Baroque band to open music club’s season of concerts
Kintyre Music Club hosts its first concert of the season when the Aberdeen Baroque trio comes to Campbeltown at the end of this month.
The musicians play a variety of instruments including violin, recorder, bagpipes, baroque cello and harpsichord, and they specialise in music from the early 1600s to 1750.
The concert will include works by composers such as J.S. Bach, Henry Purcell, Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi and others.
The members of the group are Amanda Babington, David J Smith and Claire Babington.
Amanda plays baroque violin, recorder and musette – 18th century French bagpipes, not Highland bagpipes – and regularly performs in the UK and Europe with ensembles such as the Dunedin Consort, Ex Cathedra, Florilegium and the Gabrieli Consort and Players. Described as a ‘canary on amphetamines’ for her performance of Vivaldi’s concerto for sopranino recorder, Amanda recently completed a Master’s degree in performance at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. She is one of only a handful of musette players in the world.
David specialises in harpsichord, organ and recorder and, until recently, was head of music and master of chapel and ceremonial music at the University of Aberdeen. He specialises in early 17th-century keyboard music from England and The Netherlands, and in improvisation in a variety of styles and idioms.
Claire is a freelance cellist, who works with the Halle Orchestra and the Liverpool Philharmonic as well as specialising in baroque music, playing the cello continuo part in works by Handel, Monteverdi and Rameau as well as Purcell’s Fairy Queen and Dido and Aeneas.
Despite being a relatively new ensemble – the group formed in 2016 – Aberdeen Baroque’s members have known each other for many years through their connections with Aberdeen.
As ‘visiting performance fellows’ at the University of Aberdeen, Claire and Amanda have had many opportunities to perform alongside David, and their decision to utilise this experience by forming the trio comes from a shared love of the repertoire afforded to them by the wide variety of instrument combinations at their fingertips.
A music club spokesperson said: ‘If you like the music of the Baroque period or are even just curious to see and hear music from that time, come along to the Lorne and Lowland Church Hall on Friday September 27 for a start time of 7.30pm. Tea and biscuits will be served during the interval.’
Tickets for the concert, which is free for students and children, cost £10. A season ticket to all six of this session’s concerts is also available at £50.