Submitted by the Salish Sea Music Festival

The fifth 2017 Salish Sea Early Music Festival performance, “The Art of Modulation,” features innovative baroque chamber music for flute, two violins and harpsichord at 7 p.m., Friday, April 14 at Brickworks Friday Harbor. “The Art of Modulation,” by François André Danican Philidor, will be performed by Jeffrey Cohan, on baroque one-keyed flute, Linda Melsted on baroque violin, Romaric Pokorny on baroque violin, and Jonathan Oddie on harpsichord.

François André Danican Philidor (1726-1795), the son of Louis XIV’s celebrated music librarian, was world-chess champion for almost five decades, from 1747 to 1795. Philidor’s six Sinfonias comprising “The Art of Modulation,” written in 1755, demonstrate not only his technical prowess— like in 1751 Berlin when he simultaneously played three chess games blindfolded and won them all — but the art of transitioning between musical tonalities and expressive colors. Philidor builds an intense, pure harmonic environment that twists and modulates, transporting and astonishing the listener. Philidor was known primarily as a composer of Opéra comique, and “The Art of Modulation” is his major surviving instrumental work.

Three Sinfonias from Philidor’s work will be complemented with music from Italy and Germany: concerti for flute and strings by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Georg Philipp Telemann, in continuance of the festivities for Telemann’s 250th anniversary.

“The Art of Modulation” schedule:

• Lopez: 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 12, Grace Church, 70 Sunset Lane, 468-3477

• Orcas: 7 p.m., Thursday, April 13, Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church, 107 Enchanted Forest Road, 378-6632

• San Juan: 7 p.m., Friday, April 14, Brickworks, 150 Nichols Street

San Juan Island 2017 Salish Sea Early Music Festival schedule: (Each is performed at Brickworks).

1 p.m., Sunday, May 14

A Century of New Perspective: 1600-1700: Chamber music in transition, including 17th-centurytrios on both late renaissance and early baroque instruments. Ingrid Matthews, violin; Elisabeth Wright, harpsichord; Jeffrey Cohan, baroque and renaissance flutes

7 p.m., Saturday, June 10

Giuliani’s Guitar: Virtuoso works from the early 19th-century golden age for flute and guitar. John Schneiderman, guitar; Jeffrey Cohan, eight-keyed flute