Variations

The Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTB) is the leading South African baroque ensemble playing on period instruments. It was founded by violinist Quentin Crida in July 2004 as Camerata Tinta Barocca. As of July 2021, the ensemble has adopted the name Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, carrying it into a new age of growth and artistic excellence. Members include some of South Africa’s finest musicians who embrace a historically informed performance approach. Mostly playing music from the 18th century, CTB has worked with international leaders in their respective fields, such as baroque violinists Antoinette Lohmann and Pauline Nobes; soprano Stefanie True; countertenors Lawrence Zazzo, Christopher Ainslie and Clint van der Linde; male soprano Philipp Mathmann; recorder players Stefan Temmingh, Erik Bosgraaf and Anna Fusek; baroque oboist and recorder player Carin van Heerden; traverso player Matthias Maute; and mandolin player Alon Sariel.

Apart from CTB’s annual concert series in St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Cape Town, the ensemble regularly accompanies opera and oratorio performances, performs in festivals throughout South Africa and has an active outreach and education programme. CTB’s concerts have been broadcast on Fine Music Radio and kykNET, and have received critical acclaim in the Cape Times and Die Burger.

Since 2011 CTB has gradually moved towards playing on period instruments. Currently, CTB is the only period ensemble in South Africa that regularly plays in orchestral format, performing all its annual concerts on period-appropriate instruments. CTB, in collaboration with the Cape Consort, gave the first South African period performance of Handel’s Messiah in 2013. During November 2016 CTB played for Cape Town Opera’s first production with a period instrument orchestra,  Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, directed by Jaco Bouwer and conducted by Erik Dippenaar. In 2017 CTB launched the annual Cape Town Baroque Festival. CTB’s Handel at Home concert programme was awarded a Woordtrofee in 2022, as well as a kykNET Fiësta award in 2023. Dr Erik Dippenaar was appointed as Artistic Director of CTB in 2015.


Lynelle Kenned, a graduate of the University of Cape Town Opera School under the tutelage of Prof Virginia Davids, is a Multidisciplinary Performing Artist, TV Presenter, Corporate MC, Actress and Media Personality. Her list of awards include a 2023 Fiësta for Best Classical Music presentation, 2022 Woordtrofee, the Kunste Onbeperk YOUNG VOICE 2019, a 2018 Naledi Award, a Fiësta Award in 2017, and a Fleur du Cap Award in 2016. Performances include Maria in "West Side Story", Maria in "The Sound of Music", Mattie Allen in "Orpheus in Africa", Musetta in "La Boheme", Julie in "Showboat", Cherubino in "Le nozze di Figaro", and Grace in the world premiére of "Calling Me Home".

Classical performances as soprano soloist include Shepherd on the Rock, Messiah, Easter Oratorio, St Matthew Passion, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, Brahms' Requiem, Faure Requiem, Les nuits d'été, Handel's Gloria and the Gloria by Vivaldi. A few memorable career highlights are the FNB/RMB Starlight Classics, two KykNET TV Christmas specials, a 'In die Kollig" TV recital for Johan Stemmet Productions, live broadcasts of Dancing with the Stars and the KykNET Fiëstas, performing with Welsh crossover superstar Katherine Jenkins, receiving master classes with Juilliard’s Brian Zeger, adjudicating the singing category for the national Huisgenoot Eisteddfod, and regular collaborations with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Lutesong Consort and Cape Town Baroque Orchestra.



Bulgarian violinist Ralitza Macheva is a graduate of the Pancho Vladigerov Music Academy in Sofia, and the Conservatorium van de Enschede, The Netherlands. Her primary teachers were Prof. Alexander Kramarov and Prof. Boyan Lechev. In several prestigious national violin and chamber music competitions such as the “N. Simeonova”, “The Golden Diana” and “Béla Bartók” competitons, she was awarded first prizes, which led to various radio and television recordings.  

Working for a brief period as Principal Violinist in the Chamber Music Ensemble, “Amadeus”, in Seoul, South Korea, she subsequently returned to Bulgaria where she held the position of 
Associate Concertmaster of the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra. Since her relocation to South Africa in 2000, she was the Co-Principal Second Violinist of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban until 2023. Currently she holds the position of Principal Second Violin at the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.

Her strong devotion to music of the Baroque era resulted in her appointment as Leader of the Durban-based orchestra, Baroque 2000, with which she has appeared as a soloist on numerous occasions. Tours with Baroque 2000 have included the The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, HIFA Festival in Zimbabwe and the Maputo Music and Arts Festival in Mozambique.  She took Baroque violin masterclasses with Chiara Banchini at the renowned “Schola Cantorum Basiliensis” in Basel, Switzerland, participated in workshops with Antoinette Lohmann (The Netherlands) and attended the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute (Canada). Ralitza is a guest concertmaster, and regular collaborator, of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra.



In 2003 Erik Dippenaar obtained the degree BMus (cum laude) from Stellenbosch University and was awarded a MMus (with distinction) by the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London in 2007. The following year he completed an Artist Diploma in Performance at the RCM. His teachers included Margaret Phillips (organ), Robert Woolley, Terence Charlston and Jane Chapman (harpsichord) and Geoffrey Govier (fortepiano). From 2005 to 2011 Erik was based in London, where he worked on a regular basis with Florilegium, The London Handel Players, English Touring Opera, the Little Baroque Company and Ensemble Serse. Erik was one of the official accompanists for the annual London Handel Singing Competition and during 2008/2009 he was appointed as Mills/Williams Junior Fellow at the RCM.
Erik is currently Artistic Director of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, Artistic Director of the annual Cape Town Baroque Festival, and an adjunct lecturer in organ and harpsichord performance, as well as Western music history and historical performance practice, at the University of Cape Town (UCT). His conducting highlights include the first South African period performance of Handel’s Messiah in 2013, as well as Cape Town Opera’s first production to use a period instrument orchestra: Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in 2016. Erik has recently been awarded a PhD in music by UCT, with a dissertation focussing on the role historical domestic keyboard instruments played in the colonisation process in Southern Africa. 




Matthias Maute has carved out an impressive international reputation for himself not only as one of the great recorder and baroque flute virtuosos of his generation but also as a composer and conductor. Since winning first prize in the soloist category at the prestigious Bruges Early Music Competition in 1990, he has led a highly successful career as a recorder and baroque flute soloist. He made his debut in New York’s Lincoln Center in 2008 and has twice been the featured soloist for the Boston Early Music Festival. He records and tours extensively. The Washington Post hailed him as one of the greatest recorder players on the North American musical scene. 
Since 25 years, Matthias concertizes as member of the New York based ensemble REBEL in North America and Europe. He has been invited to perform as guest soloist or conductor by the world’s most eminent baroque orchestras, including: Seattle Baroque, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, “Apollo’s Fire” and the Magnificat Baroque Ensemble. In recent years he has also been invited to conduct other renowned orchestras, including I Musici de Montreal and Symphony of Nova Scotia. Matthias Maute is also celebrated for his work as artistic director and conductor of Ensemble Caprice. In this capacity he is known for creating and leading ingenious and captivatingly original programmes. He tours extensively with the ensemble, being regularly invited to take part in prestigious festivals around the globe. Under his direction, Ensemble Caprice was granted an esteemed JUNO award in 2009 for best vocal/choral classical music album of the year (for its CD Gloria! Vivaldi and his Angels on the Analekta label).
Matthias Maute’s compositions are highly regarded and have been published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Amadeus, Moeck, and Carus. He has some thirty recordings to his credit on the Analekta, Vanguard Clasics, Bella Musica, Dorian, Bridge and ATMA Classique labels. Matthias Maute teaches at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music and at the Faculty of Music of the Université de Montréal.