The Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTBO) launches its first Winter Baroque Season in 2026, a three-concert series presenting chamber music, early vocal repertoire, and orchestral works across two Cape Town venues. The series is directed by CTBO Artistic Director Dr Erik Dippenaar, who performs as harpsichord soloist and continuo player across all three events.
The season opens on 10 June with Bach in Dialogue, a chamber concert featuring South African-born, US-based harpsichordist Leon Schelhase alongside CTBO musicians Annien Shaw and Rosamund Roth. The programme focuses on the chamber works of Johann Sebastian Bach and examines the composer’s contrapuntal writing through musical interplay between performers.
On 22 July, the orchestra reunites with Lutesong Consort for Idyll, a programme dedicated to pastoral works by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Performed by a vocal ensemble and period instrumentalists, the concert draws on repertoire associated with aristocratic salons and private performance spaces of the seventeenth century.
The season concludes on 30 July with an orchestral programme featuring works by Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, Bach, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, and George Frideric Handel. Soloists include William Berger, Ingo Müller, and CTBO artistic director Erik Dippenaar. The programme combines established Baroque repertoire with lesser-performed works, reflecting the orchestra’s interest in expanding audiences’ engagement with the period’s music.