Salish Sea Early Music Festival
Published 1:30 am Monday, June 1, 2026
Submitted by the Salish Sea Early Music Festival.
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 innovations 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 Bach and a favorite composer of Louis XIV, de La Guerre made many important contributions 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 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 Bach, as well as the performers’ transcription for flute of Bach’s Violin Sonata in C minor, the Sonata in D major by de La Guerre, and harpsichord solos including de La Guerre’s Prélude in D minor, “La Zaïde” by Pancrace Royer and the Suite in F major by Louis Couperin.
This concert, presented in collaboration with Grace Episcopal Church, takes place on Saturday evening, June 6, at 6 p.m. at the Grace Episcopal Church at 70 Sunset Lane. Admission is by a suggested donation (a free-will offering) of $20 to $30. Those 18 and under are free. All are welcome regardless of donation. For additional information, please see www.salishseafestival.org/lopez.
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), Roldán 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, Roldán was honored with the prestigious Bach Prize and an additional special award at the XXXIII. International Bach Competition held in Leipzig, Germany.
Roldán 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 Jörg-Andreas Bötticher. She currently works as a teaching assistant to Professor Andrea Marcon and as an 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, Roldán 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. Roldán’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.
Roldán 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.
San Juan/Lopez/Orcas Island performance schedule for “Bach & Jacquet”
• San Juan Island: Saturday, June 6, at 12:30 p.m., St. David’s Episcopal Church, 780 Park Street in Friday Harbor, www.salishseafestival.org/sanjuan.
• Lopez Island: Saturday evening, June 6, at 6 p.m., Grace Episcopal Church, 70 Sunset Lane, 360-468-3477, www.salishseafestival.org/lopez.
• Orcas Island: Wednesday, June 10, at 5 p.m., Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church, 107 Enchanted Forest Road in Eastsound, 360-376-6683, www.salishseafestival.org/orcas.
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 Festival is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and has been granted affiliate status by Early Music America, which develops, strengthens and celebrates early music and historically informed performance in North America.
