This is a virtual event. For more information, visit the EMV website.

Scottish Baroque and other Traditions

This year’s Vancouver Bach Festival explores new territory by fusing Scottish traditional music with Baroque masters. It is well known that J.S. Bach employed instrumentalists for his church performances who often also played in taverns. We also know that Baroque dance-forms, such as the gavotte and gigue (jig), were born in country dances which were reimagined by composers of the time for courtly circles.

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. 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, and using the same technique and instruments.

At this year’s Vancouver Bach Festival, you will hear how traditional melodies weave throughout the concerts we present to you at a variety of locations ranging from a cathedral to traditional concert halls from a botanic garden to a Celtic pub with musicians from as far afield as Glasgow, New York, Montreal, and Portland as well as many from closer to home. Meet the 2022 Artists-In-Residence David Greenberg (Canada/USA) & David McGuinness (Scotland).