I had the absolute honour of participating in a masterclass with viola da gamba maestro Paolo Pandolfo during the Australian Viola da Gamba Society’s annual consort intensive in Hobart, Tasmania. Our consort group prepared an unbarred piece by Orlando Gibbons, and it was wonderful to receive Paolo’s insights—especially on the art of doing less and allowing greater spaciousness on the bass viol.

Paolo also gave two extraordinary back-to-back concerts in Hobart, performing his own arrangements of Bach’s Cello Suites for gamba. His playing was utterly riveting: virtuosic yet deeply expressive. Later, I attended his concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre, where he brought the solo bass viol repertoire to life with breathtaking artistry—from the intimacy of de Machy, through the bold experimentalism of Tobias Hume’s The First Part of Ayres, to his own arrangement of Bach’s First Cello Suite. As the Sydney Morning Herald so perfectly described, Paolo’s playing made this historic, yet thoroughly contemporary, instrument shine with "brilliantly poetic" expression.