Penn State students will connect to a baroque state of mind through music when they perform at the Celebration of Baroque Art & Music series, which will continue today at 12:10 in the Pincus Gallery in the Palmer Museum of Art.

Visitors can experience the Baroque time period by viewing Giovanni Baglione's "St. Sebastian Healed by an Angel," the new Baroque painting addition on the first floor, and then heading to the Pincus Gallery to listen to the Baroque Ensemble perform.

The Baroque period was a time of artistic change, starting around the year 1600 and ending around 1750. The Baroque Ensemble, directed by double bass professor Robert Nairn, tries to embody this period as closely as possible.

"It's transitional from the Renaissance to the Baroque," Nairn said.

"There are constant fluctuations that are awkward, hard and challenging," he added.

The ensemble itself is a group of mostly graduate students with a few undergraduates. It includes three violinists, three cellists, two bassists, two violists, a

harpsichordist and a soprano opera singer.

"A lot of Baroque techniques are different than what we do in regular orchestra," Katie Kauffman (senior-viola performance and history) said.

She described that the ensemble "tune[s] half a step lower than an orchestra" and that the violist places the bow higher along the neck of the instrument to play Baroque music.

"We're trying to be relevant as they were when they played these instruments," violist Ofir Tomer (graduate-music performance) said of historic Baroque players. "They played for dancing, and we're trying to match it."

Joyce Robinson, curator at the museum, said the Celebration of Baroque Art and Music connects the ensemble to the featured piece of art, "St. Sebastian Healed by an Angel," which depicts St. Sebastian, a Roman soldier killed under the order of the Christian-persecuting emperor Diocletian, being healed by an angel.

Robinson describes the celebration as an effort to bring music into the galleries. The Baroque Ensemble's performance is the second of three events being featured as a part of the program.

The first event had an attendance of 50 people, which Robinson said was a good amount.

Bassist James Maguire (graduate-music performance), however, said that attendance for music performances like this one is usually low, but he hopes this event in particular will draw more attention.