Spanish Connections
February 25th - March 1, 2026
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The 2026 Pacific Baroque Festival invites its audience to attend the music of baroque Spain. The Iberian Peninsula was heavily influenced by the musical trends in 17th-century Italy and France, yet maintained its own folk influences to create a unique musical environment. The most evident differentiator was the inclusion of the Spanish guitar, with Gaspar Sanz as one of the foremost champions and composers, and its idiomatic techniques of strumming and plucking. These sounds were often emulated by keyboard and string instruments, while prominent composers imported the forms and inventions of Italian baroque music from their studies and travels there.
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This year's Festival brings some of the best music of this special era to Victoria, while providing an enjoyable sonorous variety with concerts highlighting the organ, guitar, voice, and fortepiano, respectively. There is sure to be a concert to fit your taste!
Wednesday Evening, February 25th, 7:30pm
Iberian Splendour: Organ Music of 16th-18th c. Spain and Portugal
Christ Church Cathedral
Abraham Ross, organ
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​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
Musical Flowers and Suave Melodies
Alix Goolden Performance Hall, Victoria Conservatory of Music​
​​La Modestine
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This intimate program for violin, viola da gamba and lute/guitar, will enlighten Festival attendees to the blossoming of Spanish baroque music after El Siglo de Oro (Spain’s “Golden Century”), which intriguingly blended the diverse cultures of the Hapsburg Empire which existed across Europe and the Americas, as well as drawing on Spain’s Moorish past.​
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Friday Evening, February 27th, 7:30pm
Alix Goolden Performance Hall, Victoria Conservatory of Music​
Pacific Baroque Festival Ensemble
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The Italian ‘Modern Style’ of music that would mark the future of western music was no stranger to Spain, not least because the Kingdom of Naples was part of the Hapsburg empire. This Italian fashion 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 greeted 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.
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
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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.
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Sunday Afternoon, March 1st, 4:00pm
Christ Church Cathedral
Christ Church Cathedral Schola, directed by Donald Hunt
Mark McDonald, organ
Pacific Baroque Festival Ensemble
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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!
PURCHASING TICKETS
Single Tickets: $35 + tax & fees and $30 for Seniors/Students + tax & fees
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Festival Passes: $105 + tax & fees and $90 for Seniors/Students + tax & fees are also available for purchase here.
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School-age and post-secondary students: FREE entry at door with presentation of student ID or proof of enrolment
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Or buy by phone at the VCM Box Office: 250-386-5311
GOOD BROTHERS DEVELOPMENTS
DAVID & PEP GROOS FUND FOR VOCAL MUSIC, VICTORIA FOUNDATION
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The Magnolia Hotel provides Festival audience members with a special rate during the Festival: a 18% discount on the best available room rate.
MEDIA PARTNERS
