Festina Lente Ensemble | Italy
Partes Open Opera Ukraine Ensemble | Ukraine
The centerpiece of the program will be a Mass by Alessandro Scarlatti, composed in 1707, which will be performed in Ukraine for the first time thanks to the initiative and direct participation of one of Italy’s most renowned early music ensembles — the Festina Lente Ensemble.
The ensemble’s leader, Michele Gasbarro, is a respected scholar and interpreter of Italian Renaissance and Baroque music. The main mission of the Festina Lente Ensemble is to revive and present to a broad audience the rare and unpublished musical heritage of Italy across different centuries.
Today, the ensemble focuses particularly on sacred music — uncovering works of the Catholic tradition preserved in public and private archives, and performing them in a manner that closely reflects authentic liturgical practices.
Balancing concert appearances in Italy and abroad with intensive studio work, the Festina Lente Ensemble has produced numerous premiere recordings. Since 2004, it has also served as the organizer of the Rome Baroque Festival (Roma Festival Barocco).
The Partes Open Opera Ukraine Ensemble shares a similar artistic vision. Since 2019, it has been systematically exploring the sacred heritage of the Ukrainian Baroque through its Musica Sacra Ukraina laboratory, combining performance with recordings of rarely heard or newly rediscovered Ukrainian church music.
This exceptional collaboration between the two ensembles marks their first joint performance — a meeting of musicians experienced in interpreting sacred music from distinct Christian traditions. The unique works presented in the concert have never before been heard in Ukraine, offering listeners a vivid journey into the sound world of Roman ecclesiastical life at the dawn of the 18th century.
With the support of the Embassy of Italy in Ukraine (Ambasciata d’Italia in Ucraina) and the Italian Cultural Institute in Kyiv (Istituto Italiano di Cultura Kyiv).