June 10: Bach & Jacquet – Salish Sea Early Music Festival – Orcas Island

June 10 | 5 pm | Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church | 107 Enchanted Forest Road | Eastsound

   — BACH & JACQUET
           · Irene Roldán (Basel, Switzerland), harpsichord
           · Jeffrey Cohan, baroque flute

Spanish harpsichordist Irene Roldán from Basel, Switzerland and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan present
“Bach & Jacquet”, a program celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach and French composers whose
influence he benefited from, including Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Louis Couperin and Pancrace
Royer, in the seventh 2026 Salish Sea Early Music Festival program.

Born 20 years before Johann Sebastian Bach and a favorite composer of Louis XIV, Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre made many important innovations in her compositions both for solo keyboard and in the
development of the cantata, all the while juxtaposing and integrating the distinct French and Italian styles, all of which set the stage for compositional techniques and forms that Bach was later to use extensively and develop further.

The program will include the sonatas in E Major and G Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as he
performers’ transcription for flute of Bach’s violin sonata in C Minor, a Sonata in D Major by Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre and harpsichord solos including Jacquet de La Guerre’s Prélude in D Minor, La Zaïde by Pancrace Royer, and the Suite in F Major by Louis Couperin.

Irene Roldán, who was honored with the prestigious Bach Prize and an additional special award at the XXXIII. International Bach Competition held in Leipzig, Germany, interprets Johann Sebastian
Bach, Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre and Louis Couperin with flutist Jeffrey Cohan.

Irene Roldàn’s participation in these performances has been made possible with help from the Honorary Consulate of Spain in Seattle and from to the Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE) of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), which seeks to promote Spanish culture through the inclusion of Spanish artists and creators residing in Spain in the programming of cultural events outside of Spain.

ABOUT IRENE ROLDÁN:
Award-winning harpsichordist Irene Roldán was born in southern Spain in 1997. Described by the press as one of the most prominent Spanish harpsichordists on the international scene (ABC Sevilla), Irene currently lives and works in Basel, Switzerland. She gained international recognition in 2021, when she won first prize, never previously awarded in this competition, as well as the audience prize at the III.

International Harpsichord Competition «Città di Milano». In the same year, her ensemble Flor Galante
secured the first prize at the IV. International Bach Competition in Berlin. One year later, Irene was
honored with the prestigious Bach Prize and an additional special award at the XXXIII. International Bach Competition held in Leipzig, Germany.

Irene cultivated a profound passion for the harpsichord when she was 7 years old and has studied in
Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland with Jacques Ogg, Menno van Delft, Andrea Marcon and JörgAndreas Bötticher. She currently works as a teaching assistant to Prof. Andrea Marcon and accompanist at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland.

She has performed as a soloist at renowned festivals and venues in Europe and North America, including the Utrecht Early Music Festival, FEMÁS, Urbino Musica Antica, Fundación Juan March and Roma Festival Barocco. A sought-after ensemble musician, Irene has collaborated with La Cetra
Barockorchester Basel and other prestigious ensembles, such as the Venice Baroque Orchestra,
Kammerorchester Basel, La Folia Barockorchester, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Syntagma Amici, La
Centifolia, Voces Suaves, and Castello Consort, among others. Irene’s enthusiasm for opera led her to
serve as Andrea Marcon’s musical assistant for a 2024 production of Handel’s Alcina at Teatro de la
Maestranza in Sevilla.

Irene is dedicated to researching and reviving Spanish music from the 16th to 18th centuries, with a focus on Francisco Correa de Arauxo and the works of Domenico Scarlatti and his contemporaries. This led to her first solo album, Scarlatti & Beyond, released in May 2025 with Passacaille Records

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The Salish Sea Early Music Festival has since 2011 provided world class period instrument performances of chamber music, both familiar and rarely or never before heard in modern times, with
musicians from Europe and all around the Puget Sound, the United States and Canada who are among the finest in their field around the globe.

Entrance is by donation and the concerts have always been open to all
regardless of contribution.

The Salish Sea Early Music Fe