Treasures From Byzantine Manuscripts

Saturday, September 24, 2022 | 7:30 p.m. Blue Shore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts, Capilano University

Artists: En Chordais and Constantinople directed by Kiya Tabassian

Based in Thessaloniki, Greece, En Chordais is active in the learned and popular multicultural musical traditions of the Mediterranean. The ensemble fuses contemporary musical trends with Byzantine art music and Greek regional idioms and joins forces with Constantinople to present works from newly discovered Byzantine manuscripts dating from 1480 to 1800.

This concert is generously supported by the RPC Family Foundation.

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The Tea-Table Miscellany

Saturday, August 6, 2022 | 12:00 p.m.VanDusen Botanical Gardens (Heron Lake)

This event is SOLD OUT

The Tea-Table Miscellany is the first printed collection of Scottish songs in the Scots dialectic, though it also contains English-language songs. It features the words of 18th- century poet, dramatist and book-seller Allan Ramsay and contains poetry as well as broadside ballads. The songs in Tea-Table Miscellany were said to be sung by young Edinburgh ladies at the tea-table since drinking tea was a female social pastime. As time went on, men began attending the gatherings and drinking and political songs found their way next to the songs about wealth and marriage.

Also on the programme are songs from Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd, a pastoral comedy about a literary shepherd, which Ramsay turned into a Ballad Opera. Like John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, it was enormously popular.

This concert is generously sponsored by the Drance Family.

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Bach Kaleidoscope/Reimaginations

Friday, Aug 5, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

Subscriptions: To purchase tickets to this performance as part of a subscription to 3 or more concerts and receive a 25% discount off the full ticket price, please call Early Music Vancouver’s box office at 604-732-1610 or email boxoffice@earlymusic.bc.ca. Please note the subscription discount is not eligible in combination with other discount programs or on special events Rondeau and Tea Table Miscellany.

Artists: Pacific Baroque Orchestra – Alexander Weimann, music director & harpsichord; Christina Hutten, harpsichord; 2022 Artist-in-Residence David McGuinness, harpsichord; Marco Vitale, harpsichord; Chloe Myers, violin; 2022 Artist-in-Residence David Greenberg, violin

This programme takes on Bach’s love of adopting other pieces as in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins and Strings which he reworked for four harpsichords. Bach added at least four extra parts and restructured the fabric like a kaleidoscope which, when directed at a certain object, is reflective and imaginative at the same time. Programming Bach’s concerto for four harpsichords gives EMV a chance to showcase four outstanding keyboard players as well as its harpsichord collection. It also features the excellent work of local builder Craig Tomlinson whose instruments are used by the Vancouver Symphony, Vancouver Opera, UBC and EMV. This concert is a celebration of magnificent polyphony, counterpoint and accumulated keyboard power but mostly, it is a tribute to the immense wealth of Bach’s compositions.

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Bach: Four Sonatas and a Concerto

Friday, August 5, 2022 | 1 p.m.Christ Church Cathedral

Artists: Chloe Kim, violin and Avi Stein, keyboard

This program showcases the virtuosic brilliance of violinist Chloe Kim, named as one of Canada’s top 30 under 30 by CBC in 2020 when she was just 23 years old. An early reviewer of J.S. Bach’s now-famous music for unaccompanied violin wrote that it was “perhaps the greatest example in any art of the freedom and certainty with which a great master can move even when he is in chains.” This programme, by contrast, features music Bach wrote for the violin when he had left the chains behind. With the harmonic support of the harpsichord and added richness of the cello, Bach set his violin free in flights of lyricism and contrapuntal inventiveness. He also thrillingly renegotiated the usual terms of the chamber sonata, making the keyboard and violin newly equal partners. Dating from the composer’s years in Cöthen and Leipzig, these sonatas exemplify the full range—the witty ingenuity, the dazzling virtuosity, the quiet depth—of Bach’s musical craftsmanship.

This concert is generously supported by Ron Kruschen & Louise Akuzawa

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Out of the Deep

Thursday, Aug 4, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.Christ Church Cathedral

Artists: Jonathon Adams, baritone; Chloe Kim, violin; Marie-Nadeau Tremblay, violin; Margaret Little, viola da gamba; Lucas Harris, theorbo; Avi Stein, keyboard

Emanating from seventeenth-century Italy, music of the “stylus phantasticus” was free and extravagant, marked by an uninhibited play of the compositional imagination. This programme shows the power and creativity of the fantastical style as it was taken up in the courts and chapels of Germany and Austria, featuring the stunning instrumental virtuosity of composers like Biber and Buxtehude alongside concerted psalm settings that treat the baritone voice with equal skill and imaginativeness. Filled with moving language and some of the best of the period’s musical fancy, these ancient songs of praise and supplication continue to speak with freshness and drama today.

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Bach and Tunes – Multiple Voices for One

Thursday, August 4, 2022 | 1 p.m. Christ Church Cathedral

Artist: David Greenberg, violin, EMV 2022 Artist-in-Residence

David Greenberg takes us on a musical journey that meanders between Baroque solo violin repertoire and traditional folk-style tunes. David’s rare fluency in both Baroque and Cape Breton playing styles allows him to approach each moment of music in an imaginative and deeply personal way.

The end of the Baroque era coincided with the Golden Age of Scottish fiddling, a time when rural fiddler and trained concert musician alike participated in the bloom of a national music. Soon afterwards, thousands of Scots displaced by the Highland Clearances settled on Cape Breton Island, the northeast portion of Nova Scotia, where the fiddle tradition continues to flourish.

“What I especially love about these pairings of Bach and folk tunes are the surprising things that one genre learns from the other. Unconventional musical techniques and expressive vocabulary become newly available as one world meets another. The joyful and elemental rhythmic drive of Cape Breton music meets the wondrous fantasy of Bach’s musical tapestry, creating an unfolding story that is rich and waiting to be told.”
– David Greenberg

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Fiddle & Figs – Pub Night

Wednesday, August 3, 2022 | 7 p.m.The Wolf and Hound Pub

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

Artists: JJ Lavallee, Metis fiddle; David Greenberg, violin; David McGuinness, keyboard with Bach Festival musicians

Food, drink and music are great mates. It is well known that J.S. Bach employed instrumentalists for his church performances who often played in taverns during the week. Scottish Baroque, a fusion of Scottish traditional music combined with the virtuosity and style of 17th and 18th-century Italian music, began in a pub in Edinburgh’s medieval Old Town, which was home to the ‘Corelli Sessions.’ Here the popular music of Corelli sat side by side with the rhythmic drive of local reels and jigs. The same musicians would play both repertoires, with the same enthusiasm for each, the same technique and using the same instruments. Join some of the musicians of the 2022 Vancouver Bach Festival Edition for pub food and tunes from Scotland, Sweden, Quebec and the Métis fiddle tradition. Bring your instrument, your voice or your dancing shoes or simply bring your ears and your appetite! There is no cover charge to attend this event but you must reserve your free ticket in advance as seating is limited. Food and beverages are for sale during the event from The Wolf & Hound.

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The Next Generation: Baroque Innovations

Wednesday, August 3, 2022 | 1 p.m. Pyatt Hall, VSO School of Music

Artists: Ellen Torrie, soprano & baroque guitar; Marie Nadeau-Tremblay, violin; Sylvain Bergeron, archlute

EMV’s Emerging Artists’ Concert features the next generation of musicians performing works by Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi, Henry Purcell and J.H. Schmelzer. The 17th century was a time of great innovation in music thanks to the rise of composers who happily defied the rules of composition. Early Music Vancouver’s 2022 Emerging Artists, Ellen Torrie, soprano, and Marie-Nadeau Tremblay, violinist, are part of the next generation of musicians who also defy established practices and bring a fresh look at early music.

Ellen Torrie is a singer-songwriter and storyteller based in Montréal who works and collaborates fearlessly across a multitude of musical genres and artistic mediums. They have just completed their master’s degree in early music voice at McGill University.

Marie Nadeau-Tremblay discovered the Baroque violin during her last year at McGill University. Transported by the beauty of this music, she plunged headfirst into the Baroque world. Marie released her first solo album, Preludes et Solitudes, in 2021 and promptly won the Discovery of the Year Prize at the Opus Awards 2022. We are excited to be able to support both of these genre-pushing young artists at Early Music Vancouver, and we look forward to seeing them make their mark in the music world.

“My passion is to bridge musical and social worlds by using elements of historical performance practice to democratize music and facilitate community storytelling.”
– Ellen Torrie

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Armonico Tributo

Tuesday, August 2, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.Christ Church Cathedral

Artists: Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme (BOMP) under the direction of EMV 2022 Artist-in-Residence David McGuinness and Chloe Meyers; Isaiah Bell, tenor; and Ellen Torrie, soprano

Scottish music found its way into European consciousness in the 17th and 18th centuries. Georg Muffat’s family left Scotland to escape religious persecution. They settled in Savoie in the French Alps, and Muffat grew to be one of the century’s most cosmopolitan musicians – spending time with Lully in Paris and Corelli in Rome. His elegant and lush Armonico Tributo sonatas bring together aspects of both French and Italian music and were given their first performances by Corelli’s orchestra.

Francesco Gemignani’s wonderfully elaborate arrangements of Scottish songs and tunes appeared in a book entitled A Treatise of Good Taste in the Art of Music. He did know a thing or two about good taste, being an art dealer, as well as a violin virtuoso and composer who had studied with Corelli in Rome several decades after Georg Muffat. We do not know if Geminiani ever set foot in Scotland. He made his arrangements of Scottish music from some tunes he found in the immensely popular songbook The Tea- Table Miscellany, by Allan Ramsay. Songs from Ramsey’s Tea-Table Miscellany will be featured in a concert later in the Festival.

The Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme is a collaboration between Early Music Vancouver, the UBC School of Music and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. This year-long programme gives student and community musicians the chance to play side by side with experts in historically-informed performance. This unique mentorship initiative is designed to foster and inspire the next generation of early music performers, and support the region’s early music community.

This concert is generously supported by Pam Ratner and Joy Johnson

Pre-concert talk: Join us at 6:45 p.m. for a pre-concert interview with Suzie LeBlanc and Marie Nadeau-Tremblay. This talk is included in the live concert ticket price.

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