From MERITA to MERITAcubed: A New Cultural Chapter for Europe

News | November 19, 2025

A First Cycle That Redefined Collaboration

Launched in 2022, MERITA set out to be a programme for rising chamber music ensembles. Three years later, it is evident that something much bigger had emerged. MERITA created a transnational cultural network within which musicians, heritage sites, and institutions collaborated toward the re-conceptualization of how classical music is produced, shared, and consumed across Europe.

The project linked together 38 ensembles with historic villas, gardens, foundations, museums, and local communities by activating often-ignored or underused locations. Via residencies, training, digital innovation, and nearly 200 concerts, MERITA demonstrated how chamber music can at once preserve Europe’s cultural heritage and open it up to new, inclusive opportunities.

It also produced tools and reflections that will continue to shape the sector: a new sustainability approach for concerts, a CO₂ calculator adapted to chamber music, guidelines for heritage management, and a manifesto calling for culture to be recognized as a universal right. MERITA did not just train musicians; it helped build a shared cultural vision.

A Natural Step Forward: MERITAcubed

With the first cycle completed, MERITA now enters a new phase: MERITAcubed (2025–2029). Funded again by the European Commission and coordinated by Le Dimore del Quartetto, the new cycle expands the project in both scale and ambition. What began as a platform now becomes a broader cultural movement.

The network grows to 22 organisations from 16 countries, bringing together musicians, heritage experts, festival organisers, researchers, and cultural operators. MERITAcubed doesn’t simply continue the work of MERITA—it deepens it, connecting more disciplines, more communities, and more parts of Europe.

A New Generation of Artists and Ideas

One of the most striking features of MERITAcubed is its double artistic pathway. Twelve ensembles from the original cycle return to develop new projects with more independence and creative freedom, building directly on the experience gained in MERITA.

Alongside them, forty-four new ensembles (string quartets and piano trios) join the project. They will work through online trainings, residencies, and collaborations with cultural institutions. For many, this marks the first real opportunity to position themselves internationally and to engage with heritage spaces in meaningful, artistically rich ways.

This mix of returning ensembles and newcomers creates a rare environment where experience and experimentation coexist.

Heritage as a Stage for Innovation

If the first cycle brought music into historic houses, MERITAcubed widens the map: ten historic gardens selected by the Asociación Red Europea de Jardines Históricos and ten cultural sites chosen by Europa Nostra will host the upcoming concerts. These places are not just scenic backdrops. They are spaces where memory meets contemporary creation – where musicians can rethink what a concert can be and how audiences engage with it.

This shift reflects one of MERITA’s core principles: cultural heritage should not be passive. It can be activated, reimagined, and made relevant for today’s Europe.

Sustainability, Technology, and Cultural Rights at the Centre

MERITAcubed integrates lessons from the first cycle and pushes them further. The sustainability component becomes more sophisticated, with an improved CO₂ calculator, a new sustainability matrix, and a geolocation tool to reduce unnecessary travel and help musicians plan greener tours. These tools move beyond theory and address real problems musicians and cultural venues face.

The project also expands its commitment to cultural inclusion. It promotes underrepresented artists, widens access for audiences who rarely encounter chamber music, and supports new formats that connect music with theatre, dance, visual arts, and digital experimentation.

In short, MERITAcubed treats chamber music not as something fixed, but as something that can evolve, adapt, and speak to contemporary Europe.

Shaping the Cultural Landscape of Tomorrow

MERITAcubed is the most ambitious chapter in the MERITA story so far. It brings together heritage and innovation, past and future, tradition and experimentation. It strengthens collaboration across sectors and countries, expands opportunities for young artists, and works with policymakers to ensure that cultural rights remain at the centre of Europe’s priorities.

If MERITA showed what is possible when music meets heritage, MERITAcubed aims to show what is possible when Europe’s cultural actors move forward together with clearer purpose, stronger networks, and a shared belief that culture should be accessible, sustainable, and connected.

The new cycle is not just a continuation of a project. It is a commitment to shaping the future of Europe’s cultural ecosystem: one residency, one partnership, one performance at a time.