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Long recognized as one of the region’s top classical groups, Music of the Baroque’s professional chorus and orchestra is one of the leading ensembles in the country devoted to the performance of eighteenth-century works. The 2024-2025 season marks the 22nd anniversaries of Music Director Dame Jane Glover and Principal Guest Conductor Nicholas Kraemer. Andrew Megill was named Chorus Director in April 2022.
Over the past five decades, Music of the Baroque has presented premiere performances of many early masterpieces, including Monteverdi’s operas and 1610 Vespers, Georg Philipp Telemann’s Day of Judgment, Mozart’s Idomeneo, and numerous Handel operas and oratorios. The ensemble has drawn particular praise throughout its history for its performances of the major choral and orchestral works of J. S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Haydn.
Opera News calls Music of the Baroque “one of Chicago’s musical glories” and the Chicago Sun-Times writes, “Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra may be the big guys on the local classical music scene, but in terms of sheer quality of performance…Music of the Baroque inhabits the same stratosphere.”
Music of the Baroque draws audiences from across the Chicago metropolitan area, performing regularly at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park and Symphony Center in downtown Chicago and the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, as well as at intimate Chicagoland churches.
Listeners across the country enjoy the work of Music of the Baroque through radio broadcasts and recordings on 98.7WFMT Radio.
Music of the Baroque’s available recordings include “Handel’s Jephtha,” recorded live during the 2022-2023 season and released worldwide by Reference Recordings; “Bach’s St. Matthew Passion” recorded live during the 2022-2023 season; “Messiah—Live in Chicago” recorded live during the 2021-2022 season; “Bach’s Mass in B Minor” recorded live during the 2019-2020 season; and “On This Night,” recorded live during the ensemble’s 2017 and 2014 holiday concerts and conducted by William Jon Gray.