BRYGGEN Bruges Strings

A shanty is a song sung by a group of sailors while working. The many variations of the verses bring performers and listeners into a trance. British master composer Thomas Adès took the form as a starting point, BRYGGEN Bruges Strings under the direction of Jolente De Maeyer plays his work for the first time in Belgium. Orawa by the Polish composer Wojciech Kilar is mesmerizing, a work that slowly grows towards ecstasy. The evening is completed with Fratres van Arvo Pärt and Entr’acte by Caroline Shaw. Musica Divina 2026 - Moments of truth The edition of Musica Divina 2026 runs from September 18 to October 4 and is titled ‘Momenten van Waarheid’. We are bombarded with ‘fake news’ and generative artificial intelligence. Empiricism has been common practice as a scientific method since the Enlightenment. Can we still trust our own perception? For artists, a fabricated reality might perhaps reveal a deeper truth. If reality momentarily coincides with how we experience it, such as during meditation or prayer, can we perhaps speak of a moment of truth? Tijdens de Romantiek there were real philosophical debates about whether music could represent something other than itself, one thing was certain: of all the arts, it came closest to the incomprehensible truth of the Sublime. We are focusing on that musical power: from vocal polyphony as a symbol for transcendent religious truth to the worldly folk wisdom of the drinking song at ‘In Vino Veritas’. Met Utopia Ensemble, DionysosNow, HERMESensemble, Liesbeth Devos, Gwen Cresens, Noah Senden, Ensemble Constantinople, BRYGGEN Bruges Strings, ClubMediéval, SPECTRA, ORLANDOviols, Graindelavoix, Eric Whitacre and the Vlaams Radiokoor.musica-divina.be