Festival The Art of Song Maastricht

From 23 to 28 February 2027, Maastricht will once again be devoted to the art of song during The Art of Song Maastricht. The festival brings together leading international musicians and emerging young talent in the historic heart of the city. Under the theme Pilgrimage of Song, song is approached as a journey through languages, cultures and generations: from poet to composer, from score to performer and ultimately to you, the listener. Themes such as travelling, longing, the search for love and melancholic memories return again and again. Join us on this musical pilgrimage through special historic venues around the Vrijthof.

Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside open the festival with the programme Eight Haiku, in which eight short poems by Japanese Americans interned during the Second World War serve as the starting point for a musical journey through almost two centuries of art song. In just a few lines, the haiku speak of farewell, uprooting, deportation, memory, nature and dreams. Around each poem, Williams and Burnside place songs by composers including Schubert, Beethoven, Britten, Poulenc, Fauré, Vaughan Williams and Schumann.

The deeply personal words of people who lost both their freedom and their homes are brought together with music, creating a sequence of moving poetic miniatures.

Roderick Williams is one of the leading British baritones of his generation. He enjoys an international career in opera, oratorio and art song. In recognition of his services to music, he received a high royal honour (OBE) and also performed at the coronation of King Charles III. Iain Burnside is regarded as one of Britain’s foremost song pianists, with an extensive discography and collaborations with many of the great singers of his generation, including Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and Dame Margaret Price.