SPECIAL CONCERT Amanda Forsythe Sings Handel Amanda Forsythe returns to Victoria in this program of arias by Handel originally written for Élisabeth Duparc (‘La Francesina’). We have heard this renowned singer as a soloist in large choral works, but here is a chance to experience her artistry close up. Forsythe will be accompanied by the […]
Treasure Trove: the Cantigas de Santa Maria Just as archaeologists attempt to reconstruct entire communities from a few sherds of pottery, the odd ancient coin and the faint residue of post holes in the earth, musicologists and early music performers must contend with the rarity of original manuscripts and the primitive nature of early musical […]
Brilliant Baroque After a hiatus of far too long, we are welcoming back the ever-popular Tafelmusik to Victoria. In 1730s Leipzig, J.S. Bach gathered with friends at Zimmerman's coffeehouse for weekly concerts of brilliant music, carrying on a tradition of weekly meetings by the Collegium Musicum originally founded by his friend, Georg Philip Telemann. Today, […]
Yule The celebration of Yule in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rite. Christmas, as we mostly now call it, gave us hymns, processions and chants, and in between, silence in church. Yule meant a vibrant pre-Christian secularity, with feasting […]
Bach and Khayyam The ever-popular, ground-breaking ensemble Constantinople examines two great musical geniuses, presenting arrangements of some of the most beautiful spiritual songs and arias of JS Bach in dialogue with poems of Omar Khayyam sung in Persian. Separated by time and space, the two geniuses of Johann Sebastian Bach and Persian mathematician-poet Omar Khayyam […]
Strawberry Fields This dynamic Baroque ensemble is indeed creating a ruckus, with their visceral and playful approach to early music. Featuring two brilliant soloists, flutist Emi Ferguson and violinist Rachell Ellen Wong, Ruckus will bring us a rousing concert featuring instrumental music of Handel and his contemporary, the English former slave Ignatius Sancho, a remarkable […]
Vivaldi on Fire Back by popular demand, Ensemble Caprice, under the direction of dynamic Artistic Director Matthias Maute, returns to Victoria. A whirlwind of fiery passion and dazzling virtuosity, Vivaldi on Fire sets the stage ablaze with music by Antonio Vivaldi and vibrant, anonymous works from the Eastern European Uhrovska zbierka collection (1730). Ensemble Caprice’s […]
SPECIAL EVENT Artemisia - Light and Shadow With the success of our opera and dinner production last September, we will once again be presenting a staged production with dinner at the Leonardo da Vinci Centre. ARTEK presents an account, in drama and music, of the life of 17th-century painter and feminist heroine Artemisia Gentileschi. A […]
SPECIAL EVENT Artemisia - Light and Shadow With the success of our opera and dinner production last September, we will once again be presenting a staged production with dinner at the Leonardo da Vinci Centre. ARTEK presents an account, in drama and music, of the life of 17th-century painter and feminist heroine Artemisia Gentileschi. A […]
