Baroque music festival to follow theme of the four seasons

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The Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival has launched its 2024 program for the upcoming three-day festival in July.

“The program includes eight events full of surprising discoveries and powerful emotions that will provide opportunities for music lovers to meet other people and share their common passion for early music,” according to the release following the April 17 launch.

The 48th season of the festival, which runs from July 25 to 27, follows the theme of the four seasons, which according to the release is “inspired numerous artists from the Baroque era.”

This year’s festival program includes Italian, and French music, parodies of Baroque works, new works and Acadian poetry.

Thursday, July 25, the concert “Four Seasons: Yesterday and Tomorrow” will be performed at the Sainte-Cécile Church in Petite-Rivière-de-l’Île.

The show will feature “The Four Seasons in the Time of Climate Change” – Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” performed by Montreal ensemble Pallade Musica, and “The Four Seasons and a Melting Iceberg,” a work for solo recorder by Québec composer Matthias Maute.

There will also be written works for the event by Acadian authors Pierre-André Doucet, Emma Haché, Dyane Léger and Jonathan Roy.

The Friday, July 26 performance titled “Four seasons in the eyes of Boismortier” will take place at Sainte-Cécile Church, Petite-Rivière-de-l’Île.

The concert will feature Boismortier’s cantatas inspired by the seasons, performed by young singers soprano Andréanne Brisson Paquin, tenor Kerry Bursey and bass William Kraushaar.

The Saturday, July 27, show at Sainte-Cécile Church, Petite-Rivière-de-l’Île, titled “French Seasons” features the works of French composers “who parodied and sometimes even shamelessly copied the music of Vivaldi,” the release states.

The concert will feature the Mission Saint-Charles Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Hank Knox, and Tobie Miller playing the hurdy gurdy.

There will also be two intimate concerts at the Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue Church in Muscou.

“Four seasons in the eyes of Oswald” will take place at the church July 25 with Ensemble La Cigale, showcasing the Airs for the Seasons by Scottish composer James Oswald, some celtic airs and dances.

“Four seasons in the Eyes of Simpson” will be held at the church July 27 with the chamber music group Pallade Musica presenting “The Seasons,” a collection by 17th century English composer Christopher Simpson.

The Mission Saint-Charles Choir will perform an afternoon concert July 26 at 3 p.m. at the Saint-Raphaël Church under the direction of conductor Pierre Lavoie, dedicated to the works of Renaissance and early Baroque composers.

A pre-concert lecture and public dress rehearsal will be held for the French Sessions show on the afternoon of July 27 and an event for amateur musicians to learn more about early music will be held before the festival begins on July 24.

Further details about this year’s festival and how to purchase tickets are available online at festivalbaroque.com.