QSCM All Terrain Tour 2025 Sept 1-Oct 19

Before Chamber Music is all about the music that came before Haydn, Mozart, and the great string quartet writing that followed.  COMTESSA is a Montreal-based ensemble performing music written before 1500. This is the music that goes with the Age of Chivalry – picture gothic cathedrals with soaring spires and menacing gargoyles, baronial castles and princely palaces surrounded by moats, and knights in shining armour to defend them. Now add the minstrels and story tellers who sang the heroes of the day into myth and legend. That’s COMTESSA, a modern-day troupe of minstrels rendering the music of medieval times into music for our time. It’s chamber music before chamber music, complete with instruments like the vielle, lute, and organetto. These are the early ancestors of the violins, viols, and keyboards all central to the master works of later centuries and they are coming to Bloomfield!

The MADOC QUARTET, led by Madoc’s own Sebastian Sallans, is back and they are coming to the fair! Look for the TAILGATE PARTY with violin x 2, viola and cello (That’s a string quartet) in the arena. Listen! You will hear them playing from 12 noon to 5 pm on Saturday (Sept 13). MQ musicians will be making music, talking with fairgoers and sharing good times (and cake!) out of the back of a brand-new shiny Ford Pick-up, compliments of HUNTER FORD. Madoc. Get ready for something you’ve never seen or heard at the fair before – a live string quartet.

Join the MADOC QUARTET for a brew and a round of Borodin, Sunday Sept 14 at 555 Brewing Co. 555 is a delightful craft brewery right on the main street of Picton. They also do a pretty marvellous gourmet wood-fired pizza. You really don’t want to miss this one: the musicians of MQ are playing Borodin’s String Quartet No 2. MQ musicians love to talk about the music, almost as much as they love playing. So, stick around, enjoy a brew, order a pizza. Come face to face with Chamber Music as it was meant to be heard – up close, personal, with friends playing for friends.

This year QSCM’s All Terrain Tour culminates in a full concert featuring the MADOC QUARTET in  STIRLINGFest’s Classical program. StirlingFEST is an annual festival of Classical and Jazz music featuring some of the finest musicians in the world. Sunday, Oct 19 StirlingFEST collaborating with QSCM presents the Madoc Quartet in the intimate acoustic of St. John’s Anglican Church in Stirling. More details on this program are coming soon. For now – mark the date. It promises to be a beautiful recital in stunning location, followed by a reception.