By the following year we were holding regular rehearsals under the direction of QSO violinist Wayne Brennan (our ever-generous and brilliant Baroque guru). We’d travelled to Canada as a trio in June, studying with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra at their summer institute. Their influence and support fed greatly into our motivation. Three months later, we’d got what we’d set out for: we took to the stage with a 12-piece ensemble of our own on September 30th, 2011 – gold coin entry, church venue, program all of our own choosing. The estimated audience of 120 attending our premiere was a success we had not predicted. We performed that day because it was music we loved and had fought to be able to play.

Since then we have performed two more Brisbane concerts (welcoming guest soloists from Brisbane, Sydney, Tamworth and Armidale), been engaged for a house concert on the Sunshine Coast, and the founding members have toured regional NSW as a reduction of the full ensemble and appeared on ABC 612 Radio with Kelly Higgins-Devine.

Under Michael’s direction we’d also become an incorporated association. He and Phil were far more business-minded than me (thankfully!) and made sure things were carried out so we actually developed something somewhat sustainable.

Each event has presented unique challenges and steep learning curves. Phil had to be booted off the management committee after the Tax Office decided twin brothers managing a small not-for-profit organisation had mischief written all over it! We’ve dealt with concert venue dramas, multiple months of searching for sheet music, soloist withdrawals, injured players, sponsorship promises that haven’t followed through, rehearsal venue disputes, financial restraints, marketing delays, ever-changing instrumentalists, and out-of-(our-individual)-pocket expenses. We have struggled with (and not yet overcome) the logistics of delivering authentic performance, and we have lifted harpsichords from room to room, house to car, and even carried one from St John’s to St Andrew’s, down Brisbane’s busy Ann Street!

More important than all these challenges, though, was the realisation that what we were doing was no longer just giving ourselves an ensemble to play with for fun. A couple approached us after an entry-by-donation concert and thanked us for allowing them to engage with live music after having recently been made redundant. I realised that in the midst of all our fun, we were offering an accessible space for art in people’s lives. We were also allowing other young musicians the same musical experiences as us, giving upcoming performers exposure as soloists, providing early music tutoring where it was lacking, and bringing rarely-heard music to the stage in Brisbane. Our vision and values were becoming clear, and the starry-eyed just-for-fun roots of the organisation faded and turned into something more valuable for both the ensemble and the public.

When we three founders stepped out on very different paths at the end of our music degrees, there wasn’t really a question for me of whether the Brisbane Baroque Players was going to continue…just a question of how. This year sees Michael and Phil pursuing incredibly noble and challenging career paths outside of the performance field, Michael in medicine and Phil in education, while I have relocated to Melbourne to complete my Honours in music performance. The bulk of the Baroque Players management has been taken over by me from Melbourne, with Michael helping out as treasurer and a new secretary on board in Brisbane. And yes, it does sometimes feel insane when I’m writing rehearsal plans for rehearsals I won’t attend, mailing posters to friends for distribution, passing newspaper interviews I’ve arranged onto other members after the awkward “Oh, I don’t actually live in Brisbane, but I’ve organised so-and-so to speak to you!” It’s been a little like fighting for a long-distance relationship to work: “We’ll manage over email for now, and I’ll fly up to do the concert, we can talk properly then! It’ll work out somehow!”

I can’t convince everyone that it will work out somehow, no matter how much I am convinced this ensemble has become a life project for me. Right now, though, we’re still playing! The next Baroque Players concert is on July 20, and we are currently collaborating with Sola Voce in a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater on June 2. The July event is concerto-themed and will feature three guest soloists, Huguette Brassine (harpsichord), Stephanie Dixon (oboe) and Kyla Matsuura-Miller (violin). We’ll be ready to share our music with anyone who wants to listen.

Brisbane Baroque Players perform music by Lully, Telemann, Bach, Marcello and Handel
in Woolloongabba on July 20.