Wikman sought to locate, train, and feature the best singers in the Chicago area, an endeavor he continued to pursue his entire Music of the Baroque career.

These singers included Richard Versalle, Isola Jones, Judith Nelson, Linda Mabbs, Karen Brunssen, William Wahman, and Barbara Pearson.

When Co-Principal trumpets Barbara Butler[4] and Charles Geyer[5] were initially hired in 1975, they began to manage the brass ensemble for Wikman.

This gave Music of the Baroque a greater degree of flexibility than the larger arts organizations in town so the group could pursue quality musicianship as well as continuity of personnel.

Under Ollendorff's financial management and Wikman's artistic leadership, the 70-member group developed a national reputation as the premier exponent of Baroque music performance according to the Wall Street Journal[9] in December 1984.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Wikman developed a brass and choral concert experience based on his knowledge of historical performances in Renaissance Italian cathedrals such as St Mark's Basilica in Venice.

Wikman reproduced the Venetian polychoral style in Chicago area churches which involved spatially separated vocal and brass choirs in alternation.

In December 1987, Wikman led Music of the Baroque in its New York debut,[15] where he presented a sold-out performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.

For three years, beginning in October 1986, Music of the Baroque performances were syndicated by WFMT, Chicago's fine arts radio station in an annual thirteen-week series.

A total of 39 two-hour programs featuring Music of the Baroque concerts with commentary by Thomas Wikman were included in these three syndicated series.

Many Music of the Baroque performances led by Wikman and broadcast by WFMT are contained in The Richard and Judith Mintel Archive of Recordings.

Wikman's performances of Handel oratorios, the Bach Passions, Italian Baroque operas, liturgical music, and Mozart and Haydn's symphonies are included in the Mintel Archive.

The cornerstone of the 50th-anniversary celebration will be the ensemble's first performances in over a decade of Bach's monumental Passion According to St. Matthew, featuring critically acclaimed British tenor James Gilchrist singing the role of the Evangelist.

Beginning in the 1984–85 season, Music of the Baroque undertook an educational outreach program for 200+ Chicago area high school students in collaboration with Urban Gateways.