This week on the podcast, I’m talking to a wonderful musician from Belgium: Thomas Baeté. He plays early music on viola da gamba and vielle, and sometimes traditional music, he sings, and he’s just a lovely person. we’ll talk about his instruments, about why some musical performances are more emotional for performers and listeners, and about musical friendship.
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Maybe it’s partly because he is often playing music from before 1800 that Thomas seems to be conjuring sounds out of thin air on his vielle or viola da gamba. He brings a great presence and expressiveness to his music.
He’s based in Belgium, but he plays concerts all over Europe with his groups Club Mediéval and Transports Publics, and he was recently in Japan and right here in Canada — most recently in Halifax. He’s in demand as a teacher and coach. And he has recorded about thirty CDs over the last 15 years – with his own groups and others such as The Spirit of Gambo and Hathor Consort.
He started out as a friend of a friend, and now we are friends ourselves, sometimes intersecting on his visits to Canada. We spoke via Zoom.
https://thomasbaete.be/
Here’s some the music I excerpted on the show:
Theme: Ali Berkok, “the Wolf”, from his album Never Get Lost for Long
Bandcamp
Thomas Baeté and Club Mediéval
”Girand'un bel falcon” (Madrigale)
Album: Da Firenze: Amor, tu solo'I sai - Ballate e Madrigali
Pavane Records, 2013
Improvisation on “Oh, Solitude” by Henry Purcell
Recorded at MusikSalon @Argonne, March 2021
You Tube
Excerpt from “Good Againe” by Tobias Hume
Recorded at MusikSalon @Argonne, March 2021
You Tube
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