Canowindra Baroque Music Festival

Love, Loss, & Bedlam!

The Marais Project
HIP Company
Russel Harcourt
Doublinszky & Price

Friday 19th - Sunday 21st September 2025

Welcome to Baroquefest! Australia's boutique baroque music festival in the heart of central western New South Wales. 

This year’s program, artfully curated by Jenny Eriksson, will bring Love, Loss and Bedlam to Baroquefest! A series of 5 concerts by performers and ensembles from Sydney to Perth will feature our most varied program ever. From the pre-baroque composers of Frescobaldi and Monteverdi, you will journey through Bach, Handel, the ‘Mad Songs’ of Henry Purcell, Swedish folk tunes, new works by modern Australian composers Alice Chance and Susie Bishop, and the merging of baroque harmony and counterpoint with the rhythmic energy, delightful unpredictability, and harmonic colours of jazz.

“The program items unfolded like a degustation menu, each piece exquisitely crafted, its flavours all too fleeting. After this sublime sensory experience the Suite will never be the same again!” — Rosalind Appleby, Seesaw Magazine: “Baroque dance music comes alive”, 19 May 2021.
– HIP Company

“There aren’t enough superlatives to do justice to this performance by Eriksson, soprano and violinist Susie Bishop, countertenor Russell Harcourt and Tommie Andersson on theorbo and guitar, a concert which can best be described as sublime”. - Limelight (5 stars)
– The Marais Project

Join us in Canowindra for this unforgettable weekend with one of our festival passes!

Festival President - Richard Statham

“We were delighted last year when Jenny Eriksson offered to prepare a program for this year's festival. She knew exactly how to approach it having performed splendidly for us as The Marais Project and Elysian Fields in 2019. I know you'll all fully endorse the glowing summary Andrew Baker wrote when re-launching the website for this year.

Welcome to our many regular supporters and to those attending for the first time. Our ever growing data base of subscribers gives us great confidence that the festival is sustainable, to say the least. It could grow dramatically if Canowindra had bigger venues, more beds and eateries but it is our boutique nature which observers say provides Baroquefest's ongoing appeal.

Our thanks to Mrs Karin Keighley, Cabonne Council, Orange Regional Arts Foundation as well as the NSW and federal governments for their generous financial support.

How good it is to have our patron Marian Arnold here again to maximise our understanding and enjoyment of every peice of music.

Thanks to Cowra and Canowindra CWAs for lending their culinary skills for our degustation. My personal thanks as always to our diligent committee members for keeping this now ten years old show, on the road.”

Patron - Marian Arnold

“Ten years ago, in 2015, I met Richard Statham, a musical enthusiast with an enterprising and surprising idea. How would I react, he asked, to a Festival of Baroque Music held in the vineyards and olive groves of Canowindra in the Central West of NSW? Could it work? Richard was convincing, and I was intrigued enough to agree to becoming the Festival’s Patron. What a great decision that was!

The Festival has grown in both focus and stature from year to year, and is now triumphantly marching into its second decade of artistic life. It boasts a unique cultural blend: 5 concerts of great music from one of the richest and most sophisticated periods of Western history, given by notable performers in interesting venues; it offers fine dining on local wine and produce in a charming small town setting with significant local history to explore. No wonder that audiences have embraced the concept and now come from far and wide for this much anticipated annual event.

I am proud to once again add my voice to this yearly celebration. It has not simply lived up to the original hopes and dreams of its founder, it has surpassed all our expectations. I am eagerly looking forward to meeting and making musical friends old and new at Canowindra BaroqueFest 2025. I hope I will see you there!

Festival Musical Director - Andrew Baker

“Welcome you to this year's festival, a celebration of the timeless beauty and elegance of Baroque music. As the musical director, I am thrilled to announce that we will be joined by a variety of artists from all over Australia! Their exquisite interpretations of Baroque masterpieces promise to transport us to a world of passion, drama, and sublime beauty, and I have no doubt that their performances will leave an indelible mark on our hearts and minds.

As we gather in the picturesque setting of Canowindra, surrounded by rolling hills and historical buildings, this festival will be a source of inspiration, joy, and shared experiences. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to our patrons, sponsors, volunteers, and the committee for making this event possible. Together, let us embark on a journey of discovery and celebration, united by the enduring legacy of the Baroque era.”

Andrew Baker, Violinist, has been a resident of the Central West since 2005. After completing his tertiary studies in violin performance in Sydney and the Netherlands, he has contributed to the musical life of the Central west as a teacher, performer, musical director and arts manager.