SEASON 2021-2022

New date set for Bach’s St. John Passion — Sunday, October 2 at 3PM

Please visit www.winnipegbaroquefestival.com for full details and to get your $40 tickets now!

We’re delighted to announce the rescheduled performance of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion for Sunday, October 2, 2022, at 3 pm!

As you know, back in April 2022, the finale concert of our inaugural Winnipeg Baroque Festival was postponed due to weather but we are thrilled to present it to you at the Crescent Arts Centre this October. Canzona, Dead of Winter, and Polycoro are incredibly grateful to you for your patience during this unexpected delay.

The epic choral work will feature members of Vancouver’s Pacific Baroque Orchestra, soloists Jane Fingler, Vicki St. Pierre, Haitham Haidar, Justin Odwak, Jonathon Adams, Paul Bruch-Wiens, and Mel Braun, and a combined force of powerful Manitoba choristers.

Go to www.winnipegbaroquefestival.com for details and to get your $40 tickets now! Excellent value for a massive event! Past ticket holders have already been contacted.We can’t wait to see you there!

P.S. Please follow us at our new social media channels
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For any questions related to the Winnipeg Baroque Festival please contact production administrator, John Anderson at [email protected]

St John Passion POSTPONED

Coming off the high of this weekend’s festivities, it is with some heaviness that we make this announcement. Most of you may already be aware of the recent weather statement issued for Manitoba as a Colorado low approaches our region. Due to the precarity of these upcoming weather conditions, we have decided to postpone the St John Passion performance with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, originally scheduled for this Friday, April 15. We are, of course, disappointed in this turn of events, but we would like to emphasize that we are not canceling the St John Passion performance. This event is very near and dear to our hearts, and we fully intend to present it at a later date that does not jeopardize the safety of our audience and performers. We are currently working to finalize this new date and will loop you in with all the details at the earliest convenience.

In the meantime, we greatly appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this stormy situation. The show must—and will—go on, so stay tuned!

Sincerely,

Dead of Winter, Canzona, and Polycoro,
Winnipeg Baroque Festival Organizers

An unprecedented collaboration between three Winnipeg choirs who are passionate about Baroque music: Canzona, Dead of Winter and Polycoro. Each choir will produce its own concert (April 8, 9 and 10, 2022) focusing on early music from a different region: Canzona – England; Polycoro – Italy; and Dead of Winter – Germany. The festival will culminate on April 15, 2022 with a three-choir performance of J.S. Bach’s St John Passion with Vancouver’s Pacific Baroque Orchestra, masterful Baroque soloists Jane Fingler, Vicki St. Pierre, Haitham Haidar and Jonathon Adams, and a combined force of powerful Manitoba choristers.

PLEASE NOTE: Performances will continue to run at a reduced capacity, as well as require that patrons wear facemasks and show proof of vaccination for all festival events. 

We will continue to evaluate this policy as circumstances evolve. Thank you!

The Winnipeg Baroque Festival is a collaboration between three Winnipeg choirs who are passionate about Baroque music: Canzona, Dead of Winter and Polycoro. This unprecedented collaboration celebrates the return of choral singing after the lengthy restrictions due to COVID-19. We will lift our voices together in music that has resonated with listeners for centuries – music that has stood the test of time and now serves to restore our souls once again.

Each choir will produce its own concert (April 8, 9 and 10, 2022) focusing on early music from a different region: Canzona – England; Dead of Winter – Germany; and Polycoro – Italy. [N.B. Each choir is responsible for the production and artistic costs of its own concert.] The following week will include workshops, masterclasses, panel discussions and lecture-recitals that illuminate different facets of early music and historically informed performance. The festival will culminate on April 15, 2022 with a performance of J.S. Bach’s St John Passion with Vancouver’s Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Baroque soloists Jane Fingler, Vicki St. Pierre, Haitham Haidar and Jonathon Adams, and a combined force of the most powerful Manitoba choristers. We believe this will be the first-ever performance of this monumental piece on historical instruments in Manitoba. 

The inclusion of period instruments is integral to our vision of this festival. The Pacific Baroque Orchestra visited Manitoba for the first time in 2018 to great acclaim. These musicians are world-class experts in “historically informed performance” (HIP), an approach that uses instruments and techniques as close as possible to those used in Bach’s time. With the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, we propose to transport the audience back in time to Leipzig, Germany to hear this Passion performed the way Bach would have heard it at its première on Good Friday in 1724 – just as glorious, visceral and relevant today as then. 

Canzona, Dead of Winter and Polycoro are excited to be partnering in this way for the first time. We believe that strengthening the ties between our organizations will benefit the larger choral community. We hope to draw national and international attention to the significant choral talent in Manitoba and establish the Winnipeg Baroque Festival as a nexus of world-class early music performance.

Individual Events within the Baroque Festival

Canzona: Music of the Sister Queens

DATE: Friday, April 8, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. 

VENUE:
Crescent Arts Centre (Crescent Fort Rouge United Church)
525 Wardlaw Ave, Winnipeg

CURATOR/CONDUCTOR: Kathleen Allan

Music of the Sister Queens celebrates two of the most powerful women of the Baroque period with two great English works: Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary and Handel’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne. Purcell’s famous anthem, Hear My Prayer, O Lord, will be performed alongside a world premiere re-interpretation by Canadian composer Dorothy Chang.

Polycoro: Elevation

DATE: Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

VENUE:
VENUE:
Crescent Arts Centre (Crescent Fort Rouge United Church)
525 Wardlaw Ave, Winnipeg

CURATOR/CONDUCTOR: John Wiens

Polycoro will perform music above and around the audience with digital projections by Jason Fung. Early Italian baroque works include pieces by Pitoni, Benevoli, Marenzio, and Ugolini.

He(inrich) Schütz, He Scores with Dead of Winter

DATE: Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. 

VENUE:
Crescent Arts Centre (Crescent Fort Rouge United Church)
525 Wardlaw Ave, Winnipeg

CONDUCTOR: David Fallis

He(inrich) Schütz, He Scores will be a showcase of the sacred/secular music of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), featuring Musiklische Exequien (Funeral Music) Op. 7, SWV 279–28, considered a masterpiece of the Baroque period, as well as his famed madrigals and music from contemporaries such as Samuel Scheidt and Johann Herman Schein.

We are honoured to have early music specialist and music history scholar David Fallis conducting this concert. Over his stellar career, David was music director of the renowned Opera Atelier, Toronto Consort and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, performing, touring and recording extensively. In recent times, David has been a major advocate for the music of Dead of Winter’s artistic director and composer, Andrew Balfour.

St. John Passion with Canzona, Dead of Winter, and Polycoro

DATE: Sunday, October 2, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. (rescheduled performance)

VENUE:
Crescent Arts Centre (Crescent Fort Rouge United Church)
525 Wardlaw Ave, Winnipeg

CONDUCTOR: Kathleen Allan

Please visit www.winnipegbaroquefestival.com for full details and to get your $40 tickets now!

Dead of Winter will join forces with Canzona and Polycoro for J. S. Bach’s St John Passion. This performance will mark the first collaboration between the three choirs and the first time the work has been played on period instruments in Manitoba. The epic choral work will feature members of Vancouver’s Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Baroque soloists Jane Fingler, Vicki St. Pierre, Haitham Haidar and Jonathon Adams, and a combined force of powerful Manitoba choristers. Bach’s St. John Passion will mark the beginning of a collaborative choral tradition intended to continue for years to come.

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