Archives des Focus – Total Baroque Magazine

Hildegard von Bingen: From the Rhine Valley to the United States

From medieval mysticism to contemporary opera, Hildegard von Bingen has never ceased to fascinate. With “Hildegard”, her first opera, American composer Sarah Kirkland Snider brings together visions, illness, faith, desire, and artistic creation to revive Hildegard von Bingen, one of the most remarkable figures of the European Middle Ages. “Hildegard” will be performed on July 31 at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.

by Kyle MacMillan 21 July 2026

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GEMS, The Quiet Force Behind New York’s Early Music Community

Focus

Gotham Early Music Scene

GEMS, The Quiet Force Behind New York’s Early Music Community

In New York, GEMS lives up to its name. Since 2007, this discreet yet indispensable organization has helped young early music ensembles grow, secure funding, organize concerts, and build their audiences. John Thiessen has served as Executive Director from 2022 until early 2026. As GEMS enters a new chapter under new leadership, the Canadian-born musician reflects on how the organization became one of the driving forces behind the American early music scene.

by Francine Labelle 30 June 2026

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A New Golden Age for the Mandolin in Marseille

Focus

Mandol’in Marseille & Vincent Beer-Demander

A New Golden Age for the Mandolin in Marseille

From June 30 to July 6, Mandol’in Marseille returns for a sixth edition, honouring Vladimir Cosma. At the helm of the festival, Vincent Beer-Demander continues a long-term mission: restoring Marseille’s mandolin heritage, fostering dialogue between tradition, creation, and transmission, and demonstrating that an instrument long relegated to the margins can once again become a vibrant laboratory for musical innovation.

by Alexie Valois 24 June 2026

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Greg Skidmore: A Renaissance Man from Canada

Focus

The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools

Greg Skidmore: A Renaissance Man from Canada

As a teenager in Canada in the 1990s, Greg Skidmore could not fully pursue his passion for Renaissance polyphony. Having since become a London-based baritone, he founded the Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools to offer others what he himself had lacked: the opportunity to study, sing and pass on this repertoire at the highest level.

by Fiona Hook 12 May 2026

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Valenciennes, a new stronghold of early music

Focus

A 20 Years Old Baroque Project

Valenciennes, a new stronghold of early music

In Valenciennes, northern France, Yannick Lemaire and the ensemble Harmonia Sacra have been spearheading the festival “Embar(o)quement immédiat” for the past twenty years (anniversary edition, 6–31 May), and more recently an ambitious project to establish a music centre at the Hôtel de Barneville. In this former mining region, could the city be emerging as a major new hub for early music?

by Victoria Okada 20 April 2026

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Bach on Ice: -55°C can’t stop the (early) music

Focus

Yukon Early Music (Canada)

Bach on Ice: -55°C can’t stop the (early) music

Beyond the aurora borealis that have made the Yukon region in Canada’s Far North famous, other lights appeared in 2025: those of Yukon Early Music, an emerging music scene, and a small community determined to promote early music in these freezing cold lands (-55°C!), making a different kind of name for the territory.

by Ivy Lerner-Frank 29 January 2026

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Focus

Hannah French

Writing “The Four Seasons”

What if The Four Seasons were not just a classical hit, but a time to be experienced through writing? In her book The Rolling Year, Hannah French explores Vivaldi through the rhythm of the months, landscapes and the listening body. An investigation where music, seasons and experience respond to each other, far from abstraction.

by Hannah French 1 January 2026

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When Toronto Plays Host to a 340-Year-Old Special Guest!

Focus

Tafelmusik’s Sing-Along Messiah Tradition

When Toronto Plays Host to a 340-Year-Old Special Guest!

Every December, Toronto sees Handel return from beyond the grave to conduct Messiah, roared at full voice by 2,700 spectators. With its legendary Sing-Along, Tafelmusik transforms the 1741 oratorio into a collective celebration where history, humour, and musical fervour collide like nowhere else. Our contributor Kate Helsen, a member of the Tafelmusik Choir for over 20 years, describes the unique event.

by Kate Helsen 18 December 2025

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Focus

The Bavarian Youth Baroque Orchestra

Young musicians, old instruments

They are between 12 and 20 years old and play Vivaldi, Bach, or Zelenka on period instruments: the Bayerisches Jugend-Barockorchester upends the idea that Baroque music is a matter for specialists. An artistic and human adventure that reveals the zeal and high standards of a new generation.

by Andrea Braun 9 December 2025

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A Musical Journey through Eighteenth-Century London in 4 CDs

Focus

Ensemble La Rêveuse

A Musical Journey through Eighteenth-Century London in 4 CDs

With their ensemble La Rêveuse, Florence Bolton and Benjamin Perrot have devoted ten years to exploring English music of the eighteenth century. Their project, “London,” brought to life in the form of four recordings, stands out for its singular ambition: to link the musical history of that period with contemporary movements of populations and artists.

by Paolo Scarnecchia 8 December 2025

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The Tölzer Knabenchor Extends Bach’s Choral Vision

Focus

Bach’s Cantatas as He Dreamed Them 2/2

The Tölzer Knabenchor Extends Bach’s Choral Vision

Three hundred years ago, the composer wanted more singers—and didn’t get them. But now, the Tölzer Knabenchor – as part of Ultra HIP music’s BACH-ENTWURFF-PROJEKT- is recording several of Bach’s cantatas using the vocal forces he wished for.

by Andrea Braun 17 November 2025

The Night-Rest-Saving Tool for Organists and Choir Directors!

Focus

KATI, The Kantionalsatz Machine

The Night-Rest-Saving Tool for Organists and Choir Directors!

Designed at the Hochschule in Weimar, KATI generates choral harmonisations in the seventeenth-century style at the click of a button. A “chorale machine” that both relieves musicians and challenges the very notion of human creativity.

by Andrea Braun 30 October 2025

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Focus

Hildegard von Bingen: From the Rhine Valley to the United States

GEMS, The Quiet Force Behind New York’s Early Music Community

A New Golden Age for the Mandolin in Marseille

Greg Skidmore: A Renaissance Man from Canada

Valenciennes, a new stronghold of early music

Bach on Ice: -55°C can’t stop the (early) music

Writing “The Four Seasons”

When Toronto Plays Host to a 340-Year-Old Special Guest!

Young musicians, old instruments

A Musical Journey through Eighteenth-Century London in 4 CDs

The Tölzer Knabenchor Extends Bach’s Choral Vision

The Night-Rest-Saving Tool for Organists and Choir Directors!