Festivitas Artium Schola

The Centre of Early and Oriental Music Festivitas Artium. Schola, founded in collaboration between the University of Tartu and Festivitas Artium in January 2000, is a natural fllow-up to the early music research and study in Tartu, and helps to further the work of the ensemble Via Sonora and the tradition of the Tartu Early Music Festival.

As a Greek loan word in Latin, schola originally denoted spending time in intelligent conversation. Later the familiar contemporary meanings of ’teaching’ and ’learnedness’ were conflated with it. Festivitas Artium. Schola accommodates both the old and the new meaning – in addition to study events, the centre organises many concert projects in which the stage belongs, on an equal footing, to students of music as well as established professionals from both Estonia and abroad.

The ensemble FA Schola, working under the auspices of the University of Tartu, focuses primarily on the European medieval music. Members of the ensemble are also active in teaching a variety of instruments. As a centre of study, FA Schola’s purpose lies in researching, comparing and propagating through music the European medieval and traditional Oriental cultures.