Goettingen International Handel Festival

The Goettingen International Handel Festival (also Göttinger Händel Gesellschaft) was founded in 1919 and is the oldest festival for baroque music in the world. The festival, located in Göttingen, Germany, has largely focused on the music of Georg Friedrich Händel and is largely responsible for a revival and cultivation of the the composers work during the twentieth century. The first festival, which took place in 1920, triggered a movement that was to go down in music history as the “Göttingen Handel Renaissance“.http://www.haendel.org/data/home/index.php?setLang=e&PHPSESSID=12gjna3s3j4es2sefm3a916531]

Today the festival, under the leadership of Artistic Director Nicholas McGegan, continues its focus on the works of Handel and other baroque composers and seeks to pursue and develop these works with the very highest of artistic standards. The festival involves professional musicians from throughout the world and their performances are largely concerned with employing historical baroque performance practices. Also, young musicians have the opportunity to present their talents to a perceptive international audience. Furthermore, the festival is known for featuring rare musical works or "rediscoverd" music that is not performed frequently. In 2006, the Festival created its own professional orchestra, the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen (FOG), which focuses on performing baroque music.

The festival produces one fully staged opera by Handel every year and several of his oratorio works. In addition, the Handel Festival features several performances of the chamber music of Handel and his contemporaries. The festival also features open-air classic events, late evening concerts and a host of other performances in especially distinctive surroundings, lectures, film showings and guided tours of the city that give insites into the world of Georg Friedrich Händel.

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