Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik / Meister- und Kammerkonzerte Innsbruck

Located in a magnificent mountain setting one of the most renowned concert and opera festivals for Early Music takes place
during July and August each year in the capital of the Alps: The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.
A diversified concert programme, numerous free concert formats, participatory workshops for children, etc.: The Festival invites with
a multitude of sounds, noises, people, emotions and encounters, that leave traces.

Innsbruck is a centre of early music. In the renaissance and baroque eras great masters such as Paul Hofhaimer, Heinrich Isaac and Pietro Antonio Cesti were employed as musicians at the Habsburg court amidst the alpine scenery of Tirol. Magnificent opera was performed at the first theatrehouse in German-speaking Europe. The Hofkapellein Innsbruck at the time later went on to form the famous pre-Classical Mannheim orchestra.
The mid-twentieth century saw a revival of this tradition and Early Music was once again performed in magnificent halls and churches. In the year 1963, to celebrate the 600th anniversary of Tyrolean apartenage to Austria, the Innsbruck musician Prof. Otto Ulf (1907-1993) presented the first Ambras Castle Concert and every August since 1976 Innsbruck with its Festwochen has been a mecca for Early Music fans. Famous conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, John Eliot Gardiner and Alan Curtis have performed here, opera stars such as Jennifer Larmore and the counter-tenor Derek Lee Ragin have enthralled audiences, musicians such as Jordi Savall and Sigiswald Kuijken have given spellbinding concerts in Innsbruck.
From 1992 to 2009 the conductor and counter-tenor René Jacobs has been director of opera at the Festwochen, in 1997 he became Artistic Director. Since 2010 Alessandro De Marchi is the Artistic Director of the Festwochen, he invented the renowned International Competition for Baroque Opera Singing Pietro Antonio Cesti. 2024 he'll be succeeded by Ottavio Dantone as Musical Director and Eva-Maria Sens as Artistic Director.

In addition to the festival the company presents the series Meister&Kammerkonzerte Innsbruck throughout the season.
In the midst of the great classical music tradition, the Meister&Kammerkonzerte Innsbruck set innovative impulses. Music lovers can experience masterpieces from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Classical Modern eras on the one hand, and lesser-known compositions from the past as well as novelties from our own time on the other. The Meisterkonzert series take place in the Congress Innsbruck, the Kammerkonzert series in the Haus der Musik Innsbruck.