11th Sligo Festival of
      
Baroque Music
FRI 27- MON 30 OCTOBER 2006
       
   
 
 
 
 
 
“The best line-up of Baroque music the country has ever seen……a truly extraordinary weekend”   
    
- The Irish Times
   

The Sligo Festival of Baroque Music, presented by the Model, is now entering its 11th year. Held annually over the October bank holiday weekend the festival has gone from strength to strength since its beginnings in 1995. 

    
   
Curated by musician and Early Music specialist Rod Alston the festival presents the very best early music performers in a relaxed and convivial setting.    
   
Regarded as the best event of its kind in Ireland it consistently features high calibre Irish and International performers. Previous artist have included Emma Kirkby, Julia Gooding, Sarah Cunningham, Malcolm Proud, Elizabeth Wallfisch and Passacaglia among others.    
   
The 2006 Festival will focus on two of the most important and popular Italian composers of the late Baroque; Arcangelo Corelli (1653 –1713) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678- 1741).  Both composers are recognised as having a huge influence on their contempories throughout Europe and on the development of the western musical form.  Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi's concertos and arias, transcribing a number of his concertos for solo keyboard and Vivaldi, in turn, drew heavily on Corelli’s works.    
   

Using the work Vivaldi and Corelli as a starting point, the 2006 Baroque Festival programme will fascinate and delight the early music buff as well as those without any specialist knowledge.  Performers of international stature, along with the Baroque Festival Orchestra, will explore this very engaging music to reveal a stimulating and beautiful series of concerts over one weekend.