About Baroque
Music Montana
Founded in 2015 with support from The Juilliard School’s Alan D. Marks Center for Career Services and Entrepreneurship, Baroque Music Montana (BaMM) connects communities through historically informed performance, education, and artistic collaboration.
Based in Bozeman, Montana, BaMM specializes in chamber music inspired by history and provides a performance platform for visiting professionals deeply committed to historical performance, local artists passionate about Baroque music, and students eager to explore the style. BaMM’s musician roster varies based on the instrumentation and repertoire of each program and has included violinist Rachel Podger, cellist Phoebe Carrai, and countertenor Reggie Mobley, alongside other exceptional national and international artists.
BaMM performances are often in intimate spaces that reflect the settings for which the music was originally intended, with a particular emphasis on rural communities and venues of artistic and historical significance. Performances span a broad geographic region, from Whitefish, Montana to Cody, Wyoming.
Beyond Montana, BaMM has appeared on concert series in Seattle, Spokane, Syracuse, Ottawa, and Quebec. The ensemble also collaborates with a wide range of organizations including Tippet Rise, Tinworks, Intermountain Opera Bozeman, the Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings Symphony, Phillipsburg Theatre, Holter Museum of Art, Bozeman Art Museum, the University of Montana and Montana State University, and Bitterroot Baroque. Through these partnerships, BaMM develops creative programming that reaches audiences in diverse settings including outreach performances, house concerts, public concerts, outdoor performances, lectures, masterclasses, and an annual Period Performance Workshop.
BaMM’s two albums, Sonata Tramontana and I Melt Like Snow in the Sun of Your Beauty, have earned critical acclaim. The ensemble has been featured on 11th & Grant, the Emmy Award-winning show on Montana PBS and in articles in EMAg.
Founder Carrie Krause
Artistic Director and violinist Carrie Krause founded Baroque Music Montana in 2015, featuring the world’s top Baroque specialists, playing on period instruments. This music was composed between 1600 and 1750 and still resonates with audiences today. BaMM has helped put Bozeman on the national map as a hub of chamber music activity and outreach, and in 2018 it transitioned to a 501c3 organization whose mission is "to bring live historical performance and education to Bozeman and surrounding communities." BaMM's tagline is Music inspired by history, and it has expanded its offerings to include music from other periods in a series called Beyond Baroque. BaMM has also expanded its reach to audiences further afield, including rural areas that rarely get to see live classical music. Carrie’s reputation and personal network attracts musicians far and wide who love returning to appreciative audiences, outstanding musical colleagues, and local hospitality—all amid the grandeur of Montana.
On both Baroque and modern violin, Carrie is a recognized musical leader in Montana and beyond. Her innovative and deeply researched programming includes not only treasured pieces of the repertoire but also unusual and rarely heard pieces, the majority played in Montana for the first time, whether performed in houses, churches, backyards, or parks.
Carrie has been enthralled with the violin as far back as age three, and she fell in love with the music of Bach. After growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska, her family returned to Montana, where her great-grandparents had homesteaded near Lavina. She received her bachelor’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and master’s from the Cleveland Institute of Music in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy. She took a two-year leave from her position as concertmaster of the Bozeman Symphony to earn her second master’s in Historical Performance at Juilliard. She also has a studio where she teaches some 30 violin students.
Carrie lives in the foothills of the Gallatin mountain range and treasures the natural surroundings of Bozeman. She is an accomplished endurance athlete, a trail runner, backcountry skier, mountain biker, and backpacker.
Mission Statement
Baroque Music Montana connects communities through historically informed performance, education, and artistic collaboration.
Organizational Description
Baroque Music Montana (BaMM) presents historically informed performances of Baroque and early music, from beloved masterpieces to rarely heard compositions, often performed on period instruments. Through concerts, educational programs, and creative partnerships, BaMM engages audiences, artists, and students across Montana and beyond.
Carrie Krause wins Governor’s Arts Award
Congratulations to Carrie Krause on her 2026 Governor's Arts Award, Montana's highest artistic honor. She was "honored for bringing high-quality […]
CD HotList reviews I Melt….
CD HotList, which reviews new releases for libraries, wrote about BaMM's new album, I Melt Like Snow in the Sun […]
Boardroom Bobcats for BaMM
We've enjoyed having a Boardroom Bobcat, and we'll get another one next year. BaMM has plugged into Montana State University's […]
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Baroque Music
The Baroque Period in music was from 1600-1750, beginning with the dawn of opera in northern Italy and concluding with the death of Bach. The purpose of the music was to move the passions, an idea known as Affeckt.
Stylistic conventions of musical forms, ornamentation, and pitch, to name a few, varied greatly from region to region and decade to decade throughout Europe.