Ellen Hargis

Join the Vancouver Early Music Festival this summer for eight extraordinary performances and experience the vitality of early music.

Here’s a rundown of the 2013 festival:
My Heart’s in the Highlands: Music of Purcell, Ramsay, Burns & Haydn
Date: Sunday, July 28, 8 pm; pre-concert chat with host Matthew White, 7:15
Venue: Roy Barnett Recital Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver
Tickets: Adults, $36; 35 or younger, $18; $10 student rush seats (valid ID, subject to availability)

“My love is like the melody that’s sweetly played in tune,” wrote Robert Burns. Hear his words given new musical life in this intimate recital of Scottish music from the early Baroque and Classical periods. Soprano Ellen Hargis brings her “expressive charm” (New York Times) and clear-sighted sense of text to these seldom-heard works, accompanied in turn by Christopher Bagan on harpsichord and Michael Jarvis on fortepiano.

LuteFest 1: Parables of the Silk Road
Date: Tuesday, July 30, 8 pm; pre-concert chat with host Matthew White, 7:15
Venue: Roy Barnett Recital Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver
Tickets: Adults, $36; 35 or younger, $18; $10 student rush seats (valid ID, subject to availability)

Lute Legends Ensemble: the stunning new collaboration between three remarkable plucked-string virtuosi. Bassam Bishara, an award-winning performer and teacher of Middle Eastern music, Wen Zhao, an internationally-acclaimed pipa expert, and Lucas Harris, a compelling lute soloist, bring together three ancient traditions in this extraordinary cross-traditional concert.

LuteFest 2: Guitar Music by Murcia and Lute Music by Weiss
Date: Thursday, August 1, 8 pm; pre-concert chat with host Matthew White, 7:15
Venue: Roy Barnett Recital Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver
Tickets: Adults, $36; 35 or younger, $18; $10 student rush seats (valid ID, subject to availability)

Featuring “highly inventive” Weiss specialist Robert Barto and Charles Weaver, last seen in Vancouver with Quicksilver during the 2012 Festival, this concert illustrates the profound complexity, beauty, and versatility of the lute and guitar.

Les Voix Baroques
[Les Voix Baroques perform “Canticum Canticorum” during the 2011/12 season; photo by Jan Gates]

Beyond the Labyrinth: In Search of John Dowland
Date: Friday, August 2, 8 pm; pre-concert chat with host Matthew White, 7:15
Venue: Roy Barnett Recital Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver
Tickets: Adults, $36; 35 or younger, $18; $10 student rush seats (valid ID, subject to availability)

At this year’s festival, Early Music Vancouver will celebrate the 450th birthday of John Dowland, famed lutenist, composer, and contemporary of Shakespeare. In honour of his birth, Les Voix Baroques – always a Vancouver favourite – has created an introspective programme of his lute songs, lute solos, and ‘part songs’. Les Voix Baroques’ musicianship is “rich, opulent, and emotionally stunning” (Oregon Music News), the perfect vehicle for Dowland’s exquisite melancholia.

The Legacy of the Baroque: Concertos & Chamber Music
Date: Sunday, August 4, 8 pm; pre-concert chat with host Matthew White, 7:15
Venue: Roy Barnett Recital Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver
Tickets: Adults, $36; 35 or younger, $18; $10 student rush seats (valid ID, subject to availability)

Five acclaimed musicians (and faculty of Early Music Vancouver’s Baroque Instrumental Programme) will join together for a dynamic performance of refined chamber music, featuring works by Telemann, Janitsch, Leclair, and others.

G. F. Handel: “Israel in Egypt”
Date: Wednesday, August 7, 7:30 pm; no pre-concert introduction
Venue: Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC, 6265 Crescent Road, Vancouver
Tickets: $63, $48, $32; available at Chan Centre Ticket Office, via Ticketmaster online, or via phoning 1.855.985.2787

The great biblical drama of liberation comes alive this summer, when Alexander Weimann directs an all-star cast and Vancouver’s own Pacific Baroque Orchestra in this choral and orchestral tour de force. Featuring a masterful creation by one of music history’s most imaginative storytellers, this extravaganza concert – an Early Music Vancouver 2013 Festival centrepiece – will be a thrilling journey for audiences and performers alike.

This performance is made possible through the generous assistance of the Drance Family Fund, the Mary and Gordon Christopher Foundation, the Nemetz Foundation, the Chan Endowment Fund, and a number of major anonymous donors. Presented in cooperation with the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.

Sequentia
[Members of 2011’s Mediaeval Programme perform alongside Sequentia; photo by Jan Gates]

Sequentia: The Unknown ‘Carmina Burana’
Date: Friday, August 9, 8 pm; pre-concert chat with host Matthew White, 7:15
Venue: Roy Barnett Recital Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver
Tickets: Adults, $36; 35 or younger, $18; $10 student rush seats (valid ID, subject to availability)

Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana‘ made him a household name, but what did the original, mediæval music sound like? Sequentia explores the Carmina Burana songs as they would have sounded to the scribe who copied the manuscript in 1230. Join Early Music Vancouver for a rare pleasure: works which remain a sublime testimony to a truly European golden age of poetry and song.

Sequentia will be joined for this performance by members of the Elaine Adair ensemble, participants from Early Music Vancouver’s Mediæval Programme.

“A Rose in the Desert”: A musical reflection of the Thirty Years War
Date: Saturday, August 10, 8 pm; pre-concert chat with host Matthew White, 7:15
Venue: Roy Barnett Recital Hall, UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver
Tickets: Adults, $36; 35 or younger, $18; $10 student rush seats (valid ID, subject to availability)

Last summer, the stunning sold-out performance of “Gabrieli’s Venice” featured the extraordinary team of Les Voix Baroques and La Rose des Vents. This year, these two ensembles join forces again in a thrilling performance of music from 17th century Germany, with masterworks by Bernhard, Rosenmüller, Schütz, and more.

All concert tickets are available online or via phoning 604.732.1610. These concerts are included in our “Bring a Youth for Free” programme. All concerts presented in cooperation with the UBC School of Music.

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