Academia Ars Augusta
Care for music and theater in Silesia & Saxony

The border region in the triangle between Lower Silesia (Poland), Bohemia (Czech Republik) and Lusatia (Germany) is often called „Arcadia“ because of its abundance of historical sites all over its beautyful landscape. This region once was bursting from energy of all kinds, cultural, economical and political, but since the end of WW2, it is still waiting to be „kissed back to life again".

The european strategy for regional development seeks to combine culture with tourism in respect of ecological demands. From this perspective we will contribute by initiating an International Academy for Music and Theater.

Young singers, musicians and actors from all over the world will not only study with experienced stage directors and artists on famous works from the european music & opera history, but also rediscover and perform forgotten masterpieces from the local cultural heritage, experimenting with new and sustainable ways of performing opera and involving local craftsmen and artisans in the production process.

The center of the project will be the „Pearl of Żeliszów“, a beautiful abandoned former German protestant church built in 1786 by Carl Langhans in classicist style, already became famous through the internet as a „lost place“ with a magical light. In the year 2013 a group of young polish artists created the foundation „Your heritage“ in order to save the Pearl from perishing. The foundation soon became the owner of the place and In 2018 a fruitful collaboration was established with the German society "Ars-Augusta e.V." in order to transform the former church into a multicultural arena especially for music and theater. In 2020 an international academy workshop has already taken place with Madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi, finished successfully with a public concert for donations. Now renovation works are going on fast and soon we will change the status of this place from „lost“ to „found again“.

ARCADIA seeks to give new life and meaning to the „Pearl“ by filling it with music and young energy, thus turning it into a symbol of uprise and new positive spirit for the hole region.

The three projects that the Academia wants to create in case of winning the Fedora prize are:

1. „The birth of the german opera“, a workshop on the poetry of Martin Opitz and music of Heinrich Schütz.

Martin Opitz, a silesian poet and Heinrich Schütz, a saxonian musician, created the very first german opera „Dafne“, which unfortunately got lost. But a lot of wonderful madrigals composed by the two baroque artists still exist. A Workshop on these Madrigals with Enrique Gomez-Cabrero Fernandez and Marie Kuijken will end with a performance with costumes and lights in the „Pearl“ (and in the baroque castle of Rammenau in Saxony - June 2021) The project already is partly financed by "Mitteldeutsche Barockmusik e.V." and the federal fund of the "Kulturreferat für Schlesien“. (Oktober 2021).

2. The rediscovery of the forgotten Italian baroque composer Antonio Bioni (1698–1739), who was working in the opera of Wroclaw (Breslau). With an international premiere, ARCADIA will revive the opera „La pace far la virtú e la bellezza“ (1739) in the „Pearl“, followed by a tournee through all the small theaters in the region of Silesia.

3. Final project for the year 2022: „Orfeo“ by Claudio Monteverdi with stage director Piotr Jedrzejas and the Lausitzer Barockensemble. (July 2022).

All projects will be recorded and streamed online, a special brochure about the composers and their music will be released. The participants in the project get recordings of the events and a diploma from the Academy.

Artistic Team

Artistic Director: Eleni loannidou, Opera singer and Producer, Chief of Ars-Augusta e.V. , founder of the "Lausitzer Barockensemble". In the course of her career she attended some of the most important academies as the "Academia della Scala di Milano" and the Academia „Il Teatro e la Musica“ of the European Community in Prato (Italy).

Assistant and logistics: Wilk Korwin-Szymanowski, Director of the foundation "Your heritage“ and administrator of the "Pearl of Zeliszow".

MusicaI direction: Enrique Gomez-Cabrero Fernandez, baroque-violinist and conductor, tutor, concertmaster of the Lausitzer Barockensemble. Enrique lives in real passion for early music and already conducted the first opera production of the "Academia Ars Augusta“, the rediscovered (after 300 years of oblivion) opera „Giove in Argo“ by Antonio Lotti, performed in 2019 at the "Palais im grossen Garten" in Dresden, Germany.

Stage director, tutor for the staging: Piotr Jedrzejas, former director of the "Norwid Theater" in Jelenia Gora, a well recognized theater-personality with great love for the music, the theater and open for innovative ideas and concepts.

Marie Kuijken, singer and teacher. Very recognized musician with a lot of experience as a teacher of the academy „La petite Bande“ in Italy.