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The unique feature of the Terra Sancta Organ Festival is that it is being held at the churches and shrines of the Holy Land and in the locations where the Franciscan Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land have been active for centuries: Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria.
The Terra Sancta Organ Festival is one way to bear witness to the presence of the Christian communities in the Middle East and the Levant in the field of music and culture. Here, organ music is a superior artistic contribution perceived as specifically Christian, the pipe organ being present almost exclusively inside churches. The festival is also an opportunity to promote the maintenance of organs and the study of this instrument, necessary for the liturgy.
The concerts take place in churches, but all are welcome, regardless of their religious affiliation: the Terra Sancta Organ Festival represents, in fact, one of the rare occasions in the Middle East and the Levant in which one can listen to the sound of a pipe organ outside of its normal liturgical context.
ORGAN & MUSIC FESTIVAL SYRIA 2025
Press Release
After a period of adjustment following the change of regime, the concerts of the ORGAN & MUSIC FESTIVAL SYRIA — the only active international music festival in Syria since 2016 — are resuming.
Organized by the Terra Sancta Organ Festival and the Damascus Opera House, the ORGAN & MUSIC FESTIVAL SYRIA will take place in two phases: from 22 to 27 November exclusively in Damascus, and next spring also in Latakia, Aleppo, and other locations in Syria, with the participation of Syrian musicians and musicians from Europe.
As in previous years, the festival will explore various musical genres. The opening event will take place on Saturday, 22 November at the Church of Saint Paul of the Custody of the Holy Land (to which the Terra Sancta Organ Festival belongs), featuring a sacred music concert performed by the choral and instrumental ensemble “La Classica” from Aleppo. The program includes the Mass in G minor BWV 235 by Johann Sebastian Bach and Dixit Dominus by Antonio Vivaldi.
The two concerts at the Damascus Opera House will highlight the monumental pipe organ, which this year celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of its construction — an important milestone for this prestigious instrument, one that few countries in the Middle East can boast of having in a public concert hall. Built twenty-five years ago by the German firm Laukhuff, this organ is notable not only for its size but also for its unique feature of being movable back and forth on the stage thanks to a hydraulic system.
On Monday, 24 November, an unusual jazz concert will take place with Aghiad Mansour on organ and the Damascus Jazz Sextet, under the supervision of Duhama Shehab.
The festival will conclude on Thursday, 27 November with a grand concert for organ and orchestra: the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Missak Baghboudarian, will accompany Italian organist Eugenio Maria Fagiani — an internationally renowned concert artist, principal organist of the “La Verdi” Orchestra of Milan and more recently of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. This concert, and indeed the entire festival, would not have been possible without the collaboration of the Italian Embassy in Damascus, the NGO Pro Terra Sancta, and Ambassador Stefano Ravagnan, who personally worked to obtain the necessary permits from the relevant ministries of the new government.
The Terra Sancta Organ Festival is pleased to have collaborated in organizing the concert-meditation “In the beginning was the Logos,” which will take place in Milan in the Church of San Carlo al Lazzaretto on April 8, 2025.
February 24, 2025. From Vienna we received news of the death of Fr. Stanislaus Bertagnolli, the great promoter of pipe organs in the Custody of the Holy Land. Fr. Stanislaus was Commissioner of the Holy Land from 1976 to 2011. Thanks to him, the Custody of the Holy Land was able to celebrate its liturgies with beautiful organs in Jerusalem (Holy Sepulchre, Church of St. Savior, Basilica of Gethsemane), in Bethlehem (Church of St. Catherine at the Basilica of the Nativity) and in Nazareth (Upper and Lower Basilica of the Annunciation and Church of St. Joseph). Without the work of Fr. Stanislaus, the Terra Sancta Organ Festival would not have been possible. Fr. Stanislaus loved the largest of musical instruments, but he played one of the smallest: the harmonica (see him playing it during the inauguration of the new Rieger organ in the Basilica of Nazareth in 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8MMxM5iFb8 ). We like to imagine that from today Fr. Stanislaus will still play his harmonica to accompany the choir of angels.
San Francesco e il Sultano
St. Francis and the Sultan
القديس فرنسيس والسلطان
Opera in four parts
Libretto: Bartolomeo Pirone
Music: Fr. Khalil Rahme
Orchestration: Fadi Taouk
Produced by the Custody of the Holy Land with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beirut and Pro Terra Sancta.
Technical sponsor: Noursat / Telelumiere.
Watch it on YouTube
Join us to watch the concerts live streaming below:
6 p.m. – Jerusalem, Athens, Rhodes, Cyprus, Damascus, Amman, Beirut
5 p.m. – Roma, Berlin, Wien, Bern and Central European Time
4 p.m. – London, Dublin, Lisbon
12 p.m. – Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires
11 a.m. – EST
10 a.m. – CT
9 a.m. – MT
8 a.m. – PT
WATCH MORE CONCERTS ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL http://www.youtube.com/c/TerraSanctaOrganFestival
OR FACEBOOK PAGE https://www.facebook.com/TerraSanctaOrgan/
Terra Sancta Organ Festival
Custodia Terrae Sanctae
Memorial of Moses
Mount Nebo Siyagha
Faysaliyah – P.O.B. 217196
Madaba JORDAN
e-mail: organfestival@custodia.org
