It’s a good time for historical queens again, as several Early Music Vancouver Festival concerts celebrate from Sunday (July 26) to August 7.

Queen Christina—The Girl King (July 26 at the Roy Barnett Recital Hall)
Christina, queen of Sweden, of uncertain sexual identity, was one of the most educated and cultured monarchs of the 1600s. Soprano Ellen Hargis offers a unique vocal perspective on her eventful life, assisted by baroque dancer Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière, as well as Christopher Bagan on harpsichord, Paul Luchkow on violin, and Lucas Harris on lute, performing music by Alessandro Scarlatti, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Arcangelo Corelli, and others.

The Queen's Delight—Les Voix Humaines Gamba Consort (July 31 at the Roy Barnett Recital Hall)
Tobias Hume may or may not have served as the model for Sir Andrew Aguecheek in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, but he was certainly a colourful soldier of fortune from Elizabethan times, an oddball composer and viol player, and a passionate advocate for his instrument. The Queen’s Delight is a selection of works by Hume, performed by Montreal-based consort Les Voix Humaines with viol players Susie Napper, Mélisande Corriveau, and Margaret Little.

Sequentia: The Queen and the Troubadour (August 7 at the Roy Barnett Recital Hall)
The Paris-based Sequentia ensemble, a regular and favourite of the festival, presents a program inspired by the famous “courts of love” in medieval France—where the finest troubadours and minstrels performed. Sequentia’s singer, harpist, and leader Benjamin Bagby, along with flutist Norbert Rodenkirchen and singer and organistrum player Wolodymyr Smishkewych, joins the young professionals they’ve been teaching in the EMV summer-study program.