Van Diemen's Band

Van Diemen’s Band comes from an island state. And perhaps it’s the absence of land borders that empowers its musicians to view the world in a distinctive light.

This Tasmanian Baroque ensemble invites you to explore the historic borderlands of Europe. For centuries generations of musicians wrote dances and masses, symphonies and quartets, as their homelands changed ownership under their feet. Or their nations remained steadfast, allowing the most magical cultural overlaps at the border fringes.

The world has changed dramatically since the idea of the program was devised, freighting the term ‘borderlands’ with renewed and disturbing resonance. 

As Artistic Director and violinist Julia Fredersdorff says, “our idea of Borderlands [has] turned out to be scarily prescient and … what had been a fairly abstract idea at the time has suddenly gained a much more poignant and even political tint.”

With that in mind, Fredersdorff believes hearing this music at a time of great geopolitical turmoil is to experience a sense of kinship with the circumstances of its composers, many of whom experienced first-hand the tensions of 17th-century Europe. Works by Becker, Scheidt and Albinoni share the bill with María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir’s 2013 Clockworking and a highly anticipated new work by Van Diemen’s Band harpsichordist and organ player Donald Nicolson.

Themes of loss, regret and resentment connect these works, as does hope, underlining Fredersdorff’s belief that music can be a powerful cathartic tool. Just as Van Diemen’s Band invites instrumental guests from across Australia’s state borders, these composers remind us how we’re still united through music – no matter what borders lie between us.