Festival 2025 «ARCADIA»

2. ReRenaissance Festival
Fri 26.09.25 until 28.09.2025

Basel, Martinskirche

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he second ReRenaissance festival “ARCADIA” explores themes of humans living in harmony with the environment, of nature in music and art, and of course the theme of Arcadia’s most famous resident, Orpheus, the demi-god who charmed the gods of Hades for a chance to bring back his beloved Euridice from the dead.  

Featuring five mainstage concerts, five “flash” concerts, a children’s concert, music market, lectures and a roundtable featuring world experts in Renaissance music, as well as a host of interdisciplinary and outreach events including dancing, botany, and culinary arts.  

The Festival mainstage concerts all take place in the Martinskirche. The Festival opens with the world-renowned I Profeti della Quinta, presenting a programme of madrigals set in Arcadia, describing nature and the love between nymphs and shepherds. Among the composers are Maddalena Casulana, whose first book of madrigals is the the first music print by a woman.  

On Saturday evening, Le Miroir de Musique presents “l’Orfeo” by Angelo Poliziano. Only the text to this musical drama survives, but Baptiste Romain, director, has been researching the kind of improvised music that would have accompanied such a text, and has created a version as it might have sounded in Mantua in the 1480s.  

New to the festival in 2025 is a late-night concert. We celebrate the sun in its absence with a performance of The Triumphs of Oriana, printed in 1601 by Thomas Morley, and led by Elizabeth Rumsey.  

Following on the success of 2023’s sacred programme for a Sunday morning, we present “Veni in Hortum Meum,” a collection of motets with texts from the song of songs, including motets by Raphaella Aleotti’s 1593 collection, the first sacred music to be published by a woman. These will be performed with voices, trombones and cornetti, led by Catherine Motuz.  

Our mainstage series closes on Sunday evening with a programme “A cantar un cantarcillo” by Ensemble Danguy, which explores the dream of Arcadia on the Iberian peninsula. Led by Tobie Miller, this ensemble combineds hurdy-gurdy, viola d’arco, vilhuela, and Renaissance guitar with singing and recitation, presenting the audience with Juan del Encina’s version of Virgil’s Eclogues, which describes Arcadia as the home of the musical god Pan.  

Next to the mainstage concerts, ReRenaissance presents smaller indoor and open-air concerts intended to reach new audiences. For the first time, we will give a family concert, on Saturday morning in the Karthäuserkirche, led by Tabea Schwartz. This informal concert explores themes of music and nature and is open to children of all ages.

Returning after a successful pilot programme in 2023, ReRenaissance will present five free 30-minute “flash” concerts, which give a performance platform to rising star ensembles in and around our concert venues throughout the weekend. On Saturday at 17:00, the Basler Stadtposaunenchor, which is already involved in ReRenaissance in our 2024 Christmas singalong concert, will join us again to play music from the Renaissance from the Münster towers.

Next to these more traditional musical offerings, ReRenaissance also welcomes the public to join it on Friday before the first mainstage concert with a circle dance on Barfüsserplatz, to the sound of bagpipes and other wind instruments, followed by a festive parade past the Münster and to the Martinskirche.  

On Saturday, ReRenaissance turns the Karthäuserkirche into a forum for Early Music, with a music market bringing together historical instrument makers from Basel and further away, as well as vendors of books and editions about early music. To provide context for the music heard during the Festival, we invite four scholars to give lectures, pre-concert talks and round-table discussions.

The untouched nature represented in Arcadia stands in stark juxtaposition the environemental issues that occupy us today, and the Festival acknowledges this with a partnership with Basel initiative Mein Baum dein Baum, which plants trees  all over the city. ReRenaissance will donate 1% of sales from tickets and passes as well as a chance to showcase the work they do. We also are coordinating a tour of the UB Botanical Garden.

The 2025 ReRenaissance Festival, “ARCADIA” has something for everyone, and we look forward to the chance to reach out and welcome new audiences to discover the diversity of Renaissance music and culture. 

2025

February

La Contenance françoise

A cappella in Binchois' time
Sun 23.02.25 18:15 Concert

Barfüsserkirche
Historical Museum Basel

March

Daheim bei Milán & Galilei

Lute parcours II
Sun 30.03.25 18:15 Concert

Haus zum Kirschgarten
Historiscal Museum Basel

April

A Company of Violins

Birth of a new instrument family
Sun 27.04.25 18:15 Concert

Barfüsserkirche
Historical Museum Basel