Music of the Baroque Chorus

The Music of the Baroque Chorus was founded in 1972 by conductor, organist and voice teacher Thomas S. Wikman at Chicago’s Church of St. Paul and the Redeemer, where he served as choirmaster. From these early church choir roots, the ensemble grew into one of the leading ensembles in the country devoted to 17th- and 18th-century music, drawing particular praise for its performances of the major choral works of J. S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Haydn. Since Dame Jane Glover was named music director in 2002 following Wikman’s retirement and Andrew Megill was appointed chorus director in 2022, the Music of the Baroque Chorus has reached even greater artistic heights. Chicago Classical Review has praised Megill’s “watchmaker’s precision,” noting the chorus’s “clarity of diction and suppleness of sound,” while the Chicago Tribune called the group “supple, radiant, and tonally resplendent.” Available recordings include Handel’s Jephtha (Reference Recordings), recorded live in 2022; three of the four live recordings in the ensemble’s planned “Bach’s Set”—Bach’s St. John Passion (2024), St. Matthew Passion (2023), and Mass in B Minor (2019); Handel’s Messiah (2021), and “On This Night,” a live recording of Music of the Baroque’s 2017 Holiday Brass & Choral Concert directed by William Jon Gray. For complete information about Music of the Baroque, visit www.baroque.org.