A series of free public performances by professional musicians in the intimacy of the Green College Coach House. Look out for future lectures!

Frescobaldi in the North: Transmission of the Stilo Nuovo by Keyboardists in Amsterdam and Hamburg

March 12, 2026 | 5pm – 6:30pm | Coach House, 6201 Cecil Green Park Rd

A new style of expressive musical pictorialism marked the dawn of the Baroque in Italy, where composers sought above all to transport the listener to a state of intensified emotion by means of musical rhetoric and narrative. Gradually, composers such as Girolamo Frescobaldi brought these ideals to the context of instrumental music, printing their virtuosic solo works for a readership that extended as far as Hamburg (where Italian works were copied by Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck’s students). In this event, Abraham Ross will examine the transmission of Frescobaldi’s style through the lens of organists and harpsichordists in Northern Europe, considering implications for both compositional style and performance practice.

Abraham Ross

Abraham Ross enjoys an active career as a concert organist and harpsichordist, presenting imaginative programmes informed by the most recent research on performance practice, technology, and musicological context.

His diverse research interests inspire detailed studies in a range of topics, from American organ music of the nineteenth century to his recent doctoral thesis on contrapuntal organ improvisation in early modern Italy. In addition to solo concerts throughout North America, Abraham recently featured in concerts with Musica Angelica (Los Angeles) and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal lead by Masaaki Suzuki. He will appear as a semi-finalist in the 2024 Canadian international Organ Competition in Montreal, QC.

Working with Green College

For over seven years, EMV has offered an annual series of free lecture demonstrations at Green College at UBC, related to our season programming and designed to inform and grow our audience base. These events have been increasingly well-attended and have stimulated a dialogue between the organization and the local community regarding the wider context of our activities in the community. Early Music Vancouver has had a strong relationship with Green College since 1993, offering courses throughout the years and summers.

Green College is a graduate residential college at the University of British Columbia and also a society of scholars and intellectuals stretching around the world, including hundreds of former residents, associated faculty, and distinguished visitors. The College’s reach extends far beyond its stunning location on the edge of the UBC campus in Vancouver, Canada, where it is nestled on a forested cliff overlooking the ocean and mountains. It is an ever-expanding community, ready to welcome those with a passion for the exchange of ideas and an interest in the cultivation of academic and creative connections. This founding ideal is reflected in the motto of the College’s coat of arms: “Ideas and Friendship.”

The College was founded in 1993, thanks to a gift from Dr. Cecil H. Green. The College has formal ties with Green Templeton College, a sister institution at Oxford University also endowed by Cecil Green, and with Massey College at the University of Toronto. It was established as a centre for advanced interdisciplinary scholarship, with a mandate, reflecting Cecil Green’s vision, to bring together disciplines across the University through non-curricular programs and collaborations, while also opening the University to the wider local community.

The College’s commitment to exceeding the ordinary limits of academic discourse and to providing a venue hospitable to constructive thinking on all fronts is captured in the College’s tagline “Creating New Horizons.” Special visitors are invited each academic year to enrich conversations at the College and on the UBC campus, both through regular series of interdisciplinary talks and the prestigious Cecil H. and Ida Green Visiting Professorship program. The College also hosts a Writer-in-Residence program. With rare exceptions, the College’s academic programming is open to the whole UBC community and the general public. The College welcomes those from both within and outside the University to join residents and members for dinner in the Great Hall.

Past Events

Mr. Goldberg and his Variations

Wednesday, September 25, 2024 | 5 p.m.

Coach House, Green College, UBC and livestreamed

Artists: Alexander Weimann, harpsichord

For all of his life, but particularly after retreating from his official duties in the 1740’s, Bach was concerned with encyclopedic and comprehensive answers to any given compositional challenge. He had started publishing his music quite late in life, in his mid 40’s, way after he had already secured his position as a prolific composer and undisputed player.
In 1741, he released the ‘Aria with 30 Variations’, better known as the Goldberg Variations, as one of several volumes in a series called ‘Clavier-Übung’, which means both, keyboard exercise and keyboard practice.
What is the story behind this marvellous composition? Where does the theme (Aria) come from? Why 30 variations? How are they structured? And what does it mean to arrange this intrinsically keyboardist piece? Which instruments to pick and why? Finally, which role does Goldberg play in all that?
This lecture/recital explores some of the behind-the-curtain questions coming upon when studying, practicing, performing and arranging Bach’s immortal cycle.

PROGRAMME

J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

Excerpts from the Goldberg Variations

LIVE STREAM DETAILS – Can’t attend in-person? Watch online.Meeting link:https://ubc.zoom.us/j/67800191856?pwd=1KbuInG6szysEMo1Y9h93fE4XnLHnW.1
Meeting ID: 678 0019 1856
Passcode: 034533

ALEXANDER WEIMANNThe internationally renowned keyboard artist Alexander Weimann has spent his life enveloped by the therapeutic power and beauty of making music. Alex grew up in Munich. At age three he became fascinated by the intense magic of the church organ. He started piano at six, formal organ lessons at 12 and harpsichord at university (along with theatre theory, medieval Latin and jazz piano.) He is in huge demand as a director, soloist and chamber player, traveling the world with leading North American and European ensembles. He is Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver and teaches at the University of British Columbia where he directs the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme.Alex has appeared on more than 100 recordings, including the Juno-award-winning album “Prima Donna” with Karina Gauvin and Arion Baroque orchestra. His latest album series “The Art of Improvisation” (Volume 1: A Prayer for Peace; Volume 2: Ad libitum; and Volume 3: Caravan Variations, released on Redshift, 2024) unites his passions for both baroque music and improvisation on organ, harpsichord, and piano.