previous tours

the muffat collective baroque passions

Eccentric ensemble The Muffat Collective will take audiences along the NSW South Coast and in Cooma on an historic musical journey through 18th Century Europe, presented by Music in the Regions (MitR) and local partners from 24 September to 2 October.

Baroque Passions is a beautiful music program that is influenced by Italian cathedrals, French salons and German coffee houses and will feature music by Antonio Vivaldi and his contemporaries performed on original Baroque instruments.

The Muffat Collective will perform Baroque Passions at Cooma, Wolumla and Nowra, and in Moruya and Narooma as part of the River of Art festival.

Baroque music is 17th and 18th Century music that is full of passion, vitality and energy. The word Baroque is taken from the nineteenth-century Portuguese ‘barocco’ meaning ‘misshapen pearl’ - a critique of the highly ornamented and decorated art and music of the past.

The Muffat Collective aims to capture all the facets of this misshapen pearl and captivate audiences with every story, every intricacy, every note and every detail that defines Baroque music today.

At its core, Baroque music is a shared experience where the pieces played are designed to dazzle the senses and impact audiences with the full range of emotional states, called affects in the 17th and 18th century. Flirting with the limits of human desire, these rarely performed works frenetically exchange hate for love or despair for joy. 

The Muffat Collective’s Baroque violinist, Matthew Greco, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be working with MitR and for the opportunity to take our classical music to regional centres outside Sydney.  

“We specialise in historical performance, recreating music from the 17th and 18th Centuries on instruments such as the Baroque violin, harpsichord and fascinating viola da gamba. To say we are passionate about this style would be an understatement, and being able to share this with as many audiences and communities as possible is extremely important to us.

“The intimate venues along the NSW South Coast and in Cooma are the perfect settings to get up close and personal with not only this special form of music making, but also us as performers. We are looking forward to talking with audiences and getting to know members of the community so we can return for years to come.”

The Muffat Collective will perform Baroque Passions at:

MORUYA - St John’s Anglican Church, Saturday 24 September at 2pm (River of Art Festival)

NAROOMA - St Paul’s Church, Sunday 25 September at 2pm (River of Art Festival)

WOLUMLA - Wolumla Memorial Hall, Thursday 29 September at 6pm

COOMA - St Paul's Anglican Church Hall, Friday 30 September at 7pm

NOWRA - Nowra School of the Arts, Sunday 2 October at 2pm