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.
History
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).
Mission of the festival
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.
Competition
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).