Tucson Baroque Festival is back on for ’23 Song Fest

It is the most ambitious project in the 41-year history of the early music presenter, which brings in national artists who specialize in 15th and 16th century music, oftentimes performing on period instruments.

The festival, Feb. 10-13, was supposed to take place during the 2022 Tucson Desert Song Festival, but it was postponed when COVID-19 cases spiked in Pima County last January.

Arizona Early Music Executive Director Dominic Giardino said the two soloists — soprano Nola Richardson and baritone Tyler Duncan — signed on for the 2022 festival are returning. They will be accompanied by the Tucson Baroque Music Festival Chamber Players, comprised of nine freelance musicians from the East Coast who specialize in early music, Giardino said.

“This offers a dimension that you’re really not going to see” on any other Tucson stage, Giardino said. “We are excited to bring this perspective to the table.”

The Baroque Festival is one of two events Arizona Early Music is presenting for the 2023 Song Festival. On Jan. 22, the group hosted Ars Lyrica Houston in a concert that explored the co-mingling of New World European musical traditions with indigenous musical practices.

The Baroque Music Festival will present three distinct programs: “Across the Alps,” focused on Italian repertoire including a Vivaldi recorder concerto and works by Locatelli that influenced Viennese composers, on Friday, Feb. 10; “Heaven and Earth,” focused on the music of Bach, on Saturday, Feb. 11; and “Apollo and Daphne,” featuring music by Handel, on Sunday, Feb. 12.

Giardino said the programming for the festival goes beyond Arizona Early Music’s tradition of presenting more obscure and out-of-the-mainstream works by little- and well-known composers to presenting what he is calling the greatest hits from Bach and Handel and the Italian composers.

“For these three days, this is really going to be a walk through the best of Bach, the best of Handel as well as some familiar Vivaldi pieces,” he said. “Even though some of the works we’re presenting aren’t going to be what you’ll hear on a day-to-day basis, the composers we’re presenting are really recognizable.”

Performances will be held at 3 p.m. each day at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St. near the University of Arizona. Tickets are $30.90 for individual concerts or $72.10 for a festival pass through azearlymusic.org.