2026 Festival Program

Spanish Connections

The 2026 Pacific Baroque Festival invites our audience to delight in the music of baroque Spain. The Iberian Peninsula was heavily influenced by the musical trends of 17th-century Italy and France, whilst drawing on its own folk influences to create a unique musical environment. Important in this was the inclusion of the Spanish guitar, with its idiomatic strumming and plucking. These sounds were emulated in writing for keyboard and string instruments, while prominent Spanish composers who travelled to Italy brought back the baroque forms and styles current there. At the same time, Italian musicians such as Domenico Scarlatti and Luigi Boccherini were drawn to the rich musical life and royal riches of 17th and 18th century Spain and the influence of Spanish baroque music extended to the colonies in America.

This year's Festival brings some of the best music of this special era to Victoria, while providing a sonorous variety with concerts highlighting the organ, guitar, voice, and piano. Appreciate the depth and breadth of the music of baroque Spain with a Festival Pass. If not, there is sure to be a single concert that you’ll love!

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Wednesday Evening, February 25th, 7:30pm

Iberian Splendour: Organ Music of 16th-18th c. Spain and Portugal

Christ Church Cathedral

Abraham Ross, organ

With ringing bells, distant drums, lavishly ornamented motets, and ancient plainsong, organist Abraham Ross will present an evening of diverse pieces from one of the most distinctive corners of the keyboard repertory: baroque organ music of Portugal and Spain. In a period marked by a trove of treatises and sources, the invention of new pipework and case designs, and the presence of the organ in both courts and cathedrals, it is evident that Iberian patrons considered the organ most capable of the sublime in music. Throughout a 250-year period of political upheaval, changing borders, and pressuring outside tastes, the idioms practiced by organists maintained their forms, developing within a microcosm relative to the rest of Europe. The written repertory exhibits an unexpected blend of stylistic influence, owed to a unique coexistence of a lingering Mozarabic diaspora, imperial conquest and exploitation of the Americas, and the religio-political leanings of authorities in the southern kingdoms.

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Thursday Morning, February 26th, 11:00am

Spanish Folly and Suave Melody

Alix Goolden Performance Hall, Victoria Conservatory of Music

La Modestine

This intimate morning coffee-concert programme of music for violin, viola da gamba and guitar highlights the blossoming of Spanish baroque music after El Siglo de Oro (Spain’s “Golden Century”), combining the diverse cultures of the Hapsburg Empire which existed across Europe whilst drawing on Spain’s Moorish past. At the same time, it signals the introduction of the Spanish guitar as an essential element in the music of Spain during the baroque period, as exemplified by the music of virtuoso guitarist composers Gaspar Sanz and Santiago de Murcia. Acclaimed lutenist and guitarist Lucas Harris joins festival favourites Marc Destrubé and Natalie Mackie to perform this enchanting music.

This unique program will be repeated on a tour of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast immediately after the festival. Learn more here!

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Friday Evening, February 27th, 7:30pm

Fervour and Fantasy

Alix Goolden Performance Hall, Victoria Conservatory of Music

Pacific Baroque Festival Ensemble

Rachel Allen, soprano

The Italian ‘Modern Style’ that would strongly influence the path of western music was no stranger to Spain, not least because the Kingdom of Naples was under Spanish rule through the 17th century, and as part of the Hapsburg empire in the 18th. Italian music was also championed by the second wife of Philip V, Elizabeth Farnese, who was influential in attracting the Neapolitan Domenico Scarlatti to the royal court in Madrid. The Spanish composer José de Nebra likely welcomed Scarlatti, as he was harpsichord teacher to the Portuguese Barbara of Braganza, future queen to King Ferdinand VI. Both Ferdinand and Barbara had a profound passion for music, and their reign reflected a true musical paradise, dominated by musicians such as the celebrated singer Farinelli.

Soprano Rachel Allen has gone from singing in the Pacific Baroque Festival as a member of the Victoria Children's Choir and studies at the Victoria Conservatory of Music to appearing in the concert halls of London and Europe and on the BBC. We are pleased to welcome her back to perform cantatas by the Spanish composer José de Nebra (a work unearthed a mere 25 years ago in the archives of the cathedral of Guatemala City) and the Neapolitan Domenico Scarlatti, best known for his 555 keyboard sonatas.

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Saturday Evening, February 28th, 7:30pm

A Night in Madrid with Luigi Boccherini
Alix Goolden Performance Hall, Victoria Conservatory of Music

Pacific Baroque Festival Ensemble

The Italian composer Luigi Boccherini was attached to the Court of the Spanish Infante , Luis Antonio (1727–85), brother of King Charles III of Spain (1759–88). For having married a common citizen, King Charles exiled the Infante from the Madrid Court to the Arenas de San Pedro palace in Ávila province. As a courtier of Luis Antonio, Boccherini joined the exile, and found himself with much time for composition, and there completed more than one hundred quintets for various instruments. As a virtuoso cellist, he wrote brilliantly for his instrument, drawing on the unique colour of two violins, viola and two cellos to produce music of magical beauty. At the same time he combined the traditional string quartet with guitar or piano. His music draws on the unique qualities of period instruments like no other composer.

Of the ‘Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid’, Boccherini wrote: ”The piece is absolutely useless, even ridiculous, outside Spain, because the audience cannot hope to understand its significance, nor the performers to play it as it should be played.” We will do our best to prove Boccherini wrong! The music appears in the 2003 feature film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

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Sunday Afternoon, March 1st, 4:00pm

Choral Evensong

Christ Church Cathedral

Christ Church Cathedral Schola, directed by Donald Hunt

Mark McDonald, organ

Pacific Baroque Festival Ensemble

The Pacific Baroque Festival concludes with a Choral Evensong Service at Christ Church Cathedral, featuring the sacred music of baroque Spain.

This is a free offering and no ticket required!