Festival Imago dei inspires with Handel's oratorio and interreligious peace

Festival Imago dei inspires with Handel's oratorio and interreligious peace

Krems, Österreich - On March 30, 2025, Albert Hosp opened his first season as the artistic director of the “Imago Dei” festival in the Minoritekirche Krems with the remarkable Austrian premiere of the Oratorium “Israel in Egypt - From Slavery to Freedom” by Handel. The concert, which was sold out, set crashy accents by underlining the need for an interreligious dialogue through music. Philosopher Konrad Paul Liessmann opened the evening with a speech about the topic "Zum Eternal Peace", inspired by Immanuel Kant's script of the same name. He emphasized the urgency of legal framework for permanent peace and criticized the global upgrade.

Handel's oratorio treats the dramatic liberation of Israel from Egyptian captivity and is designed in an urgent way. However, despite his Old Testament hardness, it should set a sign of the peaceful music together of the three monotheistic world religions. This concept developed Werner Ehrhardt, who founded the Concerto Cologne, among other things, and heads the L’Arte del Mondo orchestra. This cultural event was supported by the group Al Ol (desert wind), led by Yair Dalal, who is known for their cooperation with musicians from Israel and neighboring countries.

diverse program and artistic participation

The concert choir Lower Austria was carried out under the direction of Tobias Grabher, which the musical diversity underlined again. Also in the following days there is an abundance of events at the “Imago Dei” festival, with a total of seven other program items until Easter Monday. The participants include Franziska Fleischanderl, the Koehne Quartet and the internationally renowned guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel. Particularly noteworthy is Lena Willemark, who acts as an artist in Residence.

A cultural highlight of the festival is the exhibition with a dead dance image cycle by Herwig Zens and scores of the composer George Crumb. The last concert evening will be a tribute to the festival founder Jo Aichinger, who would have been 70 years old on April 8th. The merger of music and spiritual topics, as is also discussed in the scientific discussion of music and religious didactics, plays a central role in the identity of the festival.

music as an interreligious dialogue

The connection between music and religion has an ambivalent history in the academic world. Music and religious didactics are often confronted with similar challenges, especially in the school context. The contribution to the discussion about the role of music in religious experience shows the desire of the scientists to intensify the dialogue with the cultural environment. The focus is not only on the imparting of knowledge, but also on the development of subject -didactic competence for interdisciplinary collaboration of students.

The band "Music in religious experience" documents various facets of this topic, including the relationship between music in Islam and Judaism as well as interreligious perspectives. These aspects show how strongly religious content and musical aesthetics are linked and offer directional material for current discussions about spirituality and music.

The “Imago dei” festival not only affirms cultural diversity, but also invites you to reflect on peace and cooperation between religions.

For more information about the festival and the full program, interested parties can visit the website vienna.at href = "https://www.academia.edu/40073263/reinhod_bernhardt_Verena_GR%C3%BCter_eds_Interrigi%C3%B6se_ HORIZONT_ERVIENTUNG_ DETHMOUSIK_INTERREIGIOUS_BODENING_OF_HORIZONS_THROUGH_MOUSIC "> Academia.edu inform about the philosophical and musical contexts.