• EMSI 2023 - 2024 Season

    Check out our exciting 2023 – 2024 season lineup.
    Tickets on sale now!

    ConcertsTickets

  • Read about our audience’s experience in their own words:

    “It means a lot to me and my husband. We have attended numerous concerts and enjoyed the virtuosity of the musicians, the warm atmosphere with all the music lovers around us and also getting to know the performers sometimes. Afterwards going home with the after glow of all that beauty inside us and talking about all we heard.”
    – Emmy Borsboom

  • Celebrating Victoria’s own talented artists!

    A new initiative from EMSI to support our local amateur and professional musicians.

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Upcoming Concerts

  • Oct 21 | Le Poème Harmonique (FRANCE)
    • Le Poème Harmonique (FRANCE)

    • Music for a Young King Tickets on sale now. A debut Victoria performance by one of the most celebrated and recorded Early Baroque ensembles in France. Royal and popular music […]

    • Read More
  • Nov 18 | La Cigale (MONTREAL)
    • La Cigale (MONTREAL)

    • LA GRAZIA DELLE DONNE –  Music of the Italian Baroque by women and the men who encouraged them Tickets on sale now. “Who does not know that without women we […]

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  • Dec 16 | Gothic Voices (UK)
    • Gothic Voices (UK)

    • Nowell Synge We Bothe Al and Som Tickets on sale now. A medieval Christmas celebration by the ensemble that, probably more than any other, has defined the modern approach to […]

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  • Jan 27 | The Baltimore Consort (USA)
    • The Baltimore Consort (USA)

    • In Angel’s Wede: Music For Mary Queen of Scots Tickets on sale now. A brand-new program by a perennially favourite ensemble of EMSI audiences. Music from Scotland, France, England and […]

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  • Feb 17 | Ensemble Mirabilia (MONTREAL)
    • Ensemble Mirabilia (MONTREAL)

    • L’Eterno Ritorno Tickets on sale now. Brilliant Canadian soprano, Myriam Leblanc is featured in a program devoted to that most captivating and tuneful Baroque musical form: the chaconne. Built on […]

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  • Mar 23 | Ensemble Caprice (MONTREAL)
    • Ensemble Caprice (MONTREAL)

    • Hallelujah and trumpets! The splendor of Handel’s music Tickets on sale now. The third in our series of concerts with this exciting ensemble, led by the irrepressible Matthias Maute. This […]

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  • Apr 20 | The Tallis Scholars (UK)
    • The Tallis Scholars (UK)

    • Darkness to Light A very special joint presentation with Christ Church Cathedral, featuring the pre-eminent interpreters of Renaissance polyphony on their triumphant 50th Anniversary Tour. Tickets for this event are […]

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Next concert

Le Poème Harmonique (FRANCE)
October 21

Music for a Young King Tickets on sale now. A debut Victoria performance by one of the most celebrated and recorded Early Baroque ensembles in France. Royal and popular music […]

Read More
Past Concerts

Welcome

to The Early Music Society of the Islands!

Founded in 1985 and based in Victoria BC, the Early Music Society is a non-profit, volunteer-run society dedicated to offering accomplished performances of music composed prior to 1800.

EMSI embraces the idea that early music deserves to be heard with close to its original intent. To that end, our concerts feature period instruments, accurate scores, and historical performance practices.

Renowned artists, both international and homegrown, have graced our stage.

We acknowledge and respect the Lǝḱwǝŋǝn peoples on whose traditional territory EMSI presents concerts, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

Sponsors

The list of soloists and ensembles presented by EMSI is a who’s who
of the international early music scene:

Anonymous 4 Ensemble Clement Janequin Monica Huggett Orlando Consort Stile Antico Boston Early Music Festival Nancy Argenta Fretwork Dame Emma Kirkby Red Priest Tafelmusik Baltimore Consort The Harp Consort Ton Koopman Jordi Savall Daniel Taylor Concerto Koln John Holloway London Baroque Sequentia Collegium Vocale Gent

EMSI News

Corno da tirarsi

Portrait, oil on canvas of Gottfried Reiche (1667–1734) by Elias Gottlob Haussmann (1695–1774), 1727 Bach specified an instrument he called the "tromba o corno da tirarsi" for the elaborate brass line in three of his cantatas: the only…
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Nathan Nun artwork

Cats & Lutes

Shoutout to artist Nathan Nun, for his beautiful cats & lutes artwork! Read an interview here.
Read more

Fanned frets, circa 1590

A 'new' innovation for electric guitars, the fanned fret concept actually dates back to the 1590s! Read more about the wire-strung bandora and orpharion from the Lute Society of America and Early Music Muse (with videos). And for a electric…
Read more

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Create an account on EMSI’s Tix page (you will have already done so if you’ve bought tickets online) and be sure to opt in to our mailing list.