Musikanten Montana announces the 18th annual Montana Early Music Festival January 16-19, Viva Vivaldi!, featuring the Venetian master’s popular Gloria, a joyful setting of the Magnificat text, and two brilliant Psalms for double choir and double orchestra, Beatus Vir and Dixit Dominus. A special treat will be MEMF concertmaster Carrie Krause playing “Winter” from The Four Seasons, the well-known set of 4 violin concertos.

For the fifth consecutive year, the ensemble will travel to four Montana cities – Bozeman, Butte, and Missoula, with the final concert in at the Cathedral of St. Helena at 4 pm on Sunday January 19th.

A 16-member chamber orchestra will play period instruments – Baroque oboes, bassoon, natural trumpets and gut strings – either actual 18th-century instruments or modern replicas. Players come from Early Music hotspots of Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Indianapolis, Seattle, Denver and more.

Vocal soloists are Kathryn Radakovich and Abigail Chapman (sopranos), Marjorie Bunday (contralto), Daniel Hutchings and Thomas Gregg (tenors), and Rob Tudor and Art Bumgardner (baritones), all specialists in “music before 1800.”

Musikanten Montana Artistic Director Kerry Krebill will conduct the vocal soloists, chamber orchestra and singers of Musikanten Montana in these exuberant works.

Tickets for the Helena Cathedral concert are $35 General Admission, $15 Students, or $100 for a Family Ticket (up to 5 members). A special section for Musikanten Angels (donors of $100 and above) will be reserved in the front of the Cathedral. Purchase tickets ahead of time at Birds & Beasleys or Piccolo’s Music to avoid a line at the Cathedral. Call (406) 442-6825 or visit www.musikantenmt.org for more information or reservations.