MONTREAL BAROQUE is an initiative of Susie Napper, Montreal cellist and gambist who was nominated “Personality of the Year 2002” by the Conseil Québecoise de la Musique.
Old Montreal’s Early Music Festival, MONTREAL BAROQUE offers a unique opportunity to hear music of the 17th and 18th centuries, performed by Canadian and international celebrities, in appropriate and unusual settings. Snaking through the narrow streets of the Old City to the sound of a hundred flutes at the festival’s Grand Parade, relaxing at a garden concert, catching a choral concert in a chapel or simply enjoying a street performance, this festival gives a new cultural identity to Old Montreal, attracting international tourists and local music lovers as well as novices to Early Music.

OLD MONTREAL
MONTREAL BAROQUE presents concerts in innovative settings with the help and encouragement of existing cultural institutions in the Old City. Museums such as the Musée de la Pointe-à-Callière and the Château Ramezay as well as the Musée Stuart, the Chapelle and Marché Bonsecours have all become partners to help promote the Old City on a cultural level. They have offered unique venues to the Festival for concert performances that have been attracting capacity audiences. During the Festival in June 2003, the first concerts were heard in the crypt of the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de Bonsecours, the Station de Pompage de la Pointe-à-Callière, (both concerts had to be repeated several times to accommodate the demand), and the newly renovated gardens of the Chateau Ramezay.

EARLY MUSIC: MONTREAL
Montreal, a city effervescent with cultural activities of all kinds, is ready to become a major player in the world of Early Music. Over the past 30 years, with support from all levels of government, the radio and Montreal’s thriving record companies, groups such as the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, Ensemble Arion, Les Boréades, etc., have flourished in the city, developing an array of unique styles and featuring the rich bank of talented Montreal musicians. Yet the city remains relatively unknown on the international scene. A festival is the perfect stage from which to launch Montreal’s musicians, and initiate cooperative projects with musicians from abroad.