Gruppo Seicento, conducted by Rami Alqhai, will open the festival on 29 June with a programme entitled “Buxtehude vs Bach”; they will be followed on 30 June by Leonardo Luckert in a performance of Bach’s cello suites. On 2 July, Tasto Solo under the direction of Guillermo Pérez will perform “Meyster ob allen Meystern”, the programme that took first prize at the 2006 Antwerp Festival’s prestigious international early music competition.

The programme will feature works by Conrad Paumann and the 15th-century German keyboard school. The Seville Baroque Orchestra and their principal guest conductor Monica Huggett will appear at the festival on 4 July, followed on 5 July by the Granada Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Darío Moreno, with Ángel Sampedro as concertino in a programme entitled “El estilo Francés”. On 6 July, the last day of the festival, there will be two concerts.

The first will be given by the organist Andrés Cea, accompanied by the “Castillo de Aracena” Minstrels, who will perform a selection of 16th-century Andalusian polyphonic works. The closing concert of the Aracena Festival will be the Festival’s own production, conducted by Aníbal Soriano, featuring Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Telemann’s Concerto for Viola da gamba with Calia Álvarez as gambist and Rosenmüller sonatas.

The Festival also includes the following courses: Fahmi Alqhai and Rami Alqhai, viola da gamba; José Hernández, voice; Pedro Gandía, baroque violin; Juan Carlos de Mulder and Aníbal Soriano, plucked string instruments; Juan Manuel Ibarra, harpsichord; Vicente Parrilla, recorder; Andrés Cea, organ; a luthier workshop with Carlos González and Joaquín García, and a children’s workshop with Alicia Robles and Cristina Andrade.