Michigan Festival of Sacred Music

Michigan Festival of Sacred Music

Website: http://www.mfsm.us

 269.382.2910

 PO Box 50566, Kalamazoo, MI 49005

The mission of the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music is to present high-quality events which represent diverse religious traditions, promoting mutual respect and understanding through sharing the music treasured by these traditions, and promoting community interaction. These events include public concerts, lectures, and related workshops.
The Michigan Festival of Sacred Music (MFSM) was established in 2000, after a study made with support from the Irving S. Gilmore and the Kalamazoo Community Foundations concluded that such a festival is both desirable and feasible. The festival is a biennial event, occurring in November in odd-numbered years. In 2004, the MFSM began to present “off-year” events during the intervening seasons, which increased awareness and visibility of MFSM, while furthering its mission. Since 2007, the festival has expanded its “weekend” and added “fringe” events, and now covers 10 days. This practice spread events out less densely in a manner that made multiple events more easy to attend, created more opportunities for collaboration with other organizations, made more opportunities for outreach with artists, and enabled use of a wider variety of venues, in more widely distributed locations. In 2007, MFSM also assumed co-sponsorship (with First Congregational Church) of the Messiah Sing, held on the Sunday following Thanksgiving.