Dear music friends,
Here is a little newsletter from Copenhagen Baroque Festival.
First and foremost:
The festival will take place from September 3–7, 2025
And the theme this year is “FRIENDSHIPS”
Copenhagen Baroque Festival is, as many of you know, an offshoot of the festival Midsommerbarok, which was created by harpsichordist and organist Allan Rasmussen, recorder player Bolette Roed, and pastor Michael Hemmingsen back in 2009. Midsommerbarok ran from 2009 to 2019—ten years in the beautiful settings around Frederiksberg Church—and afterward the festival moved to the inner city and changed its name to Copenhagen Baroque Festival, where concerts have been enjoyed from 2019 to 2024.
It all began with a wonderful friendship and shared musicianship—and that same spirit continues to drive the festival today, which we wish to celebrate this year.
Therefore, the festival will also feature many familiar names including Reiko Ichise, Poul Høxbro, Joachim Becerra-Thomsen, Peter Navarro-Alonso, the Girls’ Choir of Fredensborg Palace Church, and Bolette Roed, performing with the festival orchestra Arte dei Suonatori, which has been with us from the very beginning.
But as always, new names will also be presented—this year featuring countertenor David van Laar from the Netherlands, the Swedish vocal ensemble LuX led by Fredrik Malmberg, Gonville & Caius College Choir, Cambridge, led by Matthew Martin, and from France, the pioneering multi-instrumentalist and recorder player Pierre Hamon, joined by his daughter Ananda Brendão on percussion.
It’s not just the musicians on stage who share a friendship—the same dedicated group of volunteers has also been with us for 16 years! It brings us great joy and shows how music and the festival have brought together a wonderful group of people who all share the same goal—to give, to be present, and to spread joy around them.
We hope this joy and warm friendship spreads to our audience, so that each listener feels at home and part of the greater community and friendship that music creates.
With the theme of friendships, we also reflect on the importance of the new friendships that arise at each festival and that form the foundation of a baroque musician’s freelance life. Friendships between composers during the baroque era, or between composer and musician that led to the creation of specific works, friendships formed in a youth choir, or the very strong and special bond between father and daughter.
This year’s festival will feature concerts in Trinitatis Church, Church of Our Saviour, and the Knight’s Hall at Rosenborg Castle—beautiful city venues familiar to many from recent years.
A more detailed program will be revealed in our next newsletter very soon—but we wanted to get the word out about the dates so you can already mark your calendars. Updates on this year’s artists and programs will also be published on the website as soon as they are ready ☺
Warm regards,
Bolette Roed
