Salut! Baroque turns 30 in 2025, offering an opportunity to reflect on a journey that has taken 140 musicians into the diverse music of 280 composers since the ensemble’s founding in 1995.

“In this celebratory year, our concerts span the ages, honouring Baroque music as it emerged from the Renaissance, its resplendent peak and its evolution into the Classical period,” says Salut! Baroque’s Director, Sally Melhuish.

“Our programs pay tribute to the composers and musicians of this rapidly changing era who broke with tradition to become the pioneers of new instrumental techniques and performance styles. It brought forth a musical era based on drama, diversity and creativity, threading together politics, religion and social progress.”

Concert 1: Music to Celebrate

Salut’s season opener captures the blooming of music the baroque period as concerts moved away from the confines of the church and royal courts and into the public realm. This program includes The Four Seasons by Giovanni Guido (written around eight years before Vivaldi’s more famous composition), and Jan Rokyta’s enchanting Balkanology, written 300 years later and inspired by traditional Romanian and Turkish music with its complex rhythms and harmonies.

Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest, Canberra 31 January; Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium, 2 February

Concert 2: Baroque Spirit

The dynamism of the 17th and 18th centuries goes beyond listening pleasure to reflect the social, cultural and political upheavals of the period.

“Drawing inspiration from Ottoman, Romani and Celtic influences, Baroque Spirit explores the rich weave of styles as nations looked beyond their European borders towards new discoveries,” Melhuish explains. “Composers sought innovative approaches to embellish their work for a newly popularised music market. This was aided by explorers, traders and missionaries, reflecting their thirst for new horizons and unique perspectives in an ever-expanding world. The result was music that bridged time and place, building on ancient foundations to develop a new spirit of musical exuberance and vitality.”

Wesley Church, Canberra, 11 April; Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium, 13 April

Concert 3: The Entrepreneur

Celebrity culture thrived during the baroque period and Georg Philipp Telemann was one of the stars. A prolific composer of over 3000 compositions, he had an uncanny sense of popular musical trends and his skill on many instruments gave him the ability to understand “each instrument and what suits it best”. Absorbing and incorporating music from across Europe, Telemann boasted he could compose in the “Italian, French, English, Scottish and Polish styles”. He was also at the forefront of printing technology and was a brilliant self-promoter.

Wesley Church, Canberra 18 July; Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium, 20 July

Concert 4: Voice, Rejoice!

This concert presents music of extraordinary variety and exquisite beauty – from the rhythms and colours of Spanish song, the majesty of the German choral tradition, the refinement of French opera, and the passion and theatricality of Italian arias.

“Through exploration and experimentation, composers harnessed the voice to reflect a spectrum of nuanced emotions such as tenderness, frailty and resentment,” Melhuish says. “Singers became celebrities as they gave voice to emotions ranging from sensuousness and high passion to dark themes of anguish and revenge. Drama was the currency of the day and singers were the ‘rock stars’!”

Wesley Church, Canberra, 24 October; Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium, 26 October.