The 21st International Academy of Sacred Music takes place from May 26 to June 3 2012. The Academy was founded in 1992 and has remained under the direction of its founder, the British specialist Michael Procter, ever since.

Since 2005 the Academy is based in the Istituto Artigianelli, a beautifully converted monastery on the Fondamente Zattere. Here the Academy members are housed, in excellent modern bedrooms, each with its bathroom and telephone. Here, too, the six hours of daily intensive rehearsal are held. The Istituto also encloses the 15th century church of Santa Maria della Visitazione, where our daily rehearsals take place. Evening meals are taken communally at the nearby Ristorante San Trovaso, directly adjacent to the monastery. Prices for accommodation etc. are given below.

The Academy is designed as a participatory course of the highest possible level, for choirmasters, church musicians and experienced choir singers, and on special occasions for players of Renaissance instruments. Its repertoire is always drawn specifically from the Venetian, and mainly from the Marcan (San Marco) sacred music of the 16th century. Since 1994 the Venice Academy has had the unique privilege of singing the Solemn High Mass at St Mark's.

This year the Academy is dedicated in particular to the music of Giovanni Gabrieli and Hans Leo Hassler. Both composers were pupils of Andrea Gabrieli, and remained friends for the rest of their lives. They even wrote music together for the wedding of a Nürnberg merchant, Georg Gruber; when the composers both died in 1612, Gruber edited a huge anthology of their music, which was published in 1615. The music studied - including pieces for 18 and 19 parts - in three and four choirs - will be performed in a concert on the Thursday evening, and in the Solemn Mass at San Marco on the final Sunday morning, Trinity Sunday. We are also intending to perform at Gabrieli's grave in the magnificent church of S. Stefano.