KC Baroque is recognized for its dedication to lifting the veil of obscurity on some of the most significant, yet rarely performed composers of the Baroque era. We look forward to welcoming audiences into this remarkable era of music that is full of fantasy, virtuosic delight, and unexpected charm! 

Summer Series 2023
All Roads Lead to Vienna: Music of the Habsburg Empire

The Hapsburgs, one of Europe’s most extraordinary dynasties, ruled greater or lesser portions of Europe from the 11th century until 1918. Its zenith coincided with the extraordinary musical flourishing of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Vienna, the “imperial city” for the Empire, became a melting pot of culture and music.  In our 2023 Summer Series we explored the music that played vital roles in Habsburg Courts of the 17th and 18th centuries, from the preference for Italian music at the Imperial Court of Vienna to music for Austrian Holy Roman Emperors, to the remarkable works of the outliers – the Bohemian court composers we rarely hear today.

I: Friday, June 23, 2023
The Italians in Vienna
Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS
Music of Vivaldi, Bononcini, Bonporti, Valentini and Cesti
•••

II. Friday, July 21, 6:15pm - Pre-concert chat with Dr. Anya Pogorelova
7:30pm: Phantasticus! Music for the Austrian Emperors
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 40th and Main Street, Kansas City, MO
•••

III: Friday, August 18, 7:30 pm
A Bohemian Rhapsody
Visitation Catholic Church, 5141 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Music of Zelenka, Finger, Tuma, and Muffat
•••

While Vienna was being charmed by the Italian composers, Austrian composers were busy serving the Holy Roman Emperors outside of Vienna embracing and developing a musical language brought north by the Italians that we have come to refer to as the ‘Fantastic Style’, or as the Austrians called it, Stylus Phantasticus. The composers of the 17th century are carving a musical path that will eventually lead us to the balanced and refined architecture we find in the 18th century. This is music that is free and impulsive, intensely vivid, lavish, rhetorical and theatrical! Join us for a fantastic journey with music performed for the Holy Roman Emperors by the greatest of the Austrian, German and Italian composers of the day!