Cultura Sacra: a celebration of musical spirituality

04 April 2023

Post originally written in: Deutsch

A fine music festival, unfortunately little known until now, celebrates its 25th birthday. ‚Cultura Sacra‘ has developed into a series of events in the parish church of Götz, which has already attracted international attention. The anniversary year begins this year on April 16 with music by Bach and his contemporaries in the parish church ‚Peter und Paul‘.

I admit it: Cultura Sacra was not really a term for me until now. And that, although I love the baroque parish church of Götzens and baroque music by Mozart and especially Johann Sebastian Bach. Baroque architecture, however, is not to my taste. But the location of the church and the mild light in the afternoon are extraordinary. I can well imagine that the music of this period in combination with the magical soft light of the setting afternoon sun creates a special mood.

Private initiative with depth

Like many cultural initiatives, ‚Cultura Sacra‘ sprang from a private initiative. The couple Eva-Maria and Federico Zogg founded the association in 1997, with the pilgrimage church of Götzens at its center. Incidentally, this is where the now beatified priest Otto Neururer had worked until his arrest by the Gestapo and subsequent murder by the Nazis. The couple wanted to musically enliven the history of this house, but above all the concrete activities of the parish with the idea of a 'Sacred Culture'.

Three series of sacred music

In this extraordinary atmosphere, for 25 years now, homage has been paid to a 'cultural spirituality' during the year with three different concert series: the ‚Tiroler Barocktage‘ celebrates spring, the ‚Musiksommer Götzens‘ offers folk music in the church hall at summertime, and the series ‚Avantgarde & Zeitgeist‘ presents new sacred music in autumn. So it is only natural that also the visual arts in Götzens are given wide space in the context of exhibitions. (A program overview can be found on the website of Cultura Sacra.)

This year's 'association year' of Cultura Sacra starts on April 16, 2023 with one of four concerts within the framework of ‚Tiroler Barocktage‘ with music by Bach and his contemporaries. The leader of this series within the Cultura Sacra is a musician, choir director, conductor and music theorist known far beyond Tyrol: Wolfgang Kostner. I wanted to learn more about this fine cultural initiative in Götzens from the professor at the Pädagogische Hochschule Tirol ("I am a self-confessed pedagogue"), whose 'main profession' is teacher training.

Kostner begins with a kind of apology. "I'm not from Götz and actually have my musical roots in Hatting," he laughs. There he is not only active as an organist, leader of the church choir and member of the music band. If you search through old newspaper reports, you will also learn about the chamber choir he founded NovoCanto, which he founded with like-minded fellow students in 2000 to learn about rarely performed vocal music of the Baroque era. "They were joined by local musicians on period instruments," Kostner says, "who now form the Orchestra of Tyrolean Baroque Instrumentalists." In the meantime, NovoCanto and the Tyrolean Baroque Instrumentalists have also been able to assert themselves beyond the region.

Wolfgang Kostner and the Tyrolean Baroque Days

"When Mr. and Mrs. Zogg, the founders of this cultural initiative, approached me about 13 years ago to ask me to program the baroque music series, I felt very honored and immediately accepted," Kostner recounts. An exceedingly good choice, if one knows that Kostner is also one of the proven connoisseurs of baroque Tyrolean music. If there had still been the slightest doubt about his qualities: His dissertation on the ‚Festwochen Alter Musik‘ shows him to be an excellent expert on baroque music.

Thus, in the meantime, the ‚Tiroler Barocktage‘ in Götzens have developed into a high-quality concert series that has also met with an international response. No wonder that Wolfgang Kostner receives more and more requests from renowned top ensembles: "That excellent ensembles are willing to accept our rather modest fees is a great compliment for our concert series." Another characteristic of ‚Tiroler Barocktage‘ is likely to come into play: the "personal, almost family atmosphere," as Kostner puts it.

Musical 'Sustainability

Kostner attaches great importance to the 'sustainability' of the Tyrolean Baroque Days. What does he mean by this in concrete terms?

"We want to be a platform for young singers, ensembles and instrumentalists on historical instruments and bring them together with international soloists," he formulates the basic idea. "Furthermore, it is one of our core goals to push regional ensembles and high-performance domestic choirs and also to perform regional, historical compositions from the Baroque period." In other words, Cultura Sacra should be attractive to young, local musicians who will continue to support this small, fine festival in the future.

Even in the times of pandemic, they wanted to give local musical talents the opportunity to show their skills. Therefore, concerts were streamed on the Internet. In the following Youtube video, the vocal ensemble NovoCanto, the Tyrolean Baroque Instrumentalists and Cladia Delago-Norz performed under the direction of Prof. Wolfgang Kostner in 2022.

Folk music and new, sacred music

Another thing that fascinates me about the annual program of Cultura Sacra is the 'mixture' of the concert series. There is the ‚Musiksommer Götzens‘ with folk music in the church hall. On four Sundays in June and July, young folk musicians and ensembles play in the church at 7 pm. to the higher honor', as one says in Tirol to it. The concerts are programmed by Andreas Schreier, a proven folk music expert.

Enthusiasm as the driving force

You can imagine it: Cultura Sacra 'lives' from the commitment and enthusiasm of the participating music artists. Because the budget of this 'festival of spiritual music' is more than manageable. "Actually it flows into the - anyway modest - fees of our musicians", says Wolfgang Kostner. Not only the founding couple Eva-Maria and Federico Zogg have always worked without pay. Those responsible for the three concert series also receive only - in the truest sense of the word - God's reward for their efforts.

It may sound strange, but for me these are clear signs that this festival is one of those rather rare events, rich in quality and content, which draw their strength and charisma from the ideas and enthusiasm for music. In addition, in the case of Götzens, there is the embedding in a village community with a functioning parish.