Stir is a digital media organization dedicated to covering Vancouver’s arts and culture scene through independent journalism.
Stir is a digital media organization dedicated to covering Vancouver’s arts and culture scene through independent journalism.
Suzie LeBlanc.
Alexander Weimann.
In addition, Early Music Vancouver presents an annual week-long festival in the summer (including an artist-in-residence component), produces Notations (a series of informative behind-the-scenes podcasts), and presents online courses.
EMV also offers a Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme, plus a BC Scholarship Programme for professional-track music students or active professional musicians seeking to develop skills in early music performance. These initiatives are aimed at increasing the long-term sustainability of the regional period instrument scene in B.C.
The Pacific Baroque Orchestra (PBO) is EMV's ‘house band.’ Under the direction of Alexander Weimann, PBO is recognized as one of Canada’s most exciting and innovative early music ensembles. It also tours extensively throughout the Canada and the U.S.
The phrase “early music” often refers to European music from the Medieval period through to the Baroque (about 1800). At EMV, it also encompasses music from outside the western European tradition to that of other cultures within the same period—Tang Dynasty China and the Ottoman and Persian empires, for instance. EMV also explores music from the 19th century with historically informed performances on its restored fortepianos—re-creating the original sound of the music as the composer heard it. This approach invites discovery—the joy of hearing something beautiful for the first time or in a fresh way. It fosters immersive learning about history and human culture. It provides opportunities for empathetic encounter, seeking to understand and contextualize how musicians and audiences of different times and places have interacted with music. Most of all, it encourages curiosity from both performers and listeners alike.
Over the years, EMV has collected a valuable collection of unique historical instruments. This collection benefits many musicians and established cultural institutions in our region, and allows EMV to produce concerts of seldom-heard repertoire that requires specialized instruments. EMV’s collection includes a replica of an 1819 Graf Piano built by Paul McNulty, an 1875 Broadwood Piano donated by Patricia Lee, a double-manual French harpsichord after Taskin built by Edward Turner and donated by Carol Brauner, a large Italian single-manual harpsichord built by Craig Tomlinson, a Flemish “mother and child” double virginal built by José Verstappen, a chamber organ built by Helmuth Wolff, a set of baroque timpani, a baroque viola and a baroque cello, four Renaissance lutes built by Tony Simmonds, and more.
EMV concerts offer a platform for cross-cultural dialogue and exploration of diverse perspectives and relationships with the past. Live performances take place at venues such as Christ Church Cathedral, the Chan Centre, St. Andrew's Wesley United Church, and Pacific Spirit United Church.
Early Music Vancouver Summer Festival and the Sound of Dragon Society join forces to play on Chinese-European musical exchange that is centuries old
Early Music Vancouver Summer Festival concert coincides with the release of a new CD
Performance of the legendary work features the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Vancouver Cantata Singers, and four vocal soloists
The Pacific Baroque Orchestra led by Alexander Weimann joins the acclaimed Montreal-based Baroque dance company for a spellbinding show
A.S.A.P. Duo and three other specialists in historical performance receive recognition for innovative visions
Here’s a month-by-month roundup of all the stellar offerings in store, from butoh on the beach to jazz concerts in the heart of downtown
Performances from July 26 to August 8 include veteran musician Alexander Weimann, Baroque dance company Les Jardins Chorégraphiques, and beyond
Both traditional and groundbreaking, works from the 17th century and the present day mingle in this exploration of the musical riches of Venice
Early Music Vancouver program features a piffari, or wind band, accompanied by the early dances of French and Italian court festivities
Set of antique and newly composed music by Hyeronimus Kapsberger and Claudio Ambrosini evokes the sounds of Venice
French choreographer Hubert Hazebroucq performs 15th- and 16th-century dances to the sound of a live wind band
Russian virtuoso’s passion for pianoforte revives original voice of such legendary 19th-century composers as Beethoven and Mendelssohn
Ahead of the Early Music Vancouver presentation, Alexander Weimann leads a chat with accomplished violinist Robert Mealy, the group’s codirector
Mongolian traditions, Czech strings, Baroque beauties, and more on the music calendar
Quicksilver Baroque Ensemble plays a program of sonatas by Italian and German composers
Early Music Vancouver program with Pacific Baroque Orchestra includes a “Fictive Wedding Cantata” that she’s painstakingly compiled from the composer’s lesser-known works
Offerings from the Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs, the VSO, Early Music Vancouver, and more take place on February 14 and 15
LUMEN Festival concert features the world premiere of Fictive Wedding Cantata by acclaimed German soprano Dorothee Mields
Early Music Vancouver’s presentation of the work features accompaniment on the Romanesque harp
The powerhouse mezzo-soprano sings a program that includes Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191 by J.S. Bach and Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Missa Nativitatis Domini, ZWV 8
Alexander Weimann directs the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Vancouver Chamber Choir, and five soloists in afternoon of holiday works
Seasonal standouts include a massive choral Messiah, and different takes on A Christmas Carol—including one with 10-foot-high puppets
Respected musician plays two shows devoted to India’s oldest-surviving classical genre alongside pakhavaj artist Tejas Tope
Renowned countertenor and Renaissance viol consort play a German Baroque programme based on the latter group’s Signum Classics album
The pandemic sent Italian lute virtuoso Michele Pasotti looking back at the poets of the Black Plague—and the way Ars Nova music provided relief
Alexander Weimann’s fresh take on Bach’s “apex” of Baroque keyboard music is set to open Early Music Vancouver season
Pacific Baroque Orchestra performs a new arrangement of the variations which incorporates Johann Gottlieb Goldberg’s Trio Sonata No. 4 in C Major
British a cappella artists VOCES8 are here in February as LUMEN Festival makes return in the new year
EMV’s Suzie LeBlanc hosted a charming exchange of ideas between English tenor Charles Daniels and Vancouver-based Hindustani vocalist Shruti Ramani
Cree-Métis two-spirit baritone Jonathon Adams and artistic director Alexander Weimann share their reflections in advance of performance at Summer Festival: Bach Untamed
Pacific Baroque Orchestra. Concerto d’Amore-Overcoming Rivalry. Photo by Jan Gates
Hodson Manor
1254 West 7th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
V6H 1B6
