“Ensemble 1720,” a newly formed MTSU School of Music faculty period-instrument group, will make its debut Friday, Jan. 20, in the University’s Hinton Music Hall inside the Wright Music Building.

The special 7:30 p.m. performance will be free and is open to the public.

The Ensemble 1720 musicians make their performance distinctive by playing string and wind instruments in use during the Baroque era, the 17th- and early 18th-century period when Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and their colleagues created their masterpieces.

“The orchestral instruments that we know today were altered significantly in the 19th century,” said Dr. George Riordan, director of the MTSU School of Music and oboist for Ensemble 1720.

“We’ll be recreating the style that the composers would have expected, so that the music may be heard in all its original color and passion. The concert will include a variety of music by Baroque masters: George Frideric Handel, Arcangelo Corelli, Georg Phillipp Telemann, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel and Johann Gottlieb Janitsch.”

The group will perform Corelli’s “Trio Sonata in G,” Handel’s “Trio Sonata in F,” Telemann’s “Trio Sonata in A Minor” and Stölzel ‘s “Sonata à Quattro No. 4 in F Major.”

Joining Riordan in Ensemble 1720 are MTSU School of Music faculty Andrea Dawson, violin; Christine Kim, cello; Lillian Pearson, harpsichord; Jessica Dunnavant, flute; and Angela DeBoer, horn. They’ll be joined by violinist/violist Karen Clarke from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and Belmont University School of Music professor Francis Perry, who will perform on a theorbo, a large lute with an extra set of bass strings.

For more MTSU School of Music concert information, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.