Celestial Encounters
Baroque Music Across Europe and China
Arwen Myers, soprano
Andrew Wong, baroque violin
Joyce Wei-Jo Chen, harpsichord
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Abbey church | 3 pm
Admission is free thanks to the Mount Angel Institute. All are welcome.
Celestial Encounters explores how music functioned as a medium of devotion, knowledge, and cultural exchange in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, tracing the circulation of musical ideas across convents, courts, and Jesuit missions linking Europe and Qing-dynasty China. Bringing together sacred vocal works and instrumental repertories, the program invites listeners to hear Baroque music as a global practice shaped by movement, encounter, and translation.
Works by Barbara Strozzi, Isabella Leonarda, and Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre illuminate women’s authorship and expressive authority within early modern religious and courtly cultures, while music by Corelli reflects Rome’s central role in shaping instrumental style across Europe. These traditions intersect with the work of Jesuit missionary-composers Teodorico Pedrini and Joseph-Marie Amiot, whose compositions document some of the earliest musical exchanges between Europe and China.
Performed on period instruments, Celestial Encounters reveals Baroque music not as a fixed canon, but as a living network of circulation—where sound, belief, and knowledge traveled across borders and were continually reshaped through encounter.
About the Artists
Praised for her “crystalline tone and delicate passagework” (San Francisco Chronicle), soprano Arwen Myers is “a rare vocalist who’s as comfortable performing early music as she is taking on contemporary works” (Stir Vancouver). She has appeared as a soloist with leading ensembles including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Charlotte Bach Festival, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, among many others.
She is featured on Baroque Music Montana’s recent release I Melt Like Snow in the Sun of Your Beauty, recorded at the prestigious Tippet Rise Art Center, and Third Angle New Music’s premiere recording of Glass’s 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, which will be released in March 2026. Learn more at arwenmyerssoprano.com.
Andrew Wong is an American baroque violinist and researcher in early music. He has performed with international ensembles such as the American Bach Soloists, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Jupiter Ensemble, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Arion Orchestre Baroque and Formosa Baroque. His current research interests focus on the influence of vocal music on violin playing.
In addition to music, Andrew has degrees in physics and engineering from MIT and Stanford. He has worked professionally as a data visualization designer, specializing in making maps and building tools to understand complex data. He is currently interested in applying information design to early music research.
A native of Taiwan, Dr. Joyce Wei-Jo Chen 陳瑋若 is Assistant Professor of Historical Keyboards at the University of Oregon, where she teaches organ and harpsichord, offers musicology courses, and directs the Collegium Musicum. She will complete her Ph.D. in Historical Musicology and Humanities at Princeton University in Spring 2026.
An active solo harpsichordist, Dr. Chen has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Taiwan and has appeared at major international festivals and competitions. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Harpsichord Performance from Stony Brook University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley.
A dedicated church musician with over fifteen years of experience, Dr. Chen specializes in the Baroque organ repertoire and currently serves as Music Director at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Mt. Angel.