PORT TOWNSEND — The Salish Sea Early Music Festival will present “France & Italy: Pardessus, Gamba, Flute and Harpsichord” at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The baroque music concert will be at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1020 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
A $20 to $30 free-will offering is requested. Youths 18 and younger will be admitted free.
The concert will feature harpsichordist Olena Zhukova of Kyiv, Ukraine, viola da gambist Susie Napper and pardessus de viole player Mélisande Corriveau, both from Montreal, and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan, the festival’s artistic director.
The pardessus de viole is the highest-pitched member of the fretted viol family of stringed instruments and corresponds to the violin but is played in the lap.
The viola da gamba, or bass viol, also is fretted and has a range approximating that of a cello.
The combination of these two viols with the harpsichord and baroque flute would have been a common ensemble in France during the early decades of the 18th century.
The program will include music by Louis-Antoine Dornel, Louis and Françoise Couperin, Archangelo Corelli and André Cheron.
The selections will highlight the differences between the French and Italian styles during the early years of the 18th century.
Future concerts in the festival include:
• Feb. 22 — European Tour: Italy, Scotland and Ukraine, featuring Olena Zhukova and Jeffrey Cohan.
• March 22 — Folk, Baroque and Beyond: Holland (1630), Scotland (1750) and France (1830), featuring Oleg Timofeyev and Jeffrey Cohan.
• April 26 — Telemann Paris Quartets II, featuring David Greenberg, Susie Napper, Elisabeth Wright and Jeffrey Cohan.
• May 10 — Handel and Bach, featuring Hans-Jurgen Schnoor, Maike Albrecht and Susie Napper.
• June 7 — Johann Sebastian Bach, featuring Irene Roldán and Jeffrey Cohan.
• June 28 — The French Connection, featuring Annalisa Poppano, Billy Simms and Jeffrey Cohan.
For more information, visit www.salishseafestival.org.
