Heinrich Schütz Music Festival: Women in the 17th century central

This year, the Heinrich Schütz Music Festival in the composer's former places of activity is focusing on women. Under the motto "untamed.creative.female", the festival will focus on female contemporaries of Schütz (1585-1672), who appeared as singers, instrumentalists, composers and poets, the festival announced in Dresden on Monday. "They were astute, artistic and untamed, but at the same time also thoughtful, shaken, exalted or even frustrated. A time of upheaval is reflected in music, poetry and painting and is full of emotion," explained Sven Rössel from the Association of Central German Baroque Music in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

The association is organizing the festival from 4 to 13 October in Dresden, Bad Köstritz, Gera, Weißenfels and Zeitz. The program includes more than 40 events: Concerts, lectures, exhibitions and guided tours as well as musical church services and vespers. Guests include dulcimer player Elisabeth Seitz, soprano Isabel Schicketanz, viola da gamba virtuoso Hille Perl and countertenor Terry Wey. To kick off the festival, the piece "Tiefhoffnungsblau", which combines parts of Schütz's "Symphoniae Sacrae" with texts, will be performed on October 4 in St. Marienkirche Weißenfels as a work commissioned by the festival. After Weißenfels, it can be experienced in the Johanniskirche Gera and the Dreikönigskirche Dresden over the next two days.

Heinrich Schütz was born in Bad Köstritz in 1585. The family moved to Weißenfels in 1590. Today, the two towns in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt are places of pilgrimage for Schütz fans from all over the world. Weißenfels is home to the composer's only remaining original residence. From 1617, Schütz achieved fame as a conductor in Dresden. It was under his leadership that today's Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden experienced its first heyday. Today, Schütz is regarded by musicologists as the first German composer of European standing.