Tafelmusik, from Toronto, Canada, is the only full-time Baroque orchestra in North America playing on authentic instruments of the period. It was founded in 1979 and, with the arrival in 1981 of its current music director Jean Lamon, began to evolve as a unique ensemble with a Baroque style rarely heard outside the European-dominated chamber groups. The Tafelmusik players are first class soloists in their own right and achieve the finest chamber ensemble by collaborative study, exploring authentic performance practice. Jean Lamon herself has specialized in the playing of Baroque and Classical music on period instruments since 1972 and, before joining Tafelmusik, led many distinguished baroque orchestras in North America. The ensemble tours extensively in North and South America and plays a regular concert series at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1984 it became the first Baroque band from across the Atlantic to be invited to tour Europe with appearances in Germany, Holland and Portugal. Their English debut was made at Wigmore Hall, London, in June 1987.