Early Music Vancouver has just announced a season that opens with Italian violin star Enrico Onofrio and boasts an expanded Vancouver Bach Festival featuring acclaimed French harpsichordist Benjamin Alard.

Onofrio opens the season by joining the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in works by Antonio Vivaldi.

That's followed by Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis performing Henry Purcell’s haunting Funeral Music for a Prince and Queen on October 13.

Other regular-season highlights include Michael McMahon playing Franz Schubert’s Wintereisse on a 19th-century fortepiano on November 2; a Christmas concert featuring the Bach Collegium Japan under the baton of Masaaki Suzuki; the return of Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in January; and a March concert of Schubert's beloved Death and the Maiden (with works by Mozart) by the Chiaroscuro Quartet with Kristian
Bezuidenhout on fortepiano (a collaboration with the Vancouver Recital Society).

The Bach fest runs from July 30 to August 10 this summer. It's expanded to 15 concerts, with Alard bringing to life EMV's Goldberg Experience; piano virtuoso Angela Hewitt continuing her four-year project to perform Bach’s entire keyboard repertoire; performances of the Bach Cantatas by the full orchestra and choir of Switzerland's Gli Angeli Genéve; and a large-scale performance of Bach’s Trauerode with internationally renowned soloists, a choir, and the PBO led by Alexander Weimann.

Find full details here. Subscriptions are available by phone through the Chan Centre Box Office at 604-822-2697.

A full list of events is here:

VANCOUVER BACH FESTIVAL 2018

JUL 30: Bach Goldberg Variations - Benjamin Alard
JUL 31: Angela Hewitt - Bach Well Tempered Clavier – Book 1 at the Chan Centre
AUG 1: Mozart Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin - Eric Zivian and Mark Destrubé at 1pm
AUG 1: Zimmerman’s Coffeehouse and Garden - Alexander Weimann with members of the PBO
AUG 2: Schubert Lieder for Voice and Guitar - Colin Balzer and Lucas Harris, guitar at 1pm
AUG 2: Musica Transalpina: Vivaldi to Bach - Reginald L. Mobley and Pacific MusicWorks
AUG 3: Songs without Words - Renaissance Madrigals Reimagined at 1pm
AUG 3: Bach Cantatas - Actus Tragicus with Gli Angeli Genève
AUG 7: Bach Solo Sonatas and Suites for Gamba - Romina Lischka at 1pm
AUG 7: De Profundis: 17th Century Cantatas for Solo Bass with Cornetti and Sackbutts
AUG 8: Britten Abraham and Isaac - Thomas Hobbs, tenor, Alex Potter, alto at 1pm
AUG 8: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms with Monica Huggett and Byron Schenkman
AUG 9: EMV Emerging Artists Recital at 1pm (Admission by Donation)
AUG 9: Couperin Leçons de Ténèbres - La Modestine with Mark Destrubé
AUG 10: Bach Trauer Ode (BWV 198) - PBO and Gli Angeli Genève at the Chan Centre
All concerts at Christ Church Cathedral at 7:30pm unless otherwise noted.

MASTERWORKS SERIES 2018—2019

JUL 31: Angela Hewitt - Bach Well Tempered Clavier – Book 1
AUG 10: Bach Trauer Ode (BWV 198) - PBO and Gli Angeli Genève
DEC 9: Bach Collegium Japan - Bach, Handel, Vivaldi - Masaaki Suzuki conductor at 3pm
DEC 23: Festive Cantatas: A Monteverdi Christmas Vespers with David Fallis at 3pm
JAN 25: Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra – J.S. Bach: The Circle of Creation at Vancouver
Playhouse
FEB 9: The King’s Singers - Royal Blood: Music for Henry VIII
MAR 10: Schubert Death and the Maiden and works by Mozart - Chiaroscuro Quartet with Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano, a collaboration with Vancouver Recital Society at Vancouver Playhouse
APR 14: Handel Coronation Anthems - PBO at 3pm
All concerts at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts at 7:30pm unless otherwise noted.

CATHEDRAL SERIES 2018-2019

JUN 12: Medieval Echoes - Norbert Rodenkirchen
SEP 29: Vivaldi - L’Estro Armonico PBO, with Enrico Onofrio, solo violin and guest director
OCT 13: Purcell - Funeral Music for a Prince and a Queen -Vox Luminis
NOV 2: Schubert Winterreise - Phillipe Sly, baritone and Michael McMahon, fortepiano
FEB 22: Chopin The Last Concert -Tobias Koch, fortepiano, a collaboration with the Vancouver Chopin Society
FEB 23: The Polish Romantics -Tobias Koch, fortepiano, a collaboration with the Vancouver Chopin Society
MAR 23: Machaut Le Remède De Fortune - Blue Heron
MAY 10: Venice in the East: Music from Renaissance Crete - Cappella Romana
All concerts at Christ Church Cathedral at 7:30pm unless otherwise noted.