The Marais Project with guest artist Russell Harcourt, countertenor

Life in its fullness encompasses light and darkness, love and loss. No art form better expresses the full gamut of human experience than music. Featuring the sublime talents of the internationally renowned Australian countertenor, Russell Harcourt, the repertoire includes duets by Handel and arias by Bach, Monteverdi and Frescobaldi. Several carefully selected works by Australians Carl Vine, Susie Bishop and Alice Chance ground the program on our continent and complement the Baroque mood.

The Fantastical Life of Daniel Solander: Australia’s first Swede
The Marais Project

Price Includes Lunch

This truly unique event celebrates the huge and fantastic life of the great Swedish naturalist, Daniel Solander, the first university trained scientist - and the first Swede - to tread the soil of Terra Australis. (He was also the first Swede to circumnavigate the globe.) Solander arrived on the Endeavour in 1770 under James Cook, having been personally selected for the voyage by Sir Joseph Banks. Drawing on the unique insights of Swedish-Australian lutenist, Tommie Andersson, part Swedish gambist, Jenny Eriksson, and singer Susie Bishop, who speaks Swedish, the show was first heard to critical acclaim on Australian Digital Concert Hall. It was subsequently broadcast across Scandinavia with the support of the Australian Ambassador to Norway, Iceland and Denmark and the former Swedish Ambassador to Australia.

The music on offer consists of rarely heard Swedish songs and folk tunes from the time of Solander, including works by Sweden’s ‘National Poet’, Carl Bellman, who was also known as ‘The Swedish Schubert.’ A special feature are two songs from the Australian colonial era composer, Isaac Nathan, known as the Father of Australian Music. (The famous Australian conductor, Charles Mackerras, is a descendant of Nathan.) A musical ‘Acknowledgment of Country’ by First Nations’ musician, Troy Russell - commissioned by Jenny Eriksson – is an integral component of this event.

The music is intertwined with curated readings from the journals of James Cook and Joseph Banks that briefly describe the strange, ‘upside down’ world that expedition members encountered as the Endeavour moved north from New Zealand to Botany Bay, Cooktown and beyond.

Lunch included from 12pm, performance at 1pm

BedlamHIP Company (Perth)

HIP Company presents music from their 2025 album, Bedlam. A musical exploration of the dark fascination with madness and the human psyche in the Baroque period, Bedlam draws its title from London’s notorious psychiatric hospital, ‘Bethlem Royal Hospital’ and the tales of madness, gruesome crimes of passion, and horrors of Bedlam itself that pervaded literature, theatre and music of the time. HIP Company’s programme for soprano, violins, viola da gamba and lutes, combines thrilling operatic arias by Jean-Philippe Rameau, ‘Mad Songs’ of Restoration England by Henry Purcell and John Eccles, and dramatic instrumental works within the theme, including a setting of ‘La Folia’ (‘Follies’) by Jean-Pierre Guignon.

Baroque Meets Bebop at Canowindra
Peter Doublinszki and Elsen Price

At the heart of both Baroque and bebop lies a shared tradition of crafting melodies through the creative embellishment of chord progression — a musical practice that transcends time and genre. Jazz musicians from Stefan Grapelli to Winton Marsalis, and renowned Australian jazz pianist, Kevin Hunt, have drawn inspiration from baroque music. French jazz musician, Jacques Loussier, created a whole new genre improvising on J.S. Bach!

Drawing on their deep training in classical music and jazz, Doublinszki and Price explore and expand this enduring connection. In the process they merge baroque harmony and counterpoint with the rhythmic energy, delightful unpredictability, and harmonic colours of jazz.

Peter Doublinszki (classical guitar) and Elsen Price (double bass) are a uniquely skilled virtuosic duo. Their critically acclaimed performances across Australia and New Zealand take audiences on a musical journey featuring baroque compositions brought to life with bebop-inspired improvisation, alongside jazz pieces enriched with Baroque-style invention and fantasy.

Rendez-Vous – encountering the masters of the French Baroque
The Marais Project & HIP Company

East meets West as Perth-based HIP Company and Sydney-siders, The Marais Project, combine in a concert that draws inspiration from the compelling life of composer and viola da gambist, Marin Marais (1656 -1728), his teacher, Monsieur de Sainte- Colombe, and their talented French contemporaries. (Some will be aware of the hit French film Tous les matin du monde, that describes the relationship and rivalry between Marin Marais and de Saint-Colombe.) These composers lived and performed at the very peak of French artistic achievement and influence, during the era of Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’.

The Marais Project and HIP Company bring new energy and a fresh eye to the beauty, power and breathtaking elegance of the French Baroque.