DATE: March 29th, 2026

TIME: 2 p.m.

VENUE: Desautels Concert Hall (150 Dafoe Road)

Co-directed by Andrew Balfour and Richard Gillis, this program will feature the glorious antiphonal music of Venetian master Giovanni Gabriel, as well as brass transcriptions of Elizabethan composers William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons Consort music, and arrangements for brass choir of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. 

This concert is being presented in association with the University of Manitoba's Desautels Concert Series. 

About the Winnipeg Baroque Brass Choir

The Winnipeg Baroque Festival Brass Choir includes ten of Winnipeg’s top brass players. The ensemble is a celebration of a rich brass tradition, from the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble to the Canadian Brass and beyond, and also celebrates the rich level of wind and brass playing in Winnipeg.

DATE: March 29th, 2026

TIME: 4 p.m.

VENUE: All Saints Anglican Church (521 Broadway)

A beloved part of the Festival, the All Saints Anglican Church Choir invites you to their downtown sanctuary for a reverent celebration of Dietrich Buxtehude's music led by conductor Dietrich Bartel.

About All Saints Anglican Church Choir

The All Saints Anglican Church Choir is a group of dedicated and talented singers who enjoy meeting regularly on Thursday evenings for both singing and socializing. The choir is a completely volunteer group of singers, some of whom also take on solo  roles in masses, cantatas, oratorios, and other performances as required. Besides singing weekly Sunday morning services, the choir also sings Evensong monthly in addition to special services like the annual Advent Procession with Carols (begun by  Hugh Bancroft in 1952), for which All Saints is well known.  Besides traditional Renaissance and  Tudor repertoire, the choir enjoys singing contemporary repertoire as well as works by Canadian composers. The choir continues to uphold the long and venerable music tradition of the parish, exemplified by winning second place in the 2008 CBC National Radio Competition for Amateur Choirs.

DATE: March 31st, 2026

TIME: 7 p.m.

VENUE: Desautels Concert Hall (150 Dafoe Road)

Led by instructor Mel Braun, the Baroque artists of tomorrow will be performing one of G.F. Handel's most celebrated and underrated oratorios.

About the University of Manitoba Oratorio Ensemble

The University of Manitoba Oratorio Ensemble meets every two years to share a This class introduces voice students to the Oratorio repertoire, spanning five centuries. Students will explore technical, stylistic, and interpretive aspects of this repertoire. The understanding gained will enhance their ability to communicate in performance situations. Text analysis, translation, diction, ensemble skills, musical style, and dramatic engagement will be addressed throughout the course.

DATE: April 1st, 2026

TIME: 8 p.m.

VENUE: To be revealed to ticket purchasers to ensure capacity.

Two of Winnipeg's most in-demand classical vocalists - soprano Lara Sec0rd-Haid and tenor Nolan Kehler - present 20th and 21st century music that responds to the works of two of the English Baroque's most celebrated composers.

About Lara Secord-Haid

Lara Secord-Haid is a versatile singing artist with a rich artistic practice. Her work as an opera and classical singing artist has been praised for its “impassioned strength” (Classical Scene) and for being “capable of the highest flights of coloratura and possessing a rich and expressive overall quality” (Attencion San Miguel). Lara explores a wide range of classically informed music, from the antique to contemporary. Beyond the traditional and avant-garde, she has immersed herself in the captivating world of Sephardic music. This love resonates through her commission and performance of new works within this genre. Winnipeg audiences recently saw Lara as Addie Mills in The House without a Christmas Tree by Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek with The Little Opera Company in Winnipeg. She will be producing and performing digital media projects with composers Alf Bishai and Daniel Janke. 

About Nolan Kehler

Treaty One-based tenor Nolan Kehler is a performer dedicated to collaboration and reconciliation. Recent operatic highlights have included performances with the Banff Centre (The Handmaid's Tale), the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Handel's Messiah), Manitoba Opera (Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North), and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (Alcina). A noted Baroque specialist, Nolan has made appearances with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Handel's Messiah and with the Canadian Mennonite University Festival Chorus as Evangelist in J.S. Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium and St. John Passion. Nolan has also had the pleasure of working with Juno-nominated Cree composer Andrew Balfour on his compositions Captive and Nôtinikêw in performances with Winnipeg’s Dead of Winter at the Montreal New Music Festival, the Brandon University Chorale, and with Edmonton’s Chronos Vocal Ensemble. When not performing, Nolan is a radio host with Winnipeg’s Classic 107, where he covers Manitoba’s fine arts community and curates listener experiences in a wide range of repertoire. Nolan’s bylines as an arts writer and broadcaster have appeared with CBC, Opera Canada, CANNOPY, and IDAGIO.

DATE: April 5th, 2026

TIME: 7 p.m.

VENUE: Laudamus Auditorium, Canadian Mennonite University (500 Shaftesbury Boulevard)

One of Winnipeg’s most celebrated soloists returns to the Winnipeg Baroque Festival stage for Refractions of Bach, sharing the composer’s seminal counterpoint alongside Stravinsky’s reinventions and Busoni’s transcendence.

About Karl Stobbe

Karl Stobbe is recognized as one of Canada’s most accomplished violinists, known for his dedication to excellence on the violin and classical music in all its forms. As a concertmaster, soloist, and chamber musician, Karl has been an audience favorite in small settings and large venues. Noted for his generous, rich sound and long, poignant phrasing, he is described by the San Francisco Classical Voice as “an artist with soulful musicianship,” and by London’s Sunday Times as “a master soloist, recalling the golden age of violin playing... producing a breathtaking range of tone colours.”

Always looking to expand the concert stage, Karl has recently created a series of online concerts for digital concert platforms. Distinguished by his life-long love of the music for solo violin, this series features video recordings of all the unaccompanied violin repertoire of J.S. Bach. In honour of the 300th anniversary of Bach’s famous sonatas and partitas for solo violin, it also explores Bach’s influence through video performances of other solo violin repertoire of music by Bartok, Ysaye, Prokofiev, Biber, and others.

DATE: April 7th, 2026

TIME: 9 p.m.

VENUE: St. Margaret's Anglican Church (160 Ethelbert Street)

Members of Winnipeg's premiere male vocal quintet bring together audiences in the heart of Wolseley to bask in the mid-week reverences of William Byrd.

About Proximus 5

These “exquisite,” “spine-tingling” unaccompanied voices sing timeless, deeply moving a cappella music from across the ages. Their favourite genres include folk, contemporary covers, and contemplative classics, often featuring new arrangements. 

After singing together in other ensembles for many years, they came together during the pandemic to maintain some musical proximity. Their performances celebrate the power of music to connect one another and soothe the soul. Over the last two years, they've performed several concerts to sold-out audiences in their hometown, Winnipeg, and have taken their show to the US Midwest and to Montreal for Podium, Canada's national choral music conference.

DATE: April 8th, 2026

TIME: 7 p.m.

VENUE: X-Cues Restaurant & Lounge (551 Sargent Avenue)

One of the most famous musical works of all time will be given a bartop twist in the West End.

About Conductor Katy Harmer

Katy Harmer (she/her) is a queer and genderqueer choral conductor, singer, and educator based in Winnipeg. She is currently the Music Director at St. Andrew's River Heights United Church, Artistic Director for Margaret's Choir, the founding Artistic Director of Winnipeg Upper Voices, and interim Artistic Director for Rainbow Harmony Project. She has recently conducted the University of Manitoba Singers and sung with Dead of Winter, and the Canadian Chamber Choir.

She completed a Master of Music at the University of Manitoba, studying choral conducting with Dr. Elroy Friesen. In February 2020, Katy was a conductor at the Banff Centre’s Choral Art program with Michael Zaugg and Lone Larsen.

A lifelong choral musician originally from Toronto, Katy believes strongly in the power of choir to bring people together in community, and brings this philosophy to all her musical ventures and collaborations.

DATE: April 10th, 2026

TIME: 7 p.m.

VENUE: Laudamus Auditorium, Canadian Mennonite University (500 Shaftesbury Boulevard)

Step into the golden age of the Baroque as L’Art des Sons traces music’s power to seduce, console, and astonish through French and Italian masterpieces for soprano, traverse flute, and continuo. André Campra’s dramatic cantata "Arion" paints the legendary musician poised between shipwreck and salvation, while Vivaldi’s chamber cantata "All’ombra di sospetto" explores love shaded by jealousy and delight. A sparkling flute sonata by Jean-Marie Leclair completes the program, shimmering with refined French dance rhythms and Italianate virtuosity.

About Nonsuch Ensemble

One of Winnipeg’s premier period instrument groups, the Nonsuch Ensemble consists of cellist Blair Burns, flutist Nancy Hennen, keyboardist Carol Piller and soprano Katy Hedalen. Together, the group explores a vast array of Baroque repertoire ranging from beloved favourites to obscure gems.

DATE: April 11th, 2026

TIME: 7 p.m.

VENUE: St. Andrews River Heights United Church (255 Oak Street)

Three of Winnipeg's most prominent double reed players join forces to share their interpretations of one of Bach's most enduring pieces.

About Tacamis Trio

A unique double reed ensemble, the Tacamis Trio is comprised of oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs, English hornist Tracy Wright, and bassoonist Allen Harrington. Forming the double reed section of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Caitlin, Tracy, and Allen have performed and toured together in hundreds of concerts with the MCO, as well as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, for more than a decade.

DATE: April 12th, 2026

TIME: 2 p.m.

VENUE: St. Margaret's Anglican Church (160 Ethelbert Street)

Music’s world order underwent a seismic change in early 17th C. Italy. Gone was the complex choral polyphony of the last 150 years, replaced by a new approach, where composers worked to convey the visceral drama of the text. Whole new musical forms were developed and opera was born. Monteverdi was the first great master of this new style. Along with contemporaries like Francesca Caccini and Salamono de Rossi, he forever changed the way music would reach audiences. The power of storytelling, grounded in dramatic text, was the new world order. First words, then music!

About Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter – formerly known as Camerata Nova – is a vocal ensemble located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since 1996, they have been engaging and transforming music lovers with an annual concert series alongside a host of other innovative projects. They emerged from the isolation of our pandemic cocoon with a new name and a bold new identity. Dead of Winter is about powerful voices that tell stories, weaving together the talents of emerging and established artists. They support and collaborate with creatives from all backgrounds. They reimagine choir and performance, live and online. They are a platform for original work to be discovered and for early music to be rediscovered. For them, winter is a season for creativity and rebirth. Who knows what treasures await beneath the frozen landscape at the centre of Canada.

About Fidem in Fidibus

An ensemble formed in the 2024 Winnipeg Baroque Festival, Fidem in Fidibus (Faith in Fiddles) is a major collaboration between Manitoba soloists on period instruments. The group  consists of violinists Momoko Matsumura and Tatiana Friesen, keyboardist Theresa Thordarson, guitarist John Himes, and cellist Nathaniel Froese.

DATE: April 12th, 2026

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

VENUE: St. John's College Chapel, University of Manitoba (92 Dysart Rd.)

A reflective evening dedicated to one of England's most beloved 17th-century composers, Orlando Gibbons.

About All the King's Men

All The King's Men is a male-voice liturgical choir, associated with the College Chapel of St. John the Evangelist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Founded as an independent choir in 1997, the ensemble initially travelled to parishes within Winnipeg and beyond, introducing congregations to the rich tradition of Latin and English choral music for men's voices within the context of the Anglican services of Evensong and Compline. To date, the choir has sung for Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and Evangelical congregations. After a period of singing regularly at St. John's College, the choir was invited to form an official association with the College Chapel in 2000. The choir has been affiliated with the Royal School of Church Music since 1997.

All The King's Men boasts a membership of 18 singers drawn from a variety of denominational backgrounds. The choir rehearses weekly and sings Choral Evensong at St. John's College on the first Sunday of each month from October through June. Regular special services include a Tenebrae in Holy Week, an Advent Evensong and two feast-day Eucharists during the academic year. The choir continues to accept invitations to sing at outlying churches.

The choir maintains an active repertoire of service music ranging from Gregorian and Sarum plainsong to part music written for the choir in recent months. Composers represented in the choir's repertoire include Palestrina, Lassus, Byrd, Tallis, Stone, Gibbons, Batten, Monteverdi, Tomkins, Locke, Stainer, Sullivan, Stravinsky, Simon Lenassi, Paul Edwards and Lawrence Ritchey.

DATE: April 15th, 2026

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

VENUE: Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, University of Winnipeg (515 Portage Avenue)

One of the most in-demand classical musicians in the world makes her Winnipeg debut in a program that blends the Baroque with the contemporary.

About Rachel Fenlon

​Known for performing self-accompanied song recitals as both singer and pianist, Rachel also appears widely as a chamber music and opera soloist. Her debut album Winterreise (October 2024) received widespread acclaim, named Album of the Week by BBC Radio 3, CBC, and Gramophone Magazine, and Album of the Month by Classic 106 FM. CBC praised it as “an outstanding new record... extraordinary,” and BBC Radio 3 called it “extraordinary and spellbinding.” Remarkably, it is the first self-accompanied Winterreise ever recorded.

Rachel has performed across Europe, the UK, Canada, Brazil, and the U.S., with appearances at Konzerthaus Berlin, Martha Argerich Festival, Juan March Madrid, Vancouver Recital Society, Oxford Lieder Festival, Music Toronto, Salle Bourgie Montreal, Settimane Musicali di Ascona, and the National Arts Centre. In March 2025, Rachel made her U.S. debut at SXSW Festival in Austin, bringing classical music to one of the world’s most influential pop festivals.

DATE: April 18h, 2026

TIME: 1 p.m.

VENUE: Young United Church (222 Furby Street)

The 2026 Festival concludes with a beloved Festival favourite - a community celebration of J.S. Bach from a wide range of instruments and abilities!

About the Royal Canadian College of Organists, Winnipeg Chapter

​The Royal Canadian College of Organists was founded in 1909 in Brantford, ON, and within a couple of years had members from coast to coast. It is Canada’s oldest musicians’ association. The Winnipeg Centre of the RCCO provides a wide variety of programmes including organ recitals, organ and choral events, professional development workshops, a local newsletter, scholarships for pianists who wish to learn to play the organ, and social activities. The mentorship and education of youth, and the emotional and professional support of members are high on the priority list for the Winnipeg Centre.