Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza

The Early Music Festival of Úbeda & Baeza (Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza, FeMAUB) was founded in 1997 to act as a showcase for the artistic and cultural attractions of the two towns, both jointly declared UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2003. The history of the festival is linked to the urban landscape of Úbeda and Baeza and to the numerous Renaissance spaces which serve as auditoriums. Moreover, the cultural centrality of Úbeda/Baeza allows the FeMAUB to impact the rest of the province of Jaén through the Vandelvira Festival, which hosts concerts in churches, palaces and castles designed by the well-known architect Andrés de Vandelvira (1505-1575).

The festival commemorates a different theme of historical music each year and includes a wide diversity of perspectives, within varied forms of concerts (organ concerts, parades, pedagogical and social concerts, etc.), exhibitions, outreach talks, classes, and high-level conferences. From its origins, the FeMAUB has promoted the recovery and diffusion of the Iberian and Latin-American musical heritage, making this vast, and sometimes forgotten, part of the Hispanic culture known by means of première concerts and first worldwide recordings. In fact, from 2013 the FeMAUB acts as the Observing Promoter (EPO) for R+D projects hosted by the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC), as the festival is considered to be vital in the transference of knowledge to society.

In 2007, the FMAUB was the first Andalusian festival that formed part of the European Early Music Network (REMA). The following year the festival was incorporated in the Spanish Association of Classical Music Festivals (Asociación Española de Festivales de Música Clásica, FestClásica), which has allowed the festival to integrate its program into national and international circuits from an independent position. Among the prizes awarded to the FMAUB are the prize to the Best Cultural Institution of Andalusia (“Mejor Institución Cultural de Andalucía”; RTVA, 2006) and the EFFE Label 2017-2018 and 2019-2021 (Europe for Festivals-Festivals for Europe). These awards recognize the remarkable achievement of the festivals in their innovative design, commitment to the European project, and its continued efforts to reach out and develop new audiences. It has also been recognised with the GEMA Award 2020 for the Best Early Music Festival in Spain and the “Jaén, Paraíso Interior” Award 2021.