[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Bessette_Tracy.jpg” caption=”Soprano Tracy Smith Bessette will perform at the Celebrity Concert Series on Friday, Nov. 30. Photo courtesy of SOTA.”]The warm sounds of Baroque music will fill Convocation Hall on Friday, Nov. 30 when three of Canada's most outstanding period musicians showcase their talents in this early music concert presented by the School of the Arts.

Tracy Smith Bessette (soprano), Philippe Magnan (Baroque oboe) and Luc Beausejour (harpsichord), each of whom are internationally acclaimed solo artists in their own right, will impress audiences with their elegance and virtuosity.

Beausejour, a Quebecois harpsichordist and organist, has won numerous awards in recent years, including the 2003 Performer of the Year award by the Couseil Quebecois de la Musique and the Erwin Bodky International Harpsichord Competition. He also makes regular appearances on both CBC and Radio-Canada.

Beausejour will bring his world-renowned harpsichord talent to this concert along with Magnan, a highly sought-after soloist and chamber performer of the Baroque period oboe.

Since winning the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition in 1982, the prestigious Toulon International Competition (France) in 1984 and the Prix d'Europe in 1987, Magnan has pursued an active solo career performing both contemporary oboe and Baroque oboe.

Bessette rounds off this trio as a soprano who has received great acclaim on both the opera and concert stage in North America, Europe and Asia. She has worked on several programs for arts channel BRAVO! including The Forsaken, The Sorcerer, and more recently on the television show, Shakespeare in Words and Music. Her vocal abilities have been described as having “poise, wealth of expressive nuance and fine projection.”

Together this trio will be performing some of the best arias and concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Mercello and Henry Purcell along with several other famous composers from this harmonically lush period of music. Together their great musical abilities will lift an already outstanding repertoire to even greater heights

The concert will be held on Friday, Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. in University Hall, Convocation Hall, Room 213. Tickets are $17 for general admission, $12 for seniors and $5 for students. For more information, please call ext. 24246.