Early Music Vancouver (EMV) has announced its 2022 winter and spring season. The program promises to transport audiences on a musical journey, comprising music from some of the great cities of the world at key points in music history. Live performances and digital offerings are on tap.

“Since March of 2020, many of us have been hungering to resume our travels. As the world slowly opens up, our 2022 Winter and Spring program whets this appetite with musical excursions to Vienna, Paris, Italy, and more,” Suzie LeBlanc, Artistic and Executive Director of EMV said in the press release. “While we have typically focused upon the composer in our programming, many of our upcoming concerts focus instead upon a specific place and time. The result is to feel immersed in the very texture of the city or state’s culture in this era – and to feel a tangible connection to the culture of its day. We look forward to sharing these illuminating, mind-expanding experiences with our patrons.”

Here’s what EMV has in store for audiences. For this article, we have listed only vocal performances. Please note that performances will occur at various venues around Vancouver.

EMV takes the audience to 16th-century Italy with The Story of the Madrigal, exploring the works of Cipriano de Rore, Carlo Gesualdo, and Claudio Monteverdi and the history of the art form.

Performance Date: Feb. 4, 2022, at Christ Church Cathedral.

Spring 2022 kicks off with Imaginario: An Imaginary Songbook of Renaissance Spanish Music. Do you know what a vihuela is? Made by the thousands in 16th-century, there are but five or six of these guitar-like instrument in existence today. Argentinian soprano María Cristina Kiehr will join Ariel Abramovich on the vihuela as they perform a program containing segments for seven surviving books of vihuela repertoire. Interwoven will be music from manuscripts of the same era, resulting in an imaginary songbook.

Performance Date: April 27, 2022, at Pacific Spirit Church

Singers and instrumentalists of Lyon’s Ensemble Correspondances will take audiences back in time to France when the Louvre was the seat of French royal power. Les Plaisirs du Louvre, directed by Sébastien Daucé, will showcase an evening of love, mystery, and mythology, echoing the sounds of an earlier time in Louvre’s history.

Performance Date: May 6, 2022, at Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

EMV presents Kalhor & Tabassian in Dialogue, featuring Grammy winner and founding member of Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble Kayhan Kalhor and celebrated Iranian-Canadian artist Kiya Tabassian. The two artists will engage in a musical duel of sorts as they sing and improvise on setar to create a transcendent experience. This concert is part of EMV’s Passport Series.

Performance Date: June 3, 2022, at Kay Meek Arts Centre (This performance will also be broadcast for streaming via EMV’s Digital Concert Hall for 48 hours starting June 3. There is a fee to stream.)