Quicksilver Baroque Ensemble plays extravagant early-music sonatas in concert, March 21

Ahead of the Early Music Vancouver presentation, Alexander Weimann leads a chat with accomplished violinist Robert Mealy, the group’s codirector

By emily lyth

Quicksilver Baroque Ensemble. Photo by Teresa Tam

Early Music Vancouver presents Quicksilver: The Early Moderns at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church on March 21 at 7:30 pm

VIOLINIST ROBERT MEALY has been honing his Baroque music skills from a young age.

While still in high school, the American artist trained at the University of California, Berkeley, and London’s Royal College of Music. He then pursued his undergraduate degree at Harvard College, during which time he was invited to join the acclaimed Canadian Baroque orchestra Tafelmusik.

In the years since, Mealy has performed with the France-based Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants, taught at the Yale School of Music, and toured with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He has been director of the Boston Early Music Festival’s orchestra since 2004 (which won a Grammy Award for a recording of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s “La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers” under his leadership) and director of the historical performance program at the Juilliard School since 2012. His career is remarkably wide-ranging, such that the New York Times once wrote that he “seems to foster excellence wherever he goes.”

Mealy also serves as codirector of the Quicksilver Baroque Ensemble, alongside fellow violinist Julie Andrijeski. Vancouver audiences can catch the U.S.-based group when it returns to the city for an Early Music Vancouver concert at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church on March 21.

For Quicksilver’s concert here, Mealy and Andrijeski will be joined by dulcian player Dominic Teresi, viola da gamba player David Morris, guitarist and lutenist Charles Weaver, and harpsichordist and organist Avi Stein. The musicians will be highlighting the early-modern period of the 17th century with a program dedicated to extravagant sonatas. Expect to hear works by several of the era’s influential Italian and German composers, including Matthias Weckmann, Dario Castello, Carolus Hacquart, Johann Caspar Kerll, and beyond.

Folks hoping to learn a bit more about Quicksilver before the ensemble plays can drop by for a pre-concert chat with Mealy at 7 pm, hosted by conductor and harpsichordist Alexander Weimann. The music will begin at 7:30 pm.  

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