On February 21, Music of the Baroque announced its 2020-2021 season, the ensemble’s 50th.

As part of an Impromptu of secular and devotional holiday music from around the world, conductor Patrick Dupré Quigley led Music of the Baroque and organist Stephen Alltop in a performance of this lesser-known French Baroque Christmas song, ‘Hodie Christus natus est’ by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault.

Handel’s oratorio Messiah is everywhere this time of year.

Behind every great performance or recording is untold hours of practice. Don’t get us wrong, we love the final product, but it’s also illuminating to go behind the scenes and witness musicians preparing.

NEW YORK (AP) — “When I am laid in earth,” the heroine sings just before she dies at the end of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas.” Rarely will the aria be heard in a more fittingly sepulchral setting than when the hour-long opera, composed in the 1680s, is performed this week in the catacombs of Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery. The …

“With this kind of comedy, there is no fourth wall. We’re very aware of the audience; we’re not pretending they’re not there.”

For naysayers who think classical music is on the decline, these Chicago-based performing groups offer the perfect response. All founded in the past three years, they’re offering fresh takes on repertoire familiar and unfamiliar, expanding the musical canon and enlivening the musical life of our city.

How does an opera written in 1735 hold up today? Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of George Frideric Handel’s Ariodante presents a contemporary perspective on the nearly 300-year-old Baroque opera, with updated gender and sexual politics to boot.

Grammy-nominated Jory Vinikour shares his advice for how to capture the magic of the harpsichord on the piano.

Taylor kept working well into his 80s, venturing into his company’s Manhattan studios from his Long Island home to choreograph two new pieces a year.

Here are just a few of our many favorite French composers, from medieval to modern, that might be new to you.

Have you ever wondered how opera singers are able to sing so many notes so easily? Mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux shares her secrets to singing coloratura.

Watch Rubén Dubrovsky and Third Coast Baroque perform the virtuosic music of Vivaldi in the beautiful Trinity United Methodist Church in Wilmette, Illinois.

This year, the Music of the Baroque Brass ensemble visited WFMT’s Levin studio to share some selections from MOB’s 2017 holiday concert, including two 17th century dances by Michael Praetorius.

Maestro Harry Bicket shared what’s in his “little box of tricks” to help musicians in modern orchestras sound period perfect.

“Ariane et Bachus” was first performed by the Académie Royale de Musique in 1696, and Haymarket Opera Company’s production marks the first revival of work in 321 years.

Eden Stell Guitar Duo performed live in the WFMT studios and proved that French baroque music is full of sensualité.

In 1985, William Christie, the founder and music director of the Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants, was driving in the French countryside when he saw Thiré for the first time. Located in the Vendée region of France, an hour south of Nantes, Thiré has about 500 residents and is filled with sprawling corn and sunflower fields.

“A choir is like any instrument. But because it’s people, a choir is an instrument that varies far more than a string orchestra would vary, for example, or an organ.”

“There are all kinds of ways to play Bach, and that depends on your personality and how you want to deal with Bach’s music.”

Pieces of music that turned the art form into something it hadn’t seen.