La Tour Baroque Duo!
The La Tour Baroque Duo brings together Michel Cardin and Tim Blackmore, two outstanding early music performers who combine their talents to present inspired programs of duos and solos for recorder, theorbo and harpsichord from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Formed in 2009, the La Tour Baroque Duo of Tim Blackmore (recorders and harpsichord) and Michel Cardin (theorbo) has performed throughout the Maritime Provinces, Quebec, Ontario, the far north, in France and in the USA, receiving accolades such as “exquisitely played” and “spellbinding” from audiences and critics. Their début CD ‘Les caractères de la danse’ (2011) has received critical acclaim in Canada and the US. In 2012 the Duo will perform at the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival and the Toronto Early Music Centre, tour Nova Scotia for Musique Royale, and release a new CD of Scottish baroque music entitled ‘The Last Time I Came O’er the Moor’.
Tim Blackmore, a native of Moncton, is the founder and artistic director of the Early Music Studio of Saint John. He received his musical training at the Conservatoire de Montréal (Premier Prix, Piano), the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Guildhall School of Music in London (AGSM, Piano and Clarinet; Concert Diploma, Piano). He has made numerous solo broadcasts for CBC Radio, Radio Canada and for the BBC and has recorded CDs of keyboard music by such diverse composers as Byrd, Frescobaldi, Bach and Mozart. His latest recording, a collaboration with bassoonist Robert Lewis, is Baroque Sonatas for Recorder and Bassoon (2007). He has given many performances in New Brunswick both as soloist and in collaboration with other leading musicians and organizations. He performs on an Italian-Flemish harpsichord built by Andrew Graham and his recorders, copies of early 18th century instruments by Terton and Bressan, were made by Hans Coolsma and Stephan Blezinger.
A native of Montréal, Michel Cardin has gained international recognition as a teacher, perfomer, musicologist and producer. Professor of guitar and lute at the Université de Moncton, which in 1992 awarded him the status of a PhD, he obtained a Premier Prix in guitar from the Conservatoire de Montréal in 1977. He has recorded twelve CDs of works for solo baroque lute and duos for lute and flute from the London Manuscript of Sylvius Leopold Weiss, has given concerts and lectures in Europe, Canada, the USA, Japan and Africa and has published musicological articles in six languages. He has received twelve ECMA nominations and been awarded New Brunswick’s Éloize, Étoile and Excellence in Music prizes, the OPUS Prize in Quebec and the Geocities 2000 Award for Outstanding Achievement for the New Millennium. His theorbo, made by Jacob Van de Geest, is a copy of an early 17th century instrument by Magnus Tieffenbrucker.
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