The Göttingen International Handel Festival (German, Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen) is a German festival of baroque music, based in Göttingen, Germany. The festival was established in 1919 and gave its first performances in 1920. The festival has largely focused on the music of George Frideric Handel and has helped to revive and cultivate increased performances of Handel's music during the twentieth century. The festival involves professional musicians from throughout the world and their performances are largely concerned with employing historical baroque performance practices.
The festival produces one fully staged opera by Handel every year and several of his oratorios. In addition, the Festival features several performances of the chamber music of Handel and his contemporaries. The festival also features open-air classic events, late evening concerts and a host of other performances in especially distinctive surroundings, lectures, film showings and guided tours of the city.
Past artistic directors have included Fritz Lehmann, from 1934 to 1953, except for a break from 1944 through 1946 related to conflict with the Nazi authorities. John Eliot Gardiner was the festival's artistic director from 1981 to 1990. Since 1991, Nicholas McGegan has served as the festival's artistic director. In 2006, the festival created its own professional orchestra, the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen (FOG), which focuses on performing baroque music. McGegan is scheduled to step down from the artistic directorship of the festival in 2011.[1] In September 2011, Tobias Wolff is scheduled to assume the post of Intendant (Managing Director) of the Festival[2], and Laurence Cummings is scheduled to become the new artistic director of the festival[3].