ENCONTROS MED [medieval / mediterranean] 2024 | 6th Edition

The ENSEMBLE MED [mediterranean/medieval] annually sets up a meeting of artists from the Mediterranean Basin in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal, an ancestral place where tradition, innovation and contemporaneity coexist, paying homage to the intangible musical heritage of its Mediterranean and/or Medieval roots, within written and oral tradition, mainly in Adufe / Framedrum playing. ENCONTROS MED MONSANTO 2024 will take place from 8th to 10 November in the Historical Village of Monsanto, with classes, public performances and lectures, placing Adufe at the center of the mediation between invited artists, participants and the local community of Monsanto. For the training course, we have invited Amélia Fonseca, founder and director of the “Adufeiras de Monsanto”, an iconic group of adufe songs from the Beira Baixa and Idanha-a-Nova regions, who will be accompanied by Rui Silva, a herald of artistic research into traditional and modern adufe in Portugal; and Zohar Fresco, with a Mediterranean perspective in “Middle East Rhythms".

Na Rota do Peregrino will present "Pilgrimage Routes: A Journey to Rome, Montserrat, and Compostela", including actual pilgrims’ music from the Codex Calixtinus and the Llibre Vermell of Montserrat, songs that narrate pilgrim’s experiences from the collection of the Cantigas de Santa Maria and religious chants performed within different monasteries and cathedrals that were located on the pilgrimage routes.

This will also be the focus of the opening talk, by the medievalist Dr. Mauricio Molina (City University of New York & Na Rota do Peregrino). Encontros Med is supported by the Directorate General for the Arts and is part of the Idanha-a-1000 programme, a project coordinated by the Filarmónica Idanhense and co-organised by the Municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, supported by the Monsanto and Idanha-a-Velha Parish Council and Turismo de Portugal.