A year-round professional chamber ensemble, Columbia Baroque is comprised of South Carolina’s leading Baroque music specialists, each with distinguished careers as chamber musicians, teachers and soloists. Musical talent and artistic creativity is a core value of the organization. Its mission is to enhance the listener’s appreciation and understanding of Baroque music by developing a connection wi
th the mind and ear of the composer through performance on instruments of the period using historically informed performance practice, tuning (A=415) and temperament (Vallotti). The ensemble brings to life historically inspired, spirited and expressive performances with various combinations of voice, recorder, violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord. Nationally recognized Guest Artists have included Baroque specialists Barry Bauguess, Baroque Trumpet; Adam Knight Gilbert, Baroque Recorder and Bagpipes; John Lenti, Theorbo; Thomas Baird and Paige Whitley-Bauguess, Baroque Dancers. During the past three concert seasons, Columbia Baroque has performed before an average of over two-thousand audience members in Columbia, Florence, and Greenville, South Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; and Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Additional audiences are engaged through recordings heard on SC ETV Classical Radio and videos on NPR’s blog Deceptive Cadence and YouTube. To educate and build passionate support for Baroque music, Columbia Baroque regularly includes educational components in its programming. The annual Summer Institute, for student and adult harpsichord and recorders players, draws participants from Columbia, Sumter and Aiken. This season, funded by a grant from Target Corporation, seventeen recorder performance/demonstrations have been given in 16 elementary schools. Additional education components include Master Classes at Greenville’s Center for the Arts and USC School of Music; concerts at the Tri-District Arts Consortium music camp, Richland County Main Public Library and St. Andrews Regional Library; and preconcert talks prior to each Main Stage season concert.
