Anima Mundi festival celebrates 25 years with concert in Pisa Cathedral

The Anima Mundi sacred music festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Pisa. The event is produced by the Opera della Primaziale Pisana with support from the Fondazione Pisa and the Municipality of Pisa.

The inaugural concert is scheduled for Tuesday, September 8, at 9:00 PM in the Pisa Cathedral, following a traditional brass fanfare from the top of the Leaning Tower. Renowned conductor John Eliot Gardiner, who served as the festival's artistic director from 2006 to 2017, will lead the performance.

Gardiner will perform with his new ensembles, The Constellation Choir & Orchestra, alongside soloists Hilary Cronin, Samantha Cobb, and Jonathan Hanley. The program features two major 19th-century German spiritual works: Johannes Brahms’s ‘Schicksalslied’ (Song of Destiny, Op. 54) and Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Lobgesang’ (Symphony No. 2).