For better part of three decades, Karl Stobbe and Gwen Hoebig sat alongside each other in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, working and playing together both in and out of the Centennial Concert Hall. It makes sense then that when Stobbe’s plans for a Winnipeg Baroque Festival Concert fell through, he knew exactly who to call. “Whenever I don’t know what to do, I just do the smartest thing I could possibly do and call Gwen and say, ‘Well, are you busy?’” Stobbe smiles. “And she said, ‘No, that’d be fun. Let’s do it.’” The result is that Stobbe and Hoebig – concertmasters past and present of the WSO – will reunite on stage to share Refractions of Bach at Canadian Mennonite University’s Laudamus Auditorium. Old and new duets As veteran duo partners, it did not take much effort to Stobbe and Hoebig to piece together a program on relatively short notice. “We’ve done some of this repertoire before and some we haven’t,” shares Stobbe, “and we’ve got to be kind of creative about this in a way that is, I think, unusual and fun.” The concert element that Stobbe is most excited about is a pairing of J.S. Bach’s Two-Part Inventions alongside some of the 44 violin duos composed by Béla Bartók. While he admits that the pairing may be shocking to conceptualize (Bartók lived some 200 years after Bach and was influenced by folk music rather than the church), he thinks of Bartók as a “natural successor” to Bach’s violin writing. “They use harmony – although really different harmonies – in similar ways,” Stobbe explains. “They juxtapose those things together in similar ways. I think one of the things that I think about it is when you first start, you definitely hear the difference what’s Bach and what’s Bartók... but by the time you get to the last ones, you’re almost not sure which is which anymore.” RELATED STORIES Winnipeg Baroque Festival announces 2026 lineup Nonsuch Ensemble adds 'L'Art des Sons' to Winnipeg Baroque Festival A new chapter in a comfortable dynamic As he looks back on his first full year as concertmaster with the WSO, Stobbe is also reflecting on his relationship with Hoebig, who held the chair for 37 years until her retirement last year. “When I play with Gwen, the great thing about that is that’s kind of how I made my chops in this city was playing with her and learning from her,” he says. “I learned a lot, but now it’s just incredibly comfortable to play with her.” “The great beauty of it is you can start to anticipate one another,” he says of their duo dynamic. “You kind of get how each other’s musicality will work in certain situations, so you feel like you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Winnipeg Baroque Festival (@wpgbaroquefest) Karl Stobbe and Gwen Hoebig will share Refractions of Bach at Canadian Mennonite University’s Laudamus Auditorium at 7 p.m. on April 5. Tickets and more information can be found at the Winnipeg Baroque Festival’s website.