The Serenades Festival, held at the Cloister of La Nau Cultural Centre of the Universitat de València until July 2nd, celebrates this year the 35th edition of this initiative organised by the Universitat de València and the Valencian Institute of Culture, who uses the cloister as part of the Summer Night Festival. Tickets can be purchased at the website http://www.latenda.es/entrades with a symbolic price of 3 euros.

Capella de Ministrers, in a concert in cooperation with the office of the Vice-Principal for Equality, Diversity and Sustainability, performed ‘El collar de la Paloma’ (The Ring of the Dove), a work based on the book of the same name by the Andalusian humanist, poet and writer Ibn Hazm, considered one of the most outstanding authors in Arabic literature. With this performance, Capella de Ministrers commemorates 1,000 years since the “first treatise on love and lovers”, according to Manuela Cortes, doctor on Philosophy and Letters by the Autonomous University of Madrid.

‘The Ring of the Dove’ is a poetic anthology that collects reflections about the true essence of love and tries to discover what is common and immutable about it throughout centuries and civilisations. The work uses the loving experience of the author as a common thread to reason philosophically and gives first hand testimony of what was to love in Al-Andalus during the ruling of the Umayyad dynasty. The concert, which coincided with the LGBTIQ+ pride celebration in València, vindicated plural love. The director of Capella de Ministrers, Carles Madraner, referred to limitless and genderless love while reading poetic passages of ‘The Ring of the Dove’, alternated with and enlivened by music.

In this occasion, Capella de Ministrers put faith in collective memory and paid tribute to a key figure that lived the glory of the Caliphate of Córdoba, its subsequent decline and decadence and the anarchy of the taifas, in a complex and critical time for the philosopher, theologian and historian. His hazardous life and exile went by Malaga, València, Xàtiva, Almería, Dénia, Majorca and Seville. He looked for shelter in the family village of Niebla, next to Montija (Huelva), where he died.

Capella de Ministrers, directed by Carles Magraner, celebrates 35 years of artistic career in 2022. From its beginning, it has been an international benchmark in the recovery and dissemination of musical heritage. It has recovered and disseminated this heritage in more than 1,600 concerts and gathered it on thorough discographic works. Its research activity, which goes back to the Middle Ages, has been recognised with the renowned International Classical Music Award (ICMA) and the Carles Santos Award in 2018. It has also been a finalist for the ICMA 2021 and has been nominated in 2022, among many other recognitions throughout its history.

Serenades, co-produced by the Universitat de València and the Valencian Institute of Culture, has had overwhelming success throughout its history and has been developed in conjunction with the Valencian Provincial Council, Valencia’s City Hall through the Palau de la Música de València, the Valencian Provincial Council, the Banco Sabadell Foundation, the Bancaja Foundation, the College of Art and Design of Valencia (EASD) and the Women’s Legacy project.