The milestones of life, Baroque-style, with Tempesta di Mare

Baroque period instrument groups like Tempesta di Mare play Baroque music on the type of instruments Baroque musicians actually used, but there’s more to the early music movement than that. The musicians must also study the styles of the time, too. For their season opener, Tempesta’s period instrument experts will blend the warm sound of 18th-century instruments with the voices of a noted countertenor, Drew Minter, and three other singers who have mastered the intricacies and special demands of Baroque vocal style. The theme of the concert, on the other hand, will be timeless and universal: the joys and sorrows of life’s milestones — birth, marriage, death, the coming of the new year — celebrated and commemorated in five cantatas and vocal concertos by Bach and other Baroque masters.

Tempesta di Mare will present “Tempesta sings Bach and Praetorius: cantatas by Bach, Praetorius & Rosenmüller” on October 25 at 8pm at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, and October 26 at 4pm at the American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Most tickets are $24, and they’re available online, by calling 215-755-8776, and at the door.