VDB With Guest Luke Plumb

Van Diemen’s Band gets back together for an October tour on home turf in a program spanning a thousand years, two hemispheres and a suitcase full of styles with the mandolin wizardry of Luke Plumb as a highlight.

Next month sees Van Diemen’s Band doing what it loves most: travelling around Tasmania playing to audiences for whom live music concerts over the past 18 months have been few and far between.

Best-known for its performances of Baroque music, this time around VDB is also taking a stylistic tour, encompassing the sounds of Vivaldi’s Venice, traditional Jewish melodies, the ecstatic visions of medieval abbess Hildegard of Bingen, and popular folk dances.

Luke Plumb is the soloist for this genre-busting live set. Starting as a classical pianist and violinist, he switched to mandolin over twenty years ago and made an international career as one of the best folk players and record producers around, working with Scottish band Shooglenifty and fellow multi-instrumentalist Kate Burke. Now based back in Tasmania, Luke is adding his distinctive style to the mandolin concertos of Italy’s most famous Baroque composer: Antonio Vivaldi (of The Four Seasons fame).

“It’s amazing how well the folk and Baroque sensibilities mesh together,” said VDB’s Artistic Director Julia Fredersdorff. “They’re both based on freedom of expression, improvisation and a clutch of popular melodies. Composers back then frequently quoted folk and street songs in their music. Vivaldi himself wasn’t writing for concert halls. Instead, he supplied pieces to his young female students at one of the state-run orphanages in Venice. Yep, all that music was written for women to play!”

Van Diemen’s Band itself will soon celebrate its fifth year of existence since launching in November 2016. Its latest CD release of Handel’s music on the Swedish BIS label is garnering attention around the world, and the group is booked for national tours of both Australia and New Zealand in 2022. Closest to VDB’s heart and mission, though, are its Tasmanian tours, and the musicians are keen to be back on the road after the long pandemic-imposed hiatus.

“Everyone’s jumped into this one ‘cos they’re so keen to see the audiences again,” said Fredersdorff. “We’re going to be at least a 10-piece outfit, so those venues are going to pump!”

You might never hear a program that ranges further than this – from the twelfth century to now, featuring music that floated along Venetian canals back in the days when you could still swim home in one. Somehow the sound of the mandolin evokes the world of Vivaldi, but it’s also great for a folk tune. Luckily, Luke Plumb can play both better than anybody.

Don’t miss Van Diemen’s Band with special guest Luke Plumb this October.

Concert dates/venues

Franklin, Palais Theatre, 22 October, 6.00pm

St Helens, Portland Memorial Hall, 23 October, 6.00pm

Scottsdale, Mechanics Institute Hall, 24 October, 3.00pm

Latrobe, Latrobe Memorial Hall, 25 October, 6.00pm

Stanley, Town Hall, 26 October, 6.00pm

Queenstown, The Paragon, 27 October, 6.00pm