Goble + Hagen: Hellendaal, Schenk & De Fesch

THE JOY OF BAROQUE CELLO

Castlemaine cellist Sam Goble and Broadford harpsichodist Peter Hagen present a programme of brilliant Dutch baroque music that is reflective of the great flowering of arts and sciences (not forgetting tulips!) in 17th and early 18th-century Holland.

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Astra Music: Fujieda & baroque works

PATTERNS OF PLANTS

Japanese post-minimalist composer Mamoru Fujieda has spent 26 years creating music based on the electrical activity of living plants. The result is his magnum opus, an ongoing series of compositions titled Patterns of Plants.

The latest arrangements of Patterns of Plants are premiered in September by an ensemble of musicians from Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Tokyo, gathered together for this special Astra program.

Complementing Fujieda’s new work are traditional Japanese music and early baroque works.

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Melbourne Baroque Orchestra + Yap: Bach

THE CHOCOLATE VIOLA

Multi-award winning violist Katie Yap joins the MBO in a delicious program centred around J.S.Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 6.

Audience members will be treated to a pair of very special chocolates handmade by chocolatier and long-time MBO supporter, the inimitable Martin Houben.

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Melbourne Baroque Orchestra + Australian Boys Choir: Bach

MISSA BREVIS

Nicholas Dinopoulos leads nearly 200 singers of the Australian Boys Choral Institute and The Vocal Consort in this unmissable traditional festive gala event.

Featuring the Melbourne Baroque Orchestra on period instruments, as well as Fiore Chamber Ensemble: Monika Harris, Alexander Ritter, Anish Nair, and Lachlan McDonald in J.S. Bach’s joyous Missa Brevis in A, BWV 234.

Also livestreamed from Australian Digital Concert Hall.

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Melbourne Baroque Orchestra + Yap: Bach

THE CHOCOLATE VIOLA

Multi-award winning violist Katie Yap joins the MBO in a delicious program centred around J.S.Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 6.

Audience members will be treated to a pair of very special chocolates handmade by chocolatier and long-time MBO supporter, the inimitable Martin Houben.

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Latitude 37: Baltzer, Jenkins, Eccles, Byrd & more

THE PLEASING SLUMBER

Colourful, quirky, sophisticated and eccentric, The Pleasing Slumber offers audiences a rare opportunity to immerse themselves in the instrumental world of 17th-century England. Travel from court to tavern with refined dances for lyra viol in consort by Jenkins, brilliant solos by Byrd for virginal and sprightly divisions for the violin with Latitude 37.

Streamed live on ADCH for $24.

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ANAM Pianists: tba

RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE STORIES 4:

Before music became a practice in the homes of connoisseurs and skilled amateurs during the 18th century, it occupied a more exclusive domain. In the Renaissance and Baroque, sounds of beauty, elevation and piety were created at enlightened courts and churches. The ANAM musicians armoured with modern instruments and awareness of all the music created ever since, explore places such as Elizabethan England and papal Rome to bring the music of these amazing centuries to life again.

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ANAM Pianists: Cabezón, Byrd, Cavazzoni, Merulo, Gabrieli, Frescobaldi & Rossi

RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE STORIES 3: THE BLIND GENIUS

Before music became a practice in the homes of connoisseurs and skilled amateurs during the 18th century, it occupied a more exclusive domain. In the Renaissance and Baroque, sounds of beauty, elevation and piety were created at enlightened courts and churches. The ANAM musicians armoured with modern instruments and awareness of all the music created ever since, explore places such as Elizabethan England and papal Rome to bring the music of these amazing centuries to life again.

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Latitude 37: de Selma, Muhly, Bassano, Cavalli, Taeggio, de Rore, Erlebach & Howard

MEDITATIONS

This program will take you from intricate ornamentations over slowly shifting harmonies by Rognoni, Bassano, and Selma y Salaverde, to works of transcendent loveliness by Cavalli and Erlebach. Nico Muhly’s ‘Slow Twitchy Organs’ brings these special baroque instruments into the 21st century, alongside a calmly contemplative work specially commissioned for Latitude 37 by Australian composer and pianist, Luke Howard.

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Croissants and Whiskey: Dillon & Younan

SPIRITS

Featuring the world premiere of a major new work by Kym Dillon, Spirits is a playful and irreverent work about these entities, inviting listeners into a sequence of games and plays about how we relate to our past and the spirits bequeathed to us: what we embrace, how we evolve, what we choose to leave behind, and what stays with us. Exploring the idea of spirits with two additional works, Elizabeth Younan’s The Fertile Crescent propels audiences into a high-octane, evocative journey through three vibrant dances that link the Middle East to the West. Witness Croissants & Whiskey highlight their own distinct voice with a new co-composed work, inspired by storytelling techniques drawn from the Chinese traditional music of Lee and Yap’s own heritage. Immerse yourself in the unconventional blend of harpsichord, G violone, baroque viola, and recorders as they come together in a resplendent and incisive performance not to be missed.

Spirits was commissioned by the 2022 Continuo Commissioning Circle.

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Ensemble 642: 17th Century music

SPRITZ/SPREZZ

Ensemble 642 is Hannah Lane (historical harps) and Nicholas Pollock (theorbo, lutes, baroque guitar). Two of the most exciting artists in the Antipodean early music scene, together they explore the unique sound world of rare, early plucked string instruments, performing as a duo and in collaboration with leading early music specialists. In their exploration of repertoire from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, Ensemble 642 brings to life exquisite music that hasn’t been heard for hundreds of years with the aim of sharing the vitality and emotion of Baroque music with contemporary audiences

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Davis + Lambourne + Wong: Heggie

Featuring Conservatorium staff and guest artists, this concert presents two works that bring attention to domestic violence, composed by award-winning American composer Jake Heggie.

Songs for Murdered Sisters (2020), with text by Margaret Atwood, will be re-imagined and interpreted by Melissa Davis (soprano), Victoria Lambourn (mezzo-soprano) and Jerry Wong (piano). To Hell and Back (2006), based on the Greco-Roman myth of Persephone, is a unique piece composed for two singers and a baroque orchestra. Sung by soprano Melissa Davis and mezzo-soprano Linda Barcan, this piece will be conducted by Stephen Grant and directed by Jane Davidson, who will thoughtfully combine elements of the present day alongside a Baroque timbre.

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de Jager + ANAM musicians: Rosier, Guerre, Bayreuth, Princess of Prussia, Bon & Telemann

LES VIRTUOSES

During the Renaissance and Baroque, music was gradually liberated from solely servicing the church into a force of its own. The awakening of instrumental music and the amazing originality of the musicians creating it provided fuel for the next four centuries of musical development.

In this program we shall encounter four fabulous women – each a renowned virtuoso ­– and hear music they composed.

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