Performers at a concert during last year\u2019s Pacific Baroque Festival (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cThe program titles, they reflect some aspect of the idea that there was a wish for something new and to turn musical traditions on their head and explore a new way of making music,\u201d says Destrub\u00e9. \u201cI can be more explicit and say that that new way was dismissing the polyphony, the very complicated way of writing for differing voices in the renaissance and having a way of musical expression that was much more direct and visceral and reflecting the the text in a very immediate way.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year may have a specific focus, but the fest has always been centred on the baroque period in general.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those 20 years, we\u2019ve focused on music from the baroque period, in music, which is roughly from 1600 to 1750,\u201d says Destrub\u00e9. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve also focused on music that might not be so familiar to people. So the fact of having a festival means that we can do several concerts based on a theme, either a specific period in baroque music history, or a specific place, or a specific type of music. And so every year we\u2019ve done that, we\u2019ve focused on various styles, genres, of music that were composed within the baroque period, and I think introduced our audience to many, many composers and some really wonderful music they might never have heard before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Destrub\u00e9 says that the main challenge in producing this festival every year is tracking down the various types of music to play in the festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenges are pretty straightforward,\u201d he says. \u201cFinding a variety of different music that can be played by an ensemble of a limited size, a group of musicians and singers, and making all of that work within a certain budget and hoping that that will be enough support and funding to make it possible. The big challenge is balancing the musical wishes with the practical realities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Destrub\u00e9 says that the main thing he wants his audience to take away from this festival is for them to be entertained.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, [I hope] that they just have a great time,\u201d he says. \u201cThat they hear music that they love, that they\u2019re given a lot of pleasure. And second, that they\u2019re introduced to music that they\u2019re not familiar with. That they\u2019re a little bit challenged and that they\u2019re a little bit educated, along with being entertained, I suppose. And that\u2019s maybe what all good art should do, is both entertain and challenge, a little bit. And give both pleasure and food for the heart, the ear, and the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pacific Baroque Festival
\nVarious times, Tuesday, February 27 to Sunday, March 3
\nVarious prices and venues
\npacbaroque.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria\u2019s Pacific Baroque Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month. According to artistic director Marc Destrub\u00e9, this year\u2019s festival will focus exclusively on Italian music from the baroque period. \u201cThis year we\u2019re focusing on Italian music mostly composed in the 17th century,\u201d says Destrub\u00e9. \u201cThat was a really fascinating and interesting time, and exciting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-february-21-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25079,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25077\/revisions\/25079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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