The Southern Illinois Chamber of Music Society performed its Baroque Celebration Sunday at the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship.

The performance featured Maryse Carlin on the harpsichord and Douglas Worthen on the flute. It was the second concert of the 2013-2014 season and will be followed by two more, each one featuring different musicians.

Carlin, a professor at Washington University, made her harpsichord debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, and has performed worldwide as a pianist and a harpsichordist.

Worthen, SIU assistant professor of music, has also performed abroad. He previously taught at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.

Eric Lenz, SIU associate professor of music, as well as a member of the society, said the Chamber Society was vital to the lifeblood of music in southern Illinois.

“The main mission of the society is to promote chamber music through the region while providing scholarships to talented students who wish to study music at SIU,” Lenz said. “We provide a high quality concert series which uses the proceeds of admission prices to fund those scholarships.”

These performances have gone on for more than a decade, and usually feature SIU faculty as well as string instrument students who study at the university.

“Some of the students performing in the concert are ones who have received scholarships from the Society,” Lenz said. “Many patrons donate more than the admission price because of the cause it is supporting.”

The concert included pieces from the Baroque era. School of Music faculty members joined Carlin, including Worthen on flute, Edward Charity on violin, Jacob Tews on viola and Lenz on violoncello.

Petra Bubanja, Jennifer Franklund and Richard Davis, who all have master’s degree in music, as well as Benjamin Bollero, a sophomore majoring in music, joined the faculty in performing “Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major” by Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the most famous pieces of Baroque composition.

The concert also featured a premier piece, a first for the chamber society. The piece, titled “An Opening, A Waltz, A Song, An Ending”, was composed by Lawrence Axelrod, a composer, pianist and conductor from Chicago.

Worthen, Charity, Tews and Lenz all joined Carlin in the premiere performance.

To support the chamber society, patrons can purchase season tickets or donate to the Allegro Group, which funds the scholarships.

Adie Applegate can be reached at aapplegate@dailyegyptian, on Twitter @adisonapple or at 536-3311 ext. 251.