ALANA BLACKBURN
Events 2025
January 11-17
Australasian Recorder Festival
Tutor
PLC Armidale, NSW
January 31 & February 2
Salut! Baroque - "Music to Celebrate"
A feast of glorious music launches our celebratory year, with compositions spanning 400 years. Creativity bloomed in the baroque period as concerts moved away from the confines of the church and royal courts into the public realm, with different styles becoming the “pop music” of the day. Music became more accessible through printing, creating an independent market for enterprising composers, performers, publishers and promoters alike. Our program will include some of The Four Seasons by Giovanni Guido, written around eight years before Vivaldi’s most famous composition, and Jan Rokyta’s enchanting Balkanology, written 300 years later and inspired by traditional Romanian and Turkish music with its complex rhythms and harmonies.
Friday 31 January, 7.30pm
Wesley Church, 20 National Circuit, Forrest, Canberra
Sunday 2 February, 3.00pm
Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Tickets: https://baroque.com.au/concerts/
February 20 - March 10
Sitka Recorder Residency
Spending 3 weeks on the Oregon coast at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology working on new creative works and collaborating with other artists.
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology
Oregon, USA
April 11 & 13
Salut! Baroque "Baroque Spirit"
Baroque music encapsulates the dynamic spirit of the 17th and 18th centuries that goes beyond listening pleasure to reflect the social, cultural and political upheavals of the period. Drawing inspiration from Ottoman, Romani and Celtic influences, Baroque Spirit explores the rich weave of styles as nations looked beyond their European borders towards new discoveries. Composers sought innovative approaches to embellish their work for a newly popularised music market. This was aided by explorers, traders and missionaries, reflecting their thirst for new horizons and unique perspectives in an ever-expanding world. The result was music that bridged time and place, building on ancient foundations to develop a new spirit of musical exuberance and vitality.
Friday 11 April, 7.30pm
Wesley Church, 20 National Circuit, Forrest, Canberra
Sunday 13 April, 3.00pm
Verbruggen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Tickets: https://baroque.com.au/concerts/
May 1-4
New England Bach Festival
'Historical Stories'
A new perspective on baroque music with a creative fusion of spoken word and music - the old, the new, the new-old and old-new, but all here, and in presence of the present. An interweaving poetry, prose and music. Includes a newly commissioned work exploring concepts of “place”, with texts by Sarah Lawrence, Steve Harris, Catherine Emerson and Katy Haselwood. The new work is supported by the Country Arts Support Program and Regional Arts NSW.
Alana Blackburn - Recorders
Steve Thorneycroft - Guitar
Camilla Tafra - Cello
Sarah Lawrence - Narrator
Sunday, 4th May
2.30pm, Uniting Church, Armidale, NSW
Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1347097
July 18 & 20
Salut! Baroque - "The Entrepreneur"
Celebrity culture thrived during the baroque period and Georg Philipp Telemann was one of the stars! A prolific composer of over 3,000 compositions that demonstrated an uncanny sense of popular musical trends, Telemann was the most famous composer in Germany in his day. Being skilled on eleven instruments gave him the ability to understand “each instrument and what suits it best”. He absorbed and incorporated music from throughout Europe, and boasted that he could compose in the “Italian, French, English, Scottish and Polish styles”. Telemann was also at the forefront of printing technology and was a brilliant promoter of his own publications, amassing hundreds of subscribers.
Friday 18 July, 7.30pm
Wesley Church, 20 National Circuit, Forrest, Canberra
Sunday 20 July, 3.00pm
Verbruggen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Buy tickets: Salut Baroque
August 31
Apeiron Baroque "The Complete Roll-bag"
4.30pm Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest, ACT
31st August, 4:30pm.
More information and tickets www.apeiron-baroque.com
