The Festival de Música Antiga "La Vila del Joy" presents its 8th edition with the most ambitious programme of those held so far. The Església de l'Assumpció de la Vila Joiosa, a 16th century Catalan Gothic building, will be the venue for exquisite performances by some of the most fashionable musicians on the world scene, such as the violinist Amandine Beyer, the harpsichordist Dani Espasa, the countertenor Xavier Sabata, the specialist in Sufi music Ali Keeler, the cornetist Gebhard David or the specialist in Eastern Mediterranean llaüts Efrén López.

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The opening concert will take place on Saturday 17th of September in which we will be able to hear the soprano Èlia Casanova, together with the Renaissance group LUCENTUM XVI. They will perform the program Dolcissimi respiri, dedicated to the female presence in the music of the XV, XVI and XVII centuries. After a selection of renaissance polyphony by the singers of Barcelona, Palau, Montecassino and Colombina, we will arrive at the 17th century with two excellent composers of the first baroque, such as Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi.

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Saturday 24th September will be the concert of the French violinist Amandine Beyer and her group GLI INCOGNITI. Amandine is a reference in the interpretation of the baroque repertoire for violin, with recordings repeatedly awarded, and performances in the four corners of the world. Accompanied by the Italian Anna Fontana on the harpsichord and the viola da gamba of the Galician Baldomero Barciela, they will show us a set of exquisite sonatas and concertos in the "touching" style of François Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, alongside other Frenchmen, but with Italian influence, such as Jean-Féry Rebel and Jean-Marie Leclair.

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On Saturday October 1st we will attend the premiere of the international tour of the program "inVISIBILI" by the countertenor Xavier Sabata and the baroque orchestra VESPRES D'ARNADÍ conducted by the harpsichordist Dani Espasa. The tour of this ensemble will continue at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in London, followed by concerts in Salamanca, Madrid, Seville and Barcelona. This programme brings together a set of aries and symphonies by baroque composers such as Giacomelli, Porta, Gasparini, Bononcini and Pollarolo, who have been overshadowed by the better-known Händel, Bach and Vivaldi.

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The concert of the concert on Sunday 9th October, Valencian Day, will be performed by the group Al FIRDAUS ENSEMBLE. This ensemble, directed by Ali Keeler, is specialized in Andalusian and Sufi music, and despite being based in the city of Granada, it is formed by musicians of Moroccan, English and Venetian origin. In this concert they will have the collaboration of the Valencian llaudist Efrén López, and they will show us verses set to music by Al-Russafí and other poets of the Xarq Al-Andalus, or what is the same, the pre-Christian Valencia that the king Jaume I found when he made his official entrance on October 9th, 1238.