Portland Baroque Orchestra: American Baroque: Haydn's Moravian Connection

Scored for two violins and cello, this chamber program is perhaps the most intimate of the season. At its heart is John Antes, a Moravian composer whose music reflects a life lived across continents and shifting identities. Composing from the American colonies, Antes absorbed European influences, especially Franz Joseph Haydn, while quietly forging a voice of his own. Set alongside works by Haydn, Wanhal, Bechler, and Grimm, this program becomes a transatlantic dialogue, exploring what it meant to be a composer in a newly forming America, rooted in the deep musical traditions of Moravian communities in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.