CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE
Salt Spring Baroque is excited to present contra-alto Vicki St. Pierre with Victoria Baroque this weekend in Spirit and Song, a program featuring Bach’s Cantata BWV 170 along with works by Buxtehude and members of the Bach family.
The concert is at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2 at All Saints by-the-Sea.
St. Pierre is a renowned contralto whose voice combines clarity of expression and beauty of tone. She is also one of Canada’s most spirited musical leaders – an esteemed choral conductor and Dean of Arts at Mount Allison University.
Recent and upcoming engagements for St. Pierre include the role of Nutrice in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea with the Academy of Ancient Music in London, U.K., the role of the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Les Violons du Roy at Carnegie Hall, Messiah with Orchestra London and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with 13 Strings and Splendors of the Emperor’s Chapel with The Toronto Consort.
Victoria Baroque brings together early music specialists from Vancouver Island and beyond for explorations of chamber, orchestral, vocal and choral works. Playing on the instruments of the 18th-century, Victoria Baroque brings audiences closer to the sound world of the period, embracing the dance-driven rhythmic vitality, as well as the lyrical and conversational aspects of baroque music. The mellower tones of the baroque instruments — gut strings on string instruments, shorter bows, mellifluous wooden flutes, oboes and bassoon with fewer keys, natural horns without valves, etc. — respond in a more intimate, conversational manner than their modern equivalents.
Tickets can be purchased online through saltspringbaroque.com, through the ArtSpring box office (artspring.ca) or the door before the performance.