Early Music Vancouver (EMV) invites audiences to an exploration of the interconnectedness of music, nature, and the elevation of the soul in its 2025 summer festival, Bach & Mozart: In Endless Ascent, from July 26 to August 8, 2025, at various Vancouver venues.

“Just as trees reach for the sky, we, as part of nature’s ecosystem, reach towards the highest expression of ourselves, and music—the language of the heart and the emotions—helps us up on our journey,” says EMV’s Artistic and Executive Director Suzie LeBlanc. “This year’s festival brings together music from East and West, past and present in celebration of our world’s natural glory. Works by great masters of the past—J.S. Bach and W.A. Mozart—are juxtaposed with new pieces by Canadian composers Dorothy Chang, Edward Top, Lan Tung, Gregory Borton and Grégoire Jeay that take us to new mystical heights, exploring themes ranging from earthly forces to celestial wonder to our soul’s final ascent.”

EMV’s 55th annual summer festival features a rich ensemble of more than 50 established and emerging international and Canadian early music artists. Special festival highlights include: keyboardist and Pacific Baroque Orchestra (PBO) director Alexander Weimann, who is making a special solo appearance in his imaginative True North Variations: O Canada Reimagined, and a special celebration of music and dance, featuring the Montréal-based baroque dance company Les Jardins Chorégraphiques along with the PBO in The Enchanted Forest. The highly acclaimed Vancouver-based violinist Chloe Kim joins musicians from Montreal in Bach’s Musical Offering, and Christina Hutten leads a rare collaborative fusion of Chinese and Baroque instruments in a dialogue across cultures and centuries in Silk Strings, featuring artists from Vancouver’s Sound of Dragon Society and EMV.

Making their EMV debuts this year are singers Daniel Moody and Magali Simard-Galdès, as well as American tenor Jacob Perry, in collaboration with returning favourites Emma Parkinson and Drew Santini, for the festival’s Bach and Mozart feature performances.

Bach & Mozart: In Endless Ascent also presents the fourth iteration of EMV: The Next Generation, whose emerging artists have been hand-selected by LeBlanc. This year, the Gallo Chamber Players treat us to a programme entitled Bach and the Heavens.

EMV’s 2025 Artist-in-Residence, Magali Simard-Galdès, is a young Canadian soprano who, in addition to a thriving operatic career, has expertise in sustainable development, specializing in the cultural sector. She will not only lend her beautiful voice to several concerts but also moderate a roundtable on Sustainability and the Arts.