From Venice to Vienna, London to North Germany, this concert traces the fantastical style throughout the 17th century, featuring composers such as Castello, Bertali, Schmelzer, Biber, Locke, Purcell, Froberger, and Weckmann. Here, the Baroque is at its boldest and most vibrant: music that dares to push boundaries, sometimes even crossing them, yet still has the power to astonish, move, and enchant.

Stylus Phantasticus

Smith Square Hall

"...please obediently notify the departure to England" Baroque music from Germany and the Kingdom

Bochum Baroque

Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr

Storms, Shipwrecks & Sorcery

Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts

Handel's mastery in blending celebratory and contemplative elements into his music has stood the test of time like few others. The transitioning between moments of majesty and reflective serenity is beautifully evident in the instrumental selections from Handel’s Occasional Oratorio and his Opera Alcina.

Timeless Beauty

Carterton Events Centre

Dr John Gallagher Concert Chamber

Napier Municipal Theatre

The Regent on Broadway

Kapiti College

Sir Howard Morrison Centre

Baycourt Community & Arts Centre

Michael Fowler Centre

Odes for special occasions frame this opening programme, from Purcell’s ‘From hardy climes and dangerous toils of war’, performed at the wedding of Prince George of Denmark and Princess Anne, to one of his finest and most wistfully beautiful odes, ‘Love’s goddess sure was blind’, written in 1692 for the birthday of Queen Mary. In between, we hear Locke’s ‘The Oxford Ode’, commissioned in 1672 for the annual degree ceremony at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. These three odes are interspersed with fantasias for viol consort by Purcell and Locke that represent the pinnacle of a two-century-long musical tradition in England.

EPSG:4326

Occasional Odes

Royal Academy of Music

Breaking down the barriers between meditative church music and theatre music, this rich programme features sumptuous symphony anthems, including the vivid Like as the hart by Pelham Humfrey, who remains little known owing to his untimely death in his mid twenties. Charles II liked to use his violin band even in chapel, creating a special blend of intense spiritual anguish punctuated by cheerful instrumental moments

Resounding Shores: Chamber and Chapel

Tower Music is one of the oldest traditions at the Carmel Bach Festival. It began in 1936 with the Heralding Trombones, led by two generations of the Stewart Family, Chandler and son Gordon, and the trombone quartet opened every Festival in the early days. The Stewart Family performed well into the 1960’s until the Festival Orchestra brass section was asked to carry on the tradition as it does today. They played from the balcony window of the old Sunset Auditorium which opened onto the parking lot – the window is still there, overlooking the foyer – and from the Carmel Mission bell tower, thus earning the nickname “Tower Music.”

Tower Music: Music for King Charles

Carmel Mission Basilica Museum

England’s Chapel Royal, in the years before and after Oliver Cromwell’s Republic, nurtured some of the nation’s finest composers. After attending one of its services in 1662, Samuel Pepys noted how ‘the music was more full than it was’, referring to improvements made since the restoration of Charles II. Arcangelo and a dream team of singers undertake An English Baroque Journey, taking in emotionally-charged anthems by Pelham Humfrey, Maurice Greene and Matthew Locke and ending with Handel’s majestic setting of words from the Book of Psalms.

Arcangelo; Hilary Cronin soprano; Daisy Livesey soprano; James Hall countertenor; Jeremy Budd tenor; Hugo Brady tenor; Matthew Long tenor; Dominic Sedgwick bass; William Gaunt bass; Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord

Wigmore Hall

The witty, bold, and irresistibly theatrical world of the English Baroque comes to life in a program introducing conducting sensation David Bates. Dance and drama abound in boundary-breaking music by Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke, and John Blow. Symphonies by William Boyce and Charles Avison plus music from Handel’s charming Il pastor fido complete this delightful romp through 17th- and 18th-century England.

English Eccentrics

Harris Theater

North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie

Step into the world of early English consort music, flourishing in Restoration England under Charles II. Curated by Principal Cellist Joanna Blendulf, this year’s Podium concert presents a rare combination of instruments: tenor and bass viols, violas, violins, violone, theorbo, organ, and harpsichord, creating a sound that is intimate and reedy. Purcell’s celebrated Chacony is underpinned by a hypnotically repeating bass line that yields to the Fantasia upon One Note, where a single unchanging pitch anchors the music while the ensemble spirals around it. William Lawes’ Consort Sett No. 6 (a personal favorite of Joanna’s) is dramatic, unpredictable, and ahead of its time. Music by Matthew Locke adds theatrical flair with stormy scenes from The Tempest, before the concert culminates in John Jenkins’s Newark Siege: a musical battle that pits bass viols against one another in a riveting finale.

Viols at Court: Purcell & Locke

Reed College

Sanctuary Hall at First Congregational UCC

Violist Lawrence Power has gathered a group of the finest young players in Europe for this Collegium concert, which includes the UK premiere of Garth Knox’s Viola Concerto, a dramatic narrative work inspired by the tale of the Ancient Mariner, in which the players become the ‘boat’ carrying the soloist. Matthew Locke’s Curtain Tune from The Tempest helps to set the maritime tone.

Matthew Locke

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 30, 2026

Arcangelo; Hilary Cronin soprano; Daisy Livesey soprano; James Hall countertenor; Jeremy Budd tenor; Hugo Brady tenor; Matthew Long tenor; Dominic Sedgwick bass; William Gaunt bass; Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord · Wigmore Hall

24 - 25 Jan, 2027

English Eccentrics · Music of the Baroque

20 - 21 Feb, 2027

Viols at Court: Purcell & Locke · Portland Baroque Orchestra

Mar 3, 2027

Lawrence Power and Collegium Orchestra: Odyssey · Barbican Centre

Past events

Oct 25, 2026

Stylus Phantasticus · Sinfonia Smith Square

Feb 25, 2026

Bochum Baroque · Bochumer Symphoniker

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