Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir is celebrating its 30th anniversary.Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir is celebrating its 30th anniversary. (Tafelmusik)

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, a Toronto-based ensemble dedicated to playing baroque and classical music, makes its debut at Carnegie Hall on Friday.

Tafelmusik will play Handel's Water Music and Rameau's Dardanus at the New York hall. The performance is one of the highlights of its 30th anniversary season.

"For Tafelmusik, it's yet another rung on the ladder of success. I don't know where it came from, but we seem to be in a very lucky 'phase,' shall we say," music director Jeanne Lamon told CBC News.

The ensemble is coming to the end of a four-city tour of the U.S. that also took in Los Alamos, N.M., Lawrence, Kan., and Milwaukee, Wis.

The date in the famous concert hall caps off a season that involved both Canadian and international tours and a Juno nomination for classical album of the year for a Tafelmusik recording of Beethoven's Symphonies No. 7 and 8.

"It'll feel great. Great opportunity for the orchestra to play in wonderful acoustics," musician Elly Winer said.

Their 2003 recording of the tragedy Dardanus, first presented in Paris in 1739, won a Juno and was nominated for a Grammy.

They'll play the Handel a second time at Carnegie Hall on Saturday as part of a family concert series that introduces young people to music with A Water Music Adventure.

The program, scripted by Tafelmusik violinist Julia Wedman, takes young listeners on an interative journey to 18th century Europe to hear the music of Handel, Boccherini, J.S. Bach and Vivaldi.

The Water Music was first played for King George I during a royal river excursion in London in 1717.

Tafelmusik will perform the Water Music and Dardanus program in Toronto Feb. 18-22.