MAfestival Brugge

The tradition & historical record

The MA Festival Brugge, short for the festival Musica Antiqua Bruges in Bruges, Belgium, is a festival of early music and historically informed performances, started in 1960. The program includes concerts, master classes, conferences, visits in the region, exhibitions, instrument market, and international competitions that concentrates in a three-year cycle on organ, harpsichord, pianoforte and other period instruments, vocals, and baroque ensembles. The specialised festival is part of the Festival of Flanders. ¹

The city of Bruges joined the Flanders Festival in 1960. In the early years, the emphasis was mainly on the biennial exhibitions of Flemish Primitives in European possession. Gradually, the idea grew, given the evolution of the Flanders Festival in almost exclusively a musical direction, to organize a musical part in Bruges as well. To achieve this, a non-profit organization was founded in 1962. Mayor Pierre Venamme and two aldermen were among the founders on behalf of the city, together with persons who mainly belonged to the music sector (Kamiel D'Hooghe, Jan Briers, Robrecht Dewitte, Herman Sabbe, Canon Paul François, Raymond Van Wassenhove). In 1963, 'Organ Days' were organized. The first official festival took place in 1964. From that year and until 2004, the festival was led by co-founder and driving force Robrecht Dewitte. The organizer called on specialists who, with their knowledge of the evolution in music performance, were of good advice. Among them are: Gustav Leonhardt, Kamiel D'Hooghe, prof. Marcel Boereboom, prof. Jozef Robijns, Pieter Enriessen and Johan Huys. The management tasks were taken over after 2004 as follows: • 2004-2005: Bart Demuyt; • 2005-2007: Stefan Dewitte; • 2007-2009: Tomas Bisschop and Hendrik Storme; • 2009-2019: Tomas Bisschop; The current directors are Tomas Bisschop (artistic director) and Goedele Bartholomeeusen (business director). ¹

From the start they wanted to show the highlights from the city's past and provide a meeting place for specialists, performers, instrument makers, educators, students, and music lovers. The path had been prepared for this by Safford Cape, who had set the tone for its summer courses with Pro Musica Antiqua since 1961 in Bruges. From 1964 the organization of competitions was worked out in concrete terms within regularly successive three-yearly cycles. Immediately, the emphasis was also placed on these competitions, as the main opportunity to support the vibrancy and image of the festival and to introduce the ideas that the organizers were propagating to the younger generations. Music making has been complemented by exhibitions and fairs, interpretation courses and master classes, forums, lectures, and guided visits to historic instruments in Flanders. Concert performances are focused on lesser-known music until about 1800. ¹

Ever since the first edition of this prestigious international competition, the MA Competition has established itself as a unique platform for training and professional integration and encounter of young promising talent. It actively supports the artistic process and some important values including equality, diversity and inclusion. The MA Competition first took place in 1964 with a triennial competition for organ, followed in 1965 by a triennial competition for harpsichord and basso continuo and from 1983 also for pianoforte. In 1972 the competition was extended to include the recorder and the competition for ensembles was also started (which coincided with the organ competition from 2000). The program for baroque instruments became more and more extensive. Completed the list: traverso, baroque oboe, lute, cornetto, baroque violin and cello, viola de gamba... Since 1984, singing has also been featured. Due to the corona pandemic in 2020, the MA Competition did not take place for the first time since 1969. Thanks to a quick and efficient overhaul of the organization, the rest of the programming could continue online. Partly due to this crisis, in 2021 the organization of the festival was adapted to the situation and the first round of the competition takes place digitally. Starting this year, the competition will be a biennial event, alternating between keyboard instruments (harpsichord and pianoforte) and melodic instruments (traverso, recorder, baroque oboe, baroque violin, baroque cello and viola da gamba). Since 2008, the winner of the first prize will, in addition to a cash prize, win the chance to be invited to a series of concerts taking place in Belgium and abroad, including a guaranteed place in the next edition of the MA Competition. ¹

1964 ¹

Jury: Catherine Crozier, Albert de Klerk, Kamiel D'Hooghe, Paul François, Hans Klotz and the blind organist Gaston Litaize number of candidates: 30 laureates: 1st prize: Niels Henrik Nielsen (Denmark) - 2nd prize: Rolf Stenholm (Sweden) - 3rd prize: Gerard Gillen (Ireland) - 4th prize: René Rakier (Netherlands) - 5th prize: Chris Dubois (Belgium) 1967 ¹

Jury: Kamiel D'Hooghe, Wolfgang Auler, Norbert Dufourcq, Paul François, Piet Kee number of candidates: 24 laureates: 1st prize: Günther Kaunzinger (Germany) - 2nd prize: Jack Hennigan (USA) - 3rd prize: Bengt Berg (Sweden) - 4th prize: Leo Krämer (Germany) 1970 ¹

Jury: Michel Chapuis, Kamiel D'Hooghe, Paul François, Friedrich Högner, Peter Hurford number of candidates: 45 laureates: 2nd prize: Lucie Madden (Canada) and Vladimir Ruso (Czechoslovakia) - 3rd prize: Helen Dugal (Canada) - 4th prize: M. ¹

1965 ¹

Jury: Gustav Leonhardt, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, Aimée Van de Wiele, Li Stadelmann. number of candidates: 25 laureates: 2nd prize: Christiane Jaccottet (Switzerland), honorable mention: Roswitha Trimborn (Germany) 1968 ¹

Jury: Gustav Leonhardt, Isolde Ahlgrimm, Thurston Dart, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, Charles Koenig number of candidates: 36 laureates: 2nd prize: Martha Brickman (Canada) and Zsuzsa Pertis (Hungary) - 3rd prize: Anne Gallet (Switzerland) - 4th prize: Colin Tilney (Britain) - 5th prize: Johann Sonnleitner (Austria) certificates: Ton Koopman (Netherlands) - Scott Ross (USA) - Roswitha Trimborn (Germany) laureates basso-continuo: 1st prize: Ton Koopman (Netherlands) - 2nd prize: Colin Tilney (Britain) 1971 ¹

Jury: Isolde Ahlgrimm, Kenneth Gilbert, Charles Koenig, Gustav Leonhardt, Raymond Schroyens, Colin Tilney, Robert Veyron-Lacroix number of candidates: 33 laureates: 1st prize: Scott Ross (USA), 2nd prize: John Whitelaw (Canada), 3rd prize: Christopher Farr (Britain), 5th prize: Alexander Sung (Hong Kong) laureates basso continuo: 2nd prize: Christopher Farr (Britain) honorable mention: Christopher Hogwood (Britain) 1974 ¹

Jury: Hedwig Bilgram, Christiane Jaccottet, Alan Curtis, Kenneth Gilbert, Gustav Leonhardt, Colin Tilney, Jozef Robijns number of candidates: 41 laureates: 2nd prize: Henk Cuppers (Netherlands) - 3rd prize: Eric-Lynn Kelley (USA) and Martin Pearlman (USA) - 4th prize: Gordon Murray (Canada) - 5th prize: Larry Phillips (USA) 1977 ¹

Jury: Isolde Ahlgrimm, Christiane Ja… ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “MAfestival Brugge”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

MAfestival Brugge is classical music competition, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²