THE 36TH ABU GHOSH MUSIC FESTIVAL

26 August 2009


THE 36TH ABU GHOSH MUSIC FESTIVAL
ONE FESTIVAL – FOUR VENUES OF MUSICAL FESTIVITIES
6-10 OCTOBER 2009
The 36th Abu Ghosh Vocal Music Festival, to be held this fall from 6-10 October 2009 during the holiday of Succot, will host the Stuttgart Chamber Choir and conductor Maestro Frieder Bernius in two concerts, as well as another 16 original productions, to be held in four venues in the picturesque village near Jerusalem.
The festival offers four different venues of exciting musical events, creating a true festival for all culture lovers, with musical and vocal performances by Vivaldi, Bach, Theodorakis, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak, Verdi, Marcello, music from Spain and Peru, Argentina and Brazil and much more. First-class soloists from Israel will participate in the Festival, in addition to a guest singer from Spain, bass-baritone Luis Alberto Fernandez-Llaneza.
Concerts include a unique vocal experience where the audience is the choir in a sing along in the special acoustics of the Kiryat Yearim Church; 12 concerts featuring music from around the world; 6 concerts in the Crypt with the spring flowing through the center of the village, and outdoor concerts that take place around the church, with opera, chamber and instrumental music.

The village of Abu Ghosh has important Christian connections. Beginning in the twelfth century, Christians began to identify Abu Ghosh as Emmaus, where Jesus appeared after the Resurrection (Luke 24:12-31). They imagined an old caravansary they found by the village spring as the destination of the disciples as they walked along the road “about seven miles from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:13). The village’s impressive Crusader church, in a tranquil garden setting, is built over that spring. Its walls are adorned with paintings of New Testament figures – some of the oldest medieval frescos in the world. Abu Ghosh has also been identified as Kiriath Jearim, where the Ark of the Covenant was brought after Philistine captivity (1 Sam. 6:21); a church on the hill with a panoramic view marks that spot.

Abu Ghosh Festival website: http://www.agfestival.co.il/
Tickets can be purchased at the venue or in advance from 972 3 6045000