Fundació Cima

The CIMA Foundation The International Ancient Music Centre Foundation (CIMA) was established by Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras to ensure the recovery and appreciation of the universal musical heritage from the year 900 until 1850, with exceptional works from the mediaeval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, and with particular attention to the Hispanic and Mediterranean musical heritage. The CIMA Foundation is convinced that ancient music is of extraordinary importance to today’s world, such is its beauty and expressive power, as well as being of prime importance in the current context of a “clash of civilizations”. Ancient music belongs and relates equally to the Mediterranean and New World cultural spheres and the CIMA Foundation does everything within its power to recover and promote this ancient musical heritage. Our task is to ensure that this musical heritage does not remain forgotten, and this we do through in-depth, systematic study of the composers and their works, even when they are little known today, or scattered amongst different libraries and collections. Furthermore, our concerts and recordings make them available to audiences all round the world. Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras have established a number of ensembles that embody the Foundation’s concert activity: the instrumental ensemble Hespèrion XX (1974), with Hopkinson Smith and Lorenzo Alpert; the vocal ensemble La Capella Reial de Catalunya (1987); and the Concert des Nations orchestra, which performs Baroque music on original instruments (1989). All of these have rapidly risen to the forefront of ancient music performance thanks to a new conception of it characterised by great musical vivacity hand in hand with the highest degree of historical accuracy in performance.