After attending the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, I realized that our students at UW-Platteville had very little exposure to baroque music. I applied for a grant and organized a 2 day festival consisting of lectures, a chamber music concert, and a culminating concert the next day with full choir, orchestra, soloists, and a grand entrance led by our baroque double reed ensemble. The inaugural year, our keynote speaker was the charismatic musicologist and harpsichord expert, Dr. Edward Kottick. The following year, we held a similar experience on a smaller scale, with the excellent baroque opera specialist from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Kelley Harness, as our keynote lecturer.