Burning River Baroque

Founded in Cleveland in 2012, Burning River Baroque takes its name from the famous incident in which the badly polluted Cuyahoga River caught on fire. This name not only connotes the fiery passion which we bring to our performances, but also reflects our practice of tying history and social change to music and current issues in a way that feels fresh and relevant to contemporary audiences. While Baroque performance practice informs our presentation of historical works, we have evolved our presentation to encourage a participatory concert atmosphere, breaking the fourth wall and involving audiences in the drama that is occurring onstage.
Burning River Baroque seeks to throw open the doors of the concert hall to audience members who may never have considered that classical music had something to offer them or could reflect their life experience and concerns. Classical music can be perceived as elitist or stuffy; Burning River Baroque shows that it can be the opposite.