Peace, Friendship and Joy
- Music from the German Baroque
February 25th - March 1st, 2026​
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The 2025 Pacific Baroque Festival embraces the most cherished human values as expressed through the music of 17th and 18th century Germany. Curated by our featured soloist, the extraordinary German soprano Dorothee Mields, the programs exemplify the most profound emotions, expressed in music for voice and an intimate instrumental ensemble. The music of Buxtehude and Bach are a thread through the festival programs, combined with that of lesser-known composers whose music deserves to be heard.
“Her vocal instrument is flawless: pure and transparent in timbre, yet capable of the most subtle inflections and cultivated shadings. She can find both radiant sweetness and compelling emotional depth…”
– Vancouver Classical Music
“This soprano has everything: sweetness, “unaffected purity” (Charles Downey),
pitch-perfect intonation, unflappable at any tempo, and with a movingly dramatic
execution of the text because she loves the word nearly as much as the note.”
– forbes.com
“Mields is splendid. Her poise, luminous vocalism and animated dialogue with the
band show why she’s an Early Music legend.”
– BBC Music Magazine
Artist Biographies
Marc Destrubé
Destrube finds the right balance of elegant lyricism and virtuosic brilliance.
- The Australian
Canadian violinist Marc Destrube is a musical polymath - soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster, orchestral leader and teacher - whose career straddles the contemporary and “early music” worlds.
Marc grew up in Victoria BC and started violin lessons at 9. Following studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, he attended the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario and became an active freelancer.
He was a founding member of Tafelmusik in Toronto and was soon invited to play with leading early music orchestras and ensembles in Europe.
He’s traveled the world and made dozens of recordings as co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century. He’s led the Belgian ensemble Anima Eterna, the Academy of Ancient Music and the Hanover Band. He’s toured with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and is concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival Baroque Orchestra. He’s been concertmaster of the CBC Radio Orchestra and music director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra.
Today, he’s a member of the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., which plays on the museum’s exceptional collection of Stradivari and Amati instruments; Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble, which specializes in contemporary music, and the Microcosmos Quartet, whose repertoire ranges far and wide.
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Above all one can’t sufficiently praise the restraint and taste of Marc Destrubé’s playing in his double role as leader and soloist.
- Michael Miller, New York Arts, NYC
Canadian soprano Rachel Allen has been praised for bringing “great tenderness” and “seductive power” to her singing. Based in London, she is a 2025 Young Artist with The Musicians’ Company, Brighton Early Music Festival, and City Music Foundation. Especially acclaimed for her interpretation of Baroque repertoire, she has performed with leading period ensembles in both Canada and the UK. Recent operatic roles include Dido in Dido and Aeneas (Cadogan Hall; Overstrand Festival of Early Music), Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Morgana in Alcina, and Venus in Blow’s Venus and Adonis at the Ryedale Festival, where Opera Magazine praised her “pleasing period-style soprano… [she] moved with a grace not often found among singers.”
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As a concert soloist, Rachel’s repertoire spans Monteverdi through Mahler. Recent highlights include Bach’s Cantata 36, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, and Mendelssohn’s Paulus and Elijah. In 2025 she gave her Wigmore Hall recital debut, with subsequent performances for St John’s Smith Square and The Lute Society. Upcoming engagements include recitals with Londinium Consort at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Saffron Hall, and the Brighton Early Music Festival.
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In international competitions, Rachel was a semi-finalist in the Cesti International Baroque Singing Competition (2024) and Concours Corneille (2025), and winner of the New Elizabethan Award (2024) with Londinium Consort.
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Since 2021, Rachel has sung with the Monteverdi Choir, touring internationally under John Eliot Gardiner and taking part in projects led by Peter Whelan, Christophe Rousset, Masaaki Suzuki, and Pablo Heras-Casado. A keen ensemble singer, she has also appeared with the BBC Singers, Gabrieli Consort & Players, and London Choral Sinfonia.
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She holds a master’s degree from the Royal College of Music, where she studied with Alison Wells. At the RCM she was a featured soloist in performances of Jacquet de la Guerre’s L’Isle de Délos and Bach’s Easter Oratorio. While an undergraduate at the Royal Northern College of Music, her scholarly interest in historical performance led to co-authoring a Grove Music Online entry on the eighteenth-century Handelian soprano Élisabeth Duparc (“La Francesina”) with Dr Cheryll Duncan.
Growing up in Victoria, BC, Rachel’s formative musical education was at the Victoria Conservatory of Music with sopranos Nancy Argenta and Ingrid Attrot. As a student she performed with Victoria Baroque, the Victoria Philharmonic Choir, Pacific Opera Victoria, and the VCM Opera Studio. She first sang at the Pacific Baroque Festival aged twelve as a member of the Victoria Children’s Choir and is delighted to be returning for the 2026 festival.
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Learn more at rachelallensoprano.com
Natalie Mackie
Natalie Mackie studied cello at the Conservatoire de Musique (Québec), followed by a degree from the School of Music, University of British Columbia. While at UBC she was introduced to the viola da gamba, and following graduation, she pursued further studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague.
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Natalie has played with many ensembles in Canada and the US, including New World Consort, Les Coucous Bénévoles, Tafelmusik, Portland, and Seattle Baroque Orchestras, Les Voix Humaines, Tempo Rubato, Les Voix Baroque, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Victoria Baroque Players, and Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra among others.
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Natalie is a member of Pacific Baroque Orchestra and the chamber ensemble “La Modestine”- both Vancouver-based ensembles.
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She has toured throughout Canada, Europe, and the US and recorded for Radio France, German Radio, BBC, CBC, and NPR, as well as the Canadian label Atma Classique.
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Natalie is a regular performer in the Pacific Baroque Festival, held annually in Victoria, BC, and teaches in the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Program at the University of British Columbia.
Marco Vitale
Marco Vitale was born in Palermo, Italy. After finishing studies in his hometown, he attended the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague where he studied harpsichord with Ton Koopman and organ with Jos van der Kooy, graduating with a master’s degree in Early Music. Throughout his career Marco has performed at the most prestigious venues and festivals throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, South America, the Middle East and Asia. From 2008-2011 Marco Vitale worked at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus, Syria, where he taught early music performance practice and performed concerts together with Syrian musicians.
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He is the co-founder and musical director of Contrasto Armonico, an ensemble specializing in Baroque operas and the performance of music in the Italian style, using period instruments and historically informed performance practices. In 2012 he founded his own record label ayros, and is currently involved in recording the Complete Italian Cantatas by Handel, a thrilling project that will bring to light many undiscovered jewels of Handel’s which have yet to be either edited or recorded. Marco has appeared on several radio and TV broadcasts, including the specialized music channel Mezzo.tv. In addition to ayros, he has recorded for Alia Vox, Naïve, and Brilliant Classics.
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Marco has a truly international reputation as a harpsichordist and teacher of baroque music performance. He cooperated with many international institutions giving masterclasses, lectures and workshops at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Fondazione Paolo Grassi in Martina Franca (Italy), ESMUC in Barcelona, the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the University of Victoria in BC.
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Between 2021 and 2023 Marco lived and worked at the West Coast of Canada, in Victoria (British Columbia) cooperating with institutions like Victoria Baroque, Victoria Symphony, Early Music Society of the Islands, Denman Baroque as well as being music director at St. Barnabas Anglican church.
He is a member of the ensemble La Modestine with Marc Destrubé and Natalie Mackie.
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Marco regularly performs with Jordi Savall and his ensembles Le Concert des Nations and Hespèrion XXI, and collaborates with Armonico Tributo Austria & Lorenz Duftschmid, Hirundo Maris (Arianna Savall & Petter Udland Johansen) and Nuovo Barocco Vienna.
He moved to Vienna in the summer 2023, where he regularly performs with the ensemble Orchester 1756 and teaches at the Early Music institute of the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (MDW).
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Check out his website at: marcovitale.art
Kathryn Wiebe
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Originally from Windsor, Ontario, Kathryn is an active & versatile freelance violinist and educator on Vancouver Island. Her passionate and intuitive musicianship has brought her the opportunity to perform with distinguished ensembles around Canada, in orchestral, chamber, and solo opportunities. Currently, she regular performs with the Victoria Symphony, Victoria Baroque Players, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Festival, and has appeared as a guest leader/violinist for Per Sonatori Baroque Ensemble in Regina, Saskatchewan. She can be heard on various CBC In Concert broadcasts, as well as the album, “La riche canadienne: The Music of Elinor Dunsmuir”, a local project which premieres a collection of post-romantic, recently-unearthed chamber works by the fascinating Canadian composer.
She studied at the University of Toronto and University of Michigan under the tutelage of the late Yehonatan Berick as a merit scholar. Over the years, she has brought her talent various music festivals, including the Berwick Academy at the Oregon Bach Festival, Brott Music Festival, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Domaine Forget, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and Interlochen Centre for the Arts.
As an educator, Kathryn has a private studio of budding musicians, and has been an adjudicator for Campbell River and Cowichan Valley Music Festivals. She is also currently on faculty as Violin Coach and Orchestra/Ensemble conductor and organizer at the Comox Valley Youth Music Centre.
As a busy entrepreneur, Kathryn is the owner, artistic director, and avid arranger of Cascadia Strings, a highly sought-after, award-winning professional event music company, as well as a concert chamber ensemble, providing live music and unique concert experiences from Victoria to Whistler and everywhere in between. In this venture, Kathryn’s goal is to bridge the gap between classical music and more popular genres, bringing audiences of all demographics and interests to live concerts.
Kathryn lives in Esquimalt with her husband and musical partner, Tyson Doknjas, as well as their delightful 2 year old son, Aidan. Kathryn and Tyson enjoy performing concerts together, under the name of “Sombrio Duo”, both independently, and through organizations such as Health Arts Society, where they have the opportunity to perform at various retirement and assisted living homes. They especially enjoy unearthing rarely-heard or performed works for two violins, as well as arranging their own renditions of other repertoire for the unique instrumentation.
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Check out her website at: kathrynwiebe.com
Lucas Harris
Lucas Harris began his musical life playing equal amounts of jazz and classical guitar as a teen in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. He discovered the lute during his undergraduate studies at Pomona College, where he graduated summa cum laude. He then studied early music in Italy at the Civica scuola di musica di Milano (as a scholar of the Marco Fodella Foundation), then in Germany at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. After several years in New York City, Lucas moved to Toronto in 2004, becoming a Canadian citizen in 2017. In Toronto he has been the regular lutenist for the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra for more than two decades, and performs with many other ensembles in the USA and Canada including the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Helicon Foundation (see the “Playing” page for more details). He is also a founding member of the Toronto Continuo Collective, the Vesuvius Ensemble. and the Lute Legends Ensemble.
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In 2014 Lucas completed graduate studies in choral conducting at the University of Toronto, the degree having been largely funded by a prestigious Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant not often awarded to performers. Upon graduating, Lucas was chosen as the Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir (which celebrated its 50th anniversary season in 2018-2019), for which he has developed and conducted over twenty themed concert programs (see this site’s “Conducting” page for a list). He has also directed projects for the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Ohio State University Opera Program, Les voix baroques, and the Toronto Consort.
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For many years Lucas has been on faculty at the Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Baroque Institutes as well Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and has also taught for Vancouver Early Music’s Baroque Vocal Programme, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and Amherst Early Music. Lucas was praised for his work with Les voix humaines in Montréal: “The revelation of the concert was the Torontonian lutenist Lucas Harris, who weaved a poetic thread through his infinitely subtle interventions. The sweetness and patience of his playing . . . was astonishing.” (Le Devoir)
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Lucas lives in Toronto with his wife, Baroque violinist Geneviève Gilardeau, and their daughter Daphnée (age 9).
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Learn more at lucasharris.ca
Abraham Ross
Abraham Ross enjoys an active career as a concert organist, harpsichordist, and director, presenting imaginative programmes informed by the most recent research on performance practice, technology, and musicological context. His accolades include appearances in international competitions, research grants from Quebec’s Fonds de Recherche en Societé et Culture and McGill University, and performances with Resonance Collective (Los Angeles), the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra. He values collaboration with other artists regardless of discipline and has appeared with various groups across North America, in Argentina, and in Europe.
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Drawing on both findings in primary sources and the most recent performance science, Abraham’s repertory ranges from the earliest written sources to music by living composers. His recital programming reflects his commitment to diversifying the canon of western repertory and regularly features works of neglected and underrepresented composers. Collaborations with living composers enable Abraham to give several national or world-premieres each year. He has also given the modern-day premieres of numerous unfinished, reconstructed, and recently discovered works.
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Abraham’s formative musical studies took place in his hometown of Bangor, Maine on an 1860 organ by American organbuilders E. & G. G. Hook, an experience that inspired him to take up the organ as a career. He now serves on the board of St. John’s Organ Society, an organization dedicated to the preservation of that instrument.
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