2025
Woven Through Time: A Tapestry of Music, Dance and Song
25 May & 1 June 2025
This concert showcases dance and music from England, France, the Low Countries, Italy and Germany. The dances are from the earliest publications of c.1460 through to the dance masters of the 18th century. The musicians showcase instruments such as the viols, early reeds, recorders, lute, guitar and percussion, and introduce the music of the first woman to see her work published and the first woman to write an opera.
The Florentine Muse – Echoes of the Medici in the courts of Europe
16 & 23 November 2025
The Courtly Arts Performers perform with traces of the Medici influence in music and dances from the early Renaissance to the Baroque.
2024
An Afternoon at Court
26 May & 2 June 2024
A cornucopia of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque dance, music and song from the Royal Courts of England, Germany, Italy and France. Accompanied by the Early Music Consort of Melbourne, with vocalists Sarah Amos and Natalie Maroki.
All’s Fair in Love and War
~ 24 November & 1 December 2024
We go back in time to visit the themes of love and war through the dance, music and song of the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
2023
The Etiquette of Dance
~ 21 & 28 May 2023
Observations on the art and etiquette of dance
A concert of medieval and renaissance dances, accompanied by the Early Music Consort of Melbourne, with advice on dance etiquette by Court Commentators.
Echoes of Pilgrimage
~ 26 November & 3 December 2023
This concert follows the steps of pilgrims as they faithfully step along the trail to Montserrat, from Walsingham to Canterbury, then through France, Switzerland and Italy to Rome.
2022
Suite Delights
~ 13 February 2022
The evolution of the instrumental suite from Medieval to the Baroque
The instrumental suite or sonata de camera – the practice of linking related pieces of music to form a larger work – began with dances in Medieval times. This practice was taken up by instrumentalists in the Renaissance and evolved into an important musical style in the Baroque.
In this concert, the Early Music Consort of Melbourne and the Rippon-Lea Baroque dancers will delight you with an exploration of the suite through the works of Attaingnant, Tomkins, Schein, Locke and others.
Steps Back in Time
~ 29 May & 5 June 2022
This concert was dedicated to Mark Hill, who passed on 20 March 2022. He established the Early Arts Guild with Helga and their children in the early 70s. Mark ceased playing with the Consort in the 80s but continued on as manager until his retirement in 2017.
A Celebration of Yuletide
~ 20 November & 4 December 2022
2019
The European Courtier
~ 11 May & 19 May 2019
“A gentleman must deliver the appearance of a nobleman; for the mysterious source of courtly gracefulness is learned through imitation – not acquired by birth.”
Baldassare Castiglione from ‘The Book of the Courtier’, 1528.
A Room in Europe
~ 18 August 2019
Chamber music, dance and song from the Baroque era. Performed by the Early Music Consort of Melbourne, Baroque dancer Yoko Murakoshi and soprano Sarah Louise Amos.
A Yuletide Pageant
~ 24 November & 1 December 2019
We mark the festive season with a courtly celebration of dance and music spanning four centuries, performed in scrumptious Renaissance and Baroque costumes.
2018
Dancing with the Bard
~ 27 May & 3 June 2018
“Welcome, gentlemen ladies that have their toes unplagued with corns will walk a bout with you. Ah ha, my mistresses! Which of you all will now deny to dance? Come, musicians, play. A hall, a hall! Give room! And foot it, girls.”
– from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Shakespeare
Christmastide Pageant
~ 25 November & 3 December 2018
“Let’s dance and sing, and make good chear, for Christmas comes but once a year; Draw hogheads dry, let flagons fly, for now the bells shall ring.” Performed with singer Natalie Maroki and narrator David Ranson.
