Fonte Vivace — Festival for Early Music Aachen

A Lively Source for Early Music in the Imperial City

Fonte Vivace — Italian for "lively source" — is Aachen's festival for historical performance practice. The name says it all: Early music shouldn't sound museum-like, but fresh and vibrant, played on the instruments of its time, with the understanding of the sources and the joy of improvisation that originally characterized this music. Aachen, once the Carolingian imperial city, provides a historically rich resonance space for this.

Three Weeks, Twelve Concerts

The festival runs annually from late April to early May for about three weeks, with around twelve concerts in churches, historic halls, and concert venues in and around Aachen. The program spans from the Middle Ages (troubadour songs, courtly love) through the Renaissance to the High Baroque (Bach, Telemann, Handel, Goldberg). There are also school concerts for primary school children — educational work has been part of the mission since the festival's inception.

Ludus Instrumentalis as Ensemble in Residence

The Cologne-based Baroque ensemble Ludus Instrumentalis, founded in 2014, is the festival's ensemble in residence. It has won, among other awards, the Berlin Bach Competition and is regularly heard in concert halls across Europe. In Aachen, it shapes the festival with its own programs and performs in various formations, from chamber music trios to expanded continuo ensembles.

Lorenzo Alpert and Judith Konter

Artistic direction is in the hands of two specialists: Lorenzo Alpert plays historical bassoon and dulcian, Judith Konter is a baroque transverse flutist. Both teach and perform internationally and founded the festival in Aachen in the 2010s. Their profile: consistently source-based programs, but with a passion for experimentation and cross-border projects.

Aachen and the Three-Country Corner

Aachen is located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the far west of Germany, on the border with Belgium and the Netherlands. This location shapes the festival: it regularly cooperates with ensembles from Liège, Maastricht, or Brussels and positions itself as a supra-regional platform for early music. Those who travel to Aachen for music in the spring often combine the festival with a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage Aachen Cathedral — itself a place where Carolingian music once resounded.