Apeiron Baroque

Concert 3 for our 2026 Season Simon Rickard is a former graduate of the Canberra School of Music, and is a professional gardener and writer! He has written books about Heirloom Vegetables and Australian Ornamental Gardens… and he will be giving a gardening-themed presentation alongside our Baroque Music! But, he is also a professional musician… and he has promised to bring along some interesting and unusual Baroque instruments as well! With guest artists: Simon Rickard (Presenter/Musette) More information: https://apeiron-baroque.com/concerts/2026/2026-chamber-3

Pre-concert concert catering for young children and families (Bookings essential, NO DOOR SALES) 30 minutes of music, and instrumental show and tell in a relaxed and informal setting. Perfect for young ones who are curious about music but might not have the attention to sit through the full main concert! NOTE: Due to the tight timing of our whole concert day, we begin promptly AT 3pm. Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

Concert 2 for our 2026 Season The Afternoon Hours evoke memories of calm, reflection, and nostalgia… a bridge between the active daytime and the quieter evening. On 7th of June, Apeiron is going to spend one (or tiny little bit more than one…) of these hours exploring music for Traverso (flute) and Baroque ensemble! Join us for a bright and warm concert as the winter starts to close in! Music by the well-known Brentner, Bodinus, and Graupner… and some more by Vivaldi, Telemann, and Boismortier! With guest artists: Sally Walker (Traverso), Lauren Davis (Violin), Clara Teniswood (Cello), Henry South (Bass) More information: https://apeiron-baroque.com/concerts/2026/2026-chamber-2

Pre-concert concert catering for young children and families (Bookings essential, NO DOOR SALES) 30 minutes of music, and instrumental show and tell in a relaxed and informal setting. Perfect for young ones who are curious about music but might not have the attention to sit through the full main concert! NOTE: Due to the tight timing of our whole concert day, we begin promptly AT 3pm. Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

A 2 day mini-festival (30/31 May) of exploring Baroque gems as a musical community under the guidance of Apeiron and our specialist guests. Playing sessions, workshops/presentations, baroque dance, and a relaxed open stage opportunity (See below for Schedule). Open to all ages and abilities, amateur/professional/students on modern and period instruments. Everything tickets, or modular tickets. School children must be supervised (please add a free observer ticket). Music will be available to download in early May. **************************** SCHEDULE (better formatting available on our website: https://apeiron-baroque.com/) 30th May • Registration/Welcome (830-900) • Playing Session A (900-1130) - Single Large Ensemble with John Ma (@415/440Hz) • Workshop Session A (1200-1300) - Keyboards: Introduction to Continuo with Marie Searles (some playing) - Strings: Baroque String techniques and QA with John Ma (some playing) - Winds: Wind/Recorder Workshop (Form, Texture and Style) with Robyn Mellor (Some playing) • Lunch (1300-1400) • Playing Session B (Split groups, 1400-1630) - Wind group @440Hz with Robyn Mellor - Everyone else @415Hz (or 440Hz transposed parts) with John Ma • Workshops Session B (1700-1800) - Keyboards: Continuo in a Violin sonata with Marie Searles and John Ma. (some playing) - Strings: Madder and the Baroque Violin with Hugh Withycombe and Michal Prokop. (no playing) - Winds: Musettes and Racketts with Simon Rickard (no playing) • Evening Open Mic (John and Marie on continuo duty!) - Optional (and free) relaxed session of just playing stuff with us (or without us!). 31st May • Baroque Dance workshop (for musicians, see below for information) with Simon Rickard (1100-1300) • Playing Session C (1400-1600) - Wind group @440Hz with Robyn Mellor - Everyone else @415Hz (or 440Hz transposed parts) with John Ma • Open Presentation/Last Bash (1630-1730) - The final chaos with John Ma. *************** An introduction to baroque dance Baroque dance was as important an art form in eighteenth century Europe as music was. Its rhythms permeate almost every bar of baroque music, from the grandest mass to the humblest popular song. Composers from Lully to Bach understood the art of baroque dance intimately. Yet how many of us have ever seen a gavotte, menuet or gigue performed today, let alone danced one ourselves? In this lecture-workshop, Simon will give an introduction to baroque dance, teach you a few basic steps, and examine how it can make you better musicians.

Concert 1 for our 2026 Season From the outer urban backstreet cul-de-sacs and roundabouts of Canberra... a Baroque ensemble configuration rears its head, 3 violins-3 continuo. Just off the top of your head, what is a piece for 3 violins and continuo? Pachelbel’s Canon probably springs to mind, but we will show you a few more things! And with a beefed up continuo section with extra theorbo/guitar/lute and cello/gamba… we probably should showcase a few things for those instruments as well and not let the violin divas hog the spotlight! Music by Pachelbel, Telemann, Finger, Vierdanck, Schmelzer, Marais, Hervelois, Krieger, Balbestre, Roncalli, and Barsanti! With guest artists: Jared Adams (Violin), Isaiah Bondfield (Violin), Anton Baba (Cello/Gamba), George Wills (Theorbo/Guitar) More information: https://apeiron-baroque.com/concerts/2026/2026-chamber-1

Pre-concert concert catering for young children and families (Bookings essential, NO DOOR SALES) 30 minutes of music, and instrumental show and tell in a relaxed and informal setting. Perfect for young ones who are curious about music but might not have the attention to sit through the full main concert! NOTE: Due to the tight timing of our whole concert day, we begin promptly AT 3pm. Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

A day for people interested in Early Music to gather, meet, and play together! Led and directed by members of Apeiron Baroque. Open to all ages and all abilities with the following sessions: - a gentle morning ensemble (1000-1300) @ A=440Hz - an afternoon more advanced ensemble (1400-1700) @ A=415Hz - or do the whole day at a discounted rate! More information (including repertoire and music) at: https://apeiron-baroque.com/concerts/2025/2025-splatter-1 This is the first of many community facing Early Music events (workshops, ensembles, and masterclasses) that Apeiron is planning into the future. We can provide transposed parts if you have different pitch instruments. Unfortunately, we are limiting the intake to instruments only (no singers this time). During the ticket flow, there will be questions to help us better plan the day! Observers are free entry, please consider a donation! Limited KEYBOARD tickets due to availability of instruments. We will email music to your booking email.

Sonnets have historically been associated with love and desire, but what inspires a person to write over 150 sonnets? Surely not 150 different loves? Join Apeiron and our special guest, Duncan Driver, as we pair Shakespeare Sonnets with our Baroque Music! Music by Westhoff, Telemann, Purcell, Hasse, Hayes, Tartini, Lonati, Geminiani and more!! Guest Artists: Duncan Driver (Presenter), Rylee de Salis (Soprano) Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

Pre-concert concert catering for young children and families (Bookings essential, NO DOOR SALES) 30 minutes of music, and instrumental show and tell in a relaxed and informal setting. Perfect for young ones who are curious about music but might not have the attention to sit through the full main concert! NOTE: Due to the tight timing of our whole concert day, we begin promptly AT 3pm. Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

The recorder (flauto dolce) is best known in modern times for being a terror in primary school classrooms; but in the Baroque period, it was one of the leading treble instruments. Like all the instruments of that age, it came in a variety of sizes for different pitches, ranging from the tiny sopranino through to the bass recorder. Join Apeiron and our special guest, Alana Blackburn, as we showcase the full gamut of recorders in the hands of a master player! Guest Artists: Alana Blackburn (Recorders), Lauren Davis (Violin), Pippa Newman (Viola), Clara Teniswood (cello), Henry South (Double Bass)

Pre-concert concert catering for young children and families (Bookings essential, NO DOOR SALES) 30 minutes of music, and instrumental show and tell in a relaxed and informal setting. Perfect for young ones who are curious about music but might not have the attention to sit through the full main concert! NOTE: Due to the tight timing of our whole concert day, we begin promptly AT 3pm. Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

Concert 2 for our 2025 Season: More details coming soon! With special guest artists: Susannah Lawergren (soprano), Matt Greco (Violin), Pippa MacMillan (Violone), Michael Bakrnčev (composer). Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

Pre-concert concert catering for young children and families (Bookings essential, NO DOOR SALES) 30 minutes of music, and instrumental show and tell in a relaxed and informal setting. Perfect for young ones who are curious about music but might not have the attention to sit through the full main concert! NOTE: Due to the tight timing of our whole concert day, we begin promptly AT 3pm. Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

Apeiron’s 2025 season kicks off with two of our colleagues from the south, Hannah Lane and Laura Vaughan, showcasing the unusual sound world of Violin/d’amore, Gamba, Harp, and Harpsichord. Discover compositions from the Early Baroque period by Buxtehude, Becker, Lawes, Jenkins, Jarzebski, Lawes, Pandolfi, and more! Guest Artists: Laura Vaughan (Viola da Gamba) Hannah Lane (Harp) WHERE: Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest, ACT WHEN: Sunday, 23rd March 2025 (4:30pm). More information: https://apeiron-baroque.com/concerts/2025-chamber-1 Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

Pre-concert concert catering for young children and families (Bookings essential, NO DOOR SALES) 30 minutes of music, and instrumental show and tell in a relaxed and informal setting. Perfect for young ones who are curious about music but might not have the attention to sit through the full main concert! NOTE: Due to the tight timing of our whole concert day, we begin promptly AT 3pm. Companion Card accepted, please contact us for information.

For our last chamber concert for 2024, Apeiron Baroque will feature dueling violins, Gulliver’s Travels, reflections on Life and Death, and a dialogue between a Sanguineus and a Melancholicus attempting to convince each other through musical interaction! Music on period instruments featuring works by Abel, Zelenka, Hume, Telemann, Bach, and Janitsch. With special guest artists, Ella Bennets (Violin), Aaron Reichelt (oboe), and Anton Baba (cello).

Apeiron is going hi-tech and leaping back into the future… setting our DeLorean time machine to the late 18th century! In this classical-era concert, we will be showcasing the sounds of our Walter-style fortepiano; a predecessor to the modern piano and the model of piano that was favoured by Mozart! We will also have Ben Hoadley joining us on Classical Bassoon to explore music by composers such as Edelmann, de Nebra, Michl, Fiala, and more! More information: https://apeiron-baroque.com/concerts/2024-chamber-3

Continuing on from the successful melding of Australian Poetry and Baroque Music last year, Apeiron continues to pair unlikely and interesting combinations of topics with our Early Music performances. Clear and obvious connections are easy, but it is the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated ideas that produce the true leaps in understanding! Explore and absorb Philosophical ideas of Travel and Change, presented by Drew Ninnis, whilst listening to Early Music presented by Apeiron Baroque, John Ma and Marie Searles. Music by Veracini, Blaineville, Handel, JS Bach, Herschel and more!

Is Love a Shipwreck? For our first concert in our 2024 chamber series, we are kicking off with an all-Canberra cast of players! Local countertenor Tobias Cole will be joined by a small band of strings (and harpsichord!) to present stormy vocal works by Baroque composers Ariosti, Vivaldi, Handel, and Hasse. Of course, we can't let the singers have all the fun! Fans of music without words will also be treated to unusual instrumental gems by Biber, Uccellini, Cazzati, Vilsmayr, and Bononcini!

The first in a series of cross-concerts mixing Early Music with presentations from a wide variety of non-musical disciplines. Early Music is our passion, and we will invite guest presenters to share their passions and interests! In this concert, Apeiron will be joined by the hosts of ArtSoundFM's "Poetry on the Radio" (Kimberly Williams and Peter Searles) as well as local poets (Penelope Layland and Jacqui Malins) to present poems from the newly published "Book of Birds" alongside music from the Baroque and Classical eras. Music by Vilsmayr, Corelli, Uccellini, Eccles, Leonarda, and more!

Sometimes you just keep crossing paths with the same people through your life in the most unexpected of places! "Old Friends" is a concert which contrasts the softer sounds of the Viola da Gamba and Viola d'amore in works by Erlebach and Lully against the brilliance of the violin family in works by Corelli. Highlights include music for a mistuned violin and gamba, a dance of madness, dances from the French court opera, and an early Italian sonata from a composer whose name is cheese! We will also have a special appearance by Aimee Brown who will present some interesting solo dances from the Baroque period! Guest Artists: Anton Baba and Aimee Brown More information at: https://apeiron-baroque.com

On Sunday 11th June 2023 (from 5pm), Apeiron Baroque invites you to a concert featuring the sonorous alto and tenor registers of the unusual Viola d'amore and the black sheep of the string family, the Viola. Highlights include music depicting a Phoenix and a Chicken, a duo for the 28 strings of two Viola d'amores, a concerto for 4 violas stolen from our diva violin cousins, and a melancholy setting by the most famous composer of all time, Anonymous. In this second concert of our 2023 series, Apeiron is joined by Karina Schmitz (principal viola with Pinchgut Opera and Australian Haydn Ensemble), and two Canberran musicians, Pippa Newman and Alex Munro on Viola. Music featuring the Viola d’amore and Viola by Telemann, Graupner, Rameau, Huberty, and Anonymous. For more information: https://apeiron-baroque.com/Concerts/concert-2023-2