Victoria Baroque - Cello Landscapes

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Saturday, October 4th, 2025
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Salt Spring Baroque is delighted to welcome back Victoria Baroque for their upcoming program, “Cello Landscapes”. This concert explores the warm, expansive, bass frequencies of the cello and bassoon, in conversation with the natural world.

The concert will feature soloists cellist Diederik Van Dijk, cellist Amy Laing, and bassoonist Katrina Russell. Together, they will perform a selection of Baroque concertos, including Antonio Vivaldi’s evocative Concerto for Cello and Bassoon, RV 409—a work that paints musical landscapes reminiscent of his iconic Four Seasons. This fascinating and unconventional concerto showcases Vivaldi’s flair for inventive textures and dramatic contrasts.

The program also features new works by Canadian composers Cris Derksen and Emily Doolittle. Derksen is a two-spirit Juno Award nominated Cree cellist and composer from the North Tallcree reserve near Fort Vermillion, Alberta. She is known for her unique musical sound which blends classical music with traditional indigenous music. Her music is often described as "electronic cello" or classical traditional fusion. Victoria Baroque will perform her piece Land Bach, a creative response to the timeless music of Bach’s Cello Suites.

Halifax-born Emily Doolittle has an ongoing research and musical interest in zoomusicology (the study of music-like aspects of animal songs) and finds inspiration in sounds of the natural world such as bird song, whale song, the sound of rainfall, or the slow growth of trees. Her composition “Utah, 1996” is based on two decades of research into the shapes and patterns of the song of the hermit thrush, exploring the intersection of human music and nature.

To balance the bass, and add some higher frequencies to the program, Soile Stratkauskas will perform Vivaldi’s flute concerto Il gardellino, a vivid example of program music that describes the lively song of the goldfinch. The flute imitates the bird's singing, competing with the accompaniment in a series of rapid figurations. The concert will conclude with Diederik Van Dijk’s performance of Porpora’s magnificently lyrical cello concerto. Porpora was a renowned voice teacher and opera composer who composed nearly 50 operas and was the most celebrated singing teacher of his day. His single cello concerto, with its amply ornamented melodic lines is no doubt influenced by his operatic style.

Join us for an evening of music that journeys across landscapes, traditions, and time. Tickets are available at saltspringbaroque.com, artspring.ca and at the door.