Every time I speak to Baroque violinist Julia Fredersdorff, I hear something that utterly captivates me. I feel like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole after willingly drinking the Kool-Aid. This is an artist who has been honing her craft since the age of six years, before embarking on a one-way journey to the other side of the world to hunt down a music teacher who she happened to hear a recording of that spoke to her soul. She is singular and passionate and a geek for the quirks and detail of her chosen period instrument and performance style.

After skipping down the pathways of Julia’s brain, I started to delve into the Baroque mindset and was extremely satisfied to read the original definition from the Portuguese ‘baracco,’ meaning ‘irregular pearl or stone’ (‘Art Movement: Baroque – The Style of an Era,’ Artland Magazine). This incredibly beautiful but raw physical object seemed to capture Julia’s artistic spirit. I also know how much she loves Hawley Beach on the north-west coast and those magnificent rusty orange moss-coloured rocks sprang to mind.

Indeed, this is an artist who chose a classical instrument but railed against the rigidity and precision of the classical style, instead chasing the imperfection and interpretation of the Baroque. These musicians bring their own rendering to a musical score from the period having learnt all the various and specific styles and flourishes that would have been applicable to that time and place. It feels very human in its application – this world and its music – embodying paradox and layering.

Descartes’ Passions of the Soul (1649) exemplified the Baroque perspective on emotions as being physical in nature, ‘ie, ‘some movement of the spirits’ in the blood’, (‘How did baroque composers relate to human emotions?’, Music Practice & Theory). Julia also embraces the elemental in her world and life, drawing deep pleasure from walking on Kunanyi or the feel of her hands in the earth. She is fascinated by our primal response to smell and perhaps the lost art of utilising this sense to the fullest. We are so excited to follow her as she explores the link between music and perfume – a form of synaesthesia.

‘Synesthesia is a perceptual condition… In this the senses become blended or overlap. For example, take hearing. In a synaesthesiac, stimulation of one sense can trigger a simultaneous response in another sense. So sound might have a colour, shape or a taste attached to it as well as the sound itself.’ (‘The best books on Synaesthesia recommended by Lydia Ruffles,’ Five Books).

It is no wonder Julia has made a life here in Lutruwita/Tasmania that has seen her grow an audience for Baroque music, a seemingly niche area of interest. She personifies the spirit of this place – always stopping to smell the roses, slowing down, looking around and appreciating the extraordinary beauty of the landscape – and then bringing it into her endeavours and by turn into our worlds. Curiouser and curiouser…

Additional reading list:

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Penguin (2003)

Richard E. Cytowic, M.D. and David M. Eagleman, Ph.D., Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, The MIT Press (2011)

Réne Descartes, The Passions of the Soul (originally published 1649)

Kate McIntosh, SENSE, Samara Editions (2023)