CANTO APERTO
Plainchant Festival
2012 Edition: Chant from the Rhine and Mosan Lands Sint-Truiden (B) 21-23.IX.2012
Call for Concert Proposals

In 2012, the first CANTO APERTO Plainchant Festival will be organized in the city of Sint-Truiden, Belgium. This new, bi-annual festival aims at exploring the rich history of plainchant and its performance practices from the 7th century until today. The 2012 edition focuses on the chant traditions and repertory of the Mosan Area and the Rhineland in the 12th and 13th centuries.

We invite ensembles of young (semi)professionals to contact us with (general) concert program concepts or (specific) proposals related to the theme of the 2012 edition. Ensembles interested in collaboration with the festival but with no previous experience related to the Rhine-Meuse repertory are also invited to express their interest and to send their applications. Musicological advice and guidance towards relevant sources can be provided by CANTO APERTO. Similarly, musicologists and other scholars studying the Mosan and Rhineland of the 12th and 13th centuries are invited to collaborate with the festival as well.

Program proposals may relate to one or more of the five strands outlined below. Applications should include a curriculum of the ensemble, at least one letter of recommendation, and one recent recording. Proposals and applications (by preference in English, but proposals in other languages are also accepted) should be sent to Bart De Vos (bart.devos at musica.be) before May 31, 2010. Please contact Pieter Mannaerts (pieter.mannaerts at arts.kuleuven.be) with musicological questions.

Proposed strands:

1. A Network of Cities (Aachen, Cologne, Ličge, Tongeren, Maastricht)
2. Rhine and Meuse: transport and transmission
3. Keepers of the Carolingian Heritage
4. A Promised Land for Orders and Communities
5. A Land of Saints

More details on these strands and a longer concept text on CANTO APERTO can be found on the websites of Musica (), Resonant (), and the Alamire Foundation ().

The festival themes of the next editions will be Chant in the Romantic Era (2014), Chant in the Baroque Period (2016), Carolingian Chant (2018), and Chant of the Renaissance (2020).