Music of the Baroque, Chicago
chorus and orchestra in Chicago
Music of the Baroque is an American professional chorus and orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois.
Most members of the orchestra also perform with other groups, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Chorus members have active operatic, teaching, and recital careers and several perform regularly as soloists with Music of the Baroque.
History 1971–2001: The Wikman years
The ensemble was founded by Thomas Wikman (1942–2023) in 1971. At the time, Wikman was a voice teacher and choirmaster at The Church of St. Paul and the Redeemer in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Using church choir members as his base, Wikman had begun organizing Sunday afternoon a cappella concerts. As these concerts became more and more popular, Wikman expanded his troupe of vocalists by bartering voice lessons in exchange for singer participation in his concerts. Wikman sought to locate, train, and feature the best singers in the Chicago area, an endeavor he continued to pursue his entire Music of the Baroque career. He strove for “the highest standards of authentic bel canto singing.” Several of his voice studio protégés and Music of the Baroque soloists went on to make their debuts with the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago's Lyric Opera, and the San Francisco Opera as well as the major European Houses including La Scala, Bayreuth, Vienna, and Berlin.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11342704. VIAF identifies the subject as 140846995. The Library of Congress control number is n89645001. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 2001, 1942 and 2023.
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This entry incorporates text from “Music of the Baroque, Chicago” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.