The concert programme is dedicated to Rousseau’s musical contemporaries, and invites you to take a cross-border journey through the Baroque period, focusing on Telemann, Bach, Barsanti, Scarlatti, Handel, Geminiani and Rameau. Playing on period instruments will make this musical journey authentic. GP Telemann | Quatuor parisien no.2 TWV 43:a2 | oboe, violin, bass viol, continuo CPE Bach | Sonata H 549 | oboe, b.c. Francesco Barsanti | A collection of Old Scots Tunes (extr.) Domenico Scarlatti | Sonata K.69 | harpsichord GF Händel | Trio HWV 386a | violin, oboe, b.c. Francesco Geminiani | A Treatise of Good Taste in the Art of Musick (extr.) JP Rameau | Pièces de clavecin en concert – Cinquième concert | harpsichord, violin, oboe, viola da gamba Information / Booking Tickets may only be purchased at the evening box office Reservations not required via info@kammerata.lu Tickets: 25 € | < 30 years: 15 € | Kulturpass welcome
Musicians

Ensemble Kammerata Luxembourg:

  • Raffaella Bortolini, baroque oboe 
  • Isabel Van Grysperre, baroque violin 
  • Borbala Janitsek, viola da gamba 
  • Fons Van der Linden, harpsichord
Le basson avec Kaori Yokoyama

22/03/2025 15:30 CET

Le basson avec Kaori Yokoyama On-site

Le Musée des instruments à vent France
2 rue d'Ivry, 27750 La Couture-Boussey

Musician Kaori Yokoyama invites you to discover her unique collection of bassoons. She will trace the history of the bassoon and invite you to listen to this instrument with sounds as powerful as they are gentle. Did you know? In the musical tale “Peter and the Wolf”, the bassoon plays the grandfather.

Musicians

Kaori Yokoyama, bassoonist

Early music concert

21/03/2025 20:00 CET

Early music concert On-site

Conservatoire de Châtenay-Malabry France
2 rue du Lavoir, 92290 Châtenay-Malabry

Programme with the Conservatoire choir and the early music orchestra based on De Lalande's ‘De Profundis’.

Musicians

Vocalitas Choir, Helios Orchestra

Neapolitan early music day

18/03/2025 16:00 CET (18/03/2025 16:00 CET)

Neapolitan early music day Online

Francesco Nocerino Italy
Salita Pontecorvo, 72, 80135 Napoli
A valuable music program by famous Baroque Italian Composers, as such as G.B. Pergolesi, A. Vivaldi, C. Caresana, performed by the Group Ensemble Musicale Barocco, a Youth musical ensemble from the secondary schools of Performing Arts Department in Naples. The instrumental sections include: Strings, Wind instruments, Harps, Organs, Harpsichord, a Baroque Poliphonic Choire, Percussions.
Musicians

Castiello Sofia, Tesone Maria Barbara, Yana Chukhrovska, Notaro Giovanni, De Vito Gaia, Santonicola Gabriele, Teleno Silvana, Serino Chiara, Dini Ciacci Luna, Giordano Viviana, Negri Alessia, Tramontana Emilianna, Pacilio Ilaria, Pollice Aurora Marie, Napoletano Giada, Varriale Alfredo, Sacco Adele, Scicchitano Miriam, Di Maria Viviana, Rossetti Flavia, Succoia Maria Teresa, Capuano Liliana, Russo Giuliano, Enrika Feola, Capocotta Valerio, Rimonti Zara Carolina, Botosineanu Elisa, Nastych Anna.

Teachers:

  • Amato Angela (violin)
  • Caiazza Ida (singing)
  • Catarci Katia (harp)
  • Durantino Giorgio (percussion)
  • Nocerino Francesco (organ, harpsichord)
Bernardo Pasquini: Il Mosè

29/03/2025 17:00 CET

Bernardo Pasquini: Il Mosè On-site

Associazione Culturale Pietro Antonio Locatelli Italy
Associazione Culturale Pietro Antonio Locatelli, Piazza Cavour 15, 24121 Bergamo
We will open our 2025 musical season in Bergamo with the italian premiere of this oratorio by Bernardo Pasquini. The Concert will be taken in the principal Theater of the City: Teatro Gaetano Donizetti.
Musicians
  • Ensemble Locatelli
  • Ensemble Vocale Locatelli
  • Thomas Chigioni (Conductor)
340. Bach-Gebeurtstag

21/03/2025 19:00 CET (21/03/2025 19:00 CET)

340. Bach-Gebeurtstag Online and On-site

Köthener BachGesellschaft mbH Germany
Kirche St. Agnus , Stiftstraße 11, 06366 Köthen (Anhalt)
On 21 March, the Köthen Bach Festival traditionally celebrates Johann Sebastian Bach's birthday with a concert in the Church of St. Agnus. This year's festival will be particularly unusual: Margret Köll, one of the best baroque harpists in the world, will be coming to Köthen (Anhalt) for a whole week to work with international students. Together with the Bach Festival director, they are developing a sound festival for the birthday concert that will fill the historic church of St Agnus with harmonies in every corner. The young Chilean singer Romina De la Fuente Villarroel, who has been living in Weimar for several years, will also be a guest. The musical celebration will feature the most beautiful sounds and repertoire highlights for and with harp from around 150 years, from the invention of opera at the beginning of the 17th century to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Together with the great baroque master, the composer Alfred Tokayer, who was also born in Köthen (Anhalt) on 21 March, will be celebrated. He was born in 1900 to a Jewish family in the city of Bach and received his first musical training here. In the 1920s, he made a career in Berlin and worked for theatre legend Max Reinhardt, among others. Tokayer had to flee to France in 1935. He was finally arrested by the Gestapo in Paris in 1942 and - like his parents - was killed in the Sobibor concentration camp in 1942. The concert will be streamed live on YouTube!
Musicians
  • Margret Köll, baroque harp
  • Romina De la Fuente Villarroel, soprano
  • participants from the HARFEN LABORS in Köthen, surprise guests
  • Folkert Uhde, animation
Music & Climate

22/03/2025 18:00 CET

Music & Climate On-site

Itinéraire Baroque en Périgord France
Musiques & Climats, Eglise de Cherval, 24320 CHERVAL
In music, the seasons have often inspired composers: Vivaldi but also Lully, Purcell, Boismortier... Similarly, spectacular events (storms, tempests) but also moments of prosperity and calm have inspired musicians. Concert in collaboration with Cherval Avenir
Musicians
  • Ensemble Les Meslanges
  • Van EssenThomas, baritone
  • Van Waerbeke Jérôme, violin
  • Hernandez Frédéric, harpsichord
L'organo fantastico: Girolamo Frescobaldi, le Toccate del Primo Libro

21/03/2025 20:00 CET

L'organo fantastico: Girolamo Frescobaldi, le Toccate del Primo Libro Online

Conservatorio di musica "Giuseppe Verdi" di Milano Italy
Chiesa di San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore di Milano, Corso Magenta 15 , 20123 Milano
Frescobaldi was a great musician who not only inaugurated a new manner of playing but also illustrated a new refined “modus componendi” through a language of astonishing modernity. This concert offers a rare opportunity to hear the entire collection of toccatas contained in his first book published in 1615, in Rome, performed on a magnificent organ belonging to one of the most famous dynasties of Brescian builders, active in the years between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: the Antegnati. In particular, it is an ancient organ built by Gian Giacomo Antegnati in 1554, located, in the wonderful Church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore in Milan. The twelve Toccatas performed in this organ concert are so imbued with a great expressive intensity and a poignant grace that, even today, they amaze us with their relevance. They are compositions permeated by a magic of sounds and an emotional tension that seems to never end. Bach himself was fascinated by the music of this great Ferrarese master. Not by chance this music seduces by its spontaneity, by its freshness, by the naturalness of the lyric melodic gesture.
Musicians Ivana Valotti, grande spécialiste du répertoire d'orgue italien de la Renaissance et du Baroque, est professeur d'orgue au Conservatoire « Giuseppe Verdi » de Milan, pour le cours avancé de musique ancienne à l'orgue.
Audition for the first organist on the 300th anniversary of St George’s, Hanover Square

11/03/2025 13:10 GMT (11/03/2025 14:10 CET)

Audition for the first organist on the 300th anniversary of St George’s, Hanover Square On-site

St George's, Hanover Square United Kingdom
St George's, Hanover Square, St George's Street, Mayfair, , W1S 1FX London
The church of St George’s Hanover Square was consecrated by the Bishop of London on March 23rd, 1725. The three-manual organ was built by Gerard Smith, nephew and successor of the famous Father Smith. The case of his organ remains as the central part of the current organ case. This recital will reflect the audition for the first organist, with music by the four assessors (Pepusch, Croft, Handel and Geminiani) and the successful candidate, Thomas Roseingrave, chosen for his ability to improvise fugues.
Musicians Andrew Benson-Wilson
Visites en musique des collections du Musée Fabre - Les Ombres

21/03/2025 10:30 CET

Visites en musique des collections du Musée Fabre - Les Ombres On-site

Les Muses en Dialogue - Les Ombres - Musée Fabre France
Musée Fabre, 39 boulevard Bonne Nouvelle , 34000 Montpellier

Friday, March 21 at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Le printemps

As part of the European Early Music Days, the Musée Fabre opens its doors to musicians from the Les Ombres ensemble. On a guided musical and pictorial tour, music and paintings reveal their secrets. The flute and viola da gamba will resonate in this majestic setting during original guided tours, revealing each work under the prism of spring.

Admission: €15, with registration by e-mail to amelie.belin@montpellier.fr, or directly online on the Musée Fabre website.

Musicians
  • Margaux Blanchard, viola da gamba
  • Sylvain Sartre, traverso
Ancient Sounds in the Abbey - Exhibition of medieval instruments and medieval music concert

22/03/2025 17:00 CET (22/03/2025 17:00 CET)

Ancient Sounds in the Abbey - Exhibition of medieval instruments and medieval music concert On-site

Fondazione Abbatia Sancte Marie de Morimundo Italy
Morimondo Abbey, Chapter Hall, Piazza Municipio n. 6, 20081 Morimondo (MI)
On the occasion of the Early Music Day, you are invited to a double event to discover the fascinating world of medieval music. The event begins with an exhibition of historical instruments and continues with a narrated concert, where a musicologist and a musician alternate between performing medieval sacred and secular music and recounting episodes of monastic life, passed down through songs and other medieval documents.
Musicians

Ensemble In Itinere Musica Medievale

  • Roberto Chiari - medieval fiddle, rebec, drum, and others
  • Chiara Mojana - narrator, medieval harps and recorder
BACH340

21/03/2025 14:55 EET (21/03/2025 13:55 CET)

BACH340 On-site

Lieto parish Finland
Lieto, Hyvättyläntie 19, 21420 Lieto
Bach340 with Organ&Cello
Musicians
  • Tomi Satomaa, organ
  • Jukka Perksalo, cello
Early Music in the corridors of LMTA / LMTA Early Music Week 2025

21/03/2025 12:30 EET (21/03/2025 11:30 CET)

Early Music in the corridors of LMTA / LMTA Early Music Week 2025 On-site

Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre Lithuania
Lobby, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Building 2, Vilniaus str. 6-2, Vilnius
Welcome to the European Early Music Day at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre! Participants of “LMTA Early Music Week 2025“ will invite you to listen to works by Renaissance and Baroque composers and get acquainted with historical musical instruments.
Musicians Participants of "LMTA Early Music Week 2025"
Tarquinio Merula - Concerti Spirituali

08/03/2025 14:30 CST (08/03/2025 07:30 CET)

Tarquinio Merula - Concerti Spirituali On-site

The Gleam Ensemble & Ensemble InAlto Taiwan
National Recital Hall Taipei, No.21-1, Zhongshan S. Rd., Zhongzheng Dist.,,, 100012 Taipei City
Time and Geography, they say, are destiny. Like Luigi Rossi, Francesco Cavalli and Giacomo Carissimi, Tarquinio Merula belonged to that generation of composers, born between 1595 and 1605, for whom the concertante style was no longer a new idiom, but the musical medium par excellence, acquired from childhood as the dominant musical language of the time. A musical language that was about to spread throughout the European continent. Born in 1595 in Brusseto, Tarquinio Merula probably received his musical training at Cremona Cathedral; after serving as Kapellmeister in Lodi, Lombardy, and in Warsaw, at the Polish Royal Court, he alternated several times, from 1626 onwards, in the same positions for the cathedrals of Cremona and Bergamo. Tarquinio Merula was known as a virtuoso on both the violin and organ and has published a wide variety of instrumental music for “chiesa e camera” : for both secular and sacred contexts. By the 1630s, public enthusiasm for highly expressive solo madrigals composed in the recitative style had waned considerably. Contrary to the assumption of certain theorists that, in vocal music, music was only at the service of words, the composers of the younger generation were looking for a more balanced relationship between words and music, a relationship in which the declamatory and expressive achievements of this new era would be united with the emerging interest in formal construction and musical harmony. Filled with the daring inventions of his peers like Grandi, Monteverdi, Cavalieri etc… Merula never ceased to put his talent at the service of an incredibly expressive music. InAlto explores here the sacred compositions of the Cremonese Master, all at the image of the famous lullaby Hor che è tempo di dormire. Simple at times, yet impressively innovative. Sacred, yet grounded in human emotions.
Musicians
  • Alice Foccroulle, soprano
  • Lambert Colson, cornetto
  • Martin Chiang, dulcian
  • Shio Ohshita, baroque violin
  • Bernard Foccroulle, organ and harpsichord
Le Graduel d’Aliénor de Bretagne, abbesse de Fontevraud

29/03/2025 17:00 CET

Le Graduel d’Aliénor de Bretagne, abbesse de Fontevraud On-site

pôle Aliénor France
église Saint-Jean-de-Montierneuf, 29 place Montierneuf, 86000 Poitiers

Extracts from the Fontevraud Manuscript: Plainchant and medieval polyphony Students from the early music department, under the direction of Isaac Alonso de Molina

Musicians

Isaac Alonso de Molina, artistic direction

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REMA is funded with support from the French Ministry of Culture.