From left, Joseph Jones, Donald Livingston and Cléa Galhano, of l'Arte di Suonare, are slated to perform next week at the Twin Cities Early Music Festival. (Twin Cities Early Music Festival)

How early is early?

For the Twin Cities Early Music Festival, the answer can be any time before 1800, but most of the participating musicians stay focused on the Renaissance and baroque eras that run from about 1400 to 1750.

And these musicians are HIP. That is to say, they present “historically informed performance.” That means that, if their instruments don’t date from that stretch of human history, they’re playing replicas of what would have been premiering this music back in the day.

Starting Sunday, the Twin Cities Early Music Festival marks its 10th year by presenting 10 concerts in eight days, all but one at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul’s Merriam Park neighborhood. Harpsichordist Donald Livingston is its founder and continues to oversee the festival.

“While there are a handful of early music festivals in the U.S., they’re primarily on either coast,” Livingston said last week. “But, for decades, the Twin Cities has been a mecca for early music. Ex Machina Baroque Opera, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, the Rose Ensemble, the Bach Society of Minnesota, Consortium Carissimi, Early Music Minnesota. They’ve made the Twin Cities the center of early music in the Midwest.”

The festival has survived in part by participating in strategic mergers, such as collaborating with the formerly Vancouver-based Baroque Instrumental Program, the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition and a convention of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America. It’s also sometimes concluded with a climactic semi-staged opera, such as Christoph Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice,” George Frideric Handel’s “Acis et Galatea,” and Marco da Gagliano’s “Dafne.”

This year, it will concentrate on showcasing homegrown talent through concerts by Twin Cities-based musicians and ensembles, including a Saturday night performance honoring the 10th year of the festival and the 40th anniversary of the period-instrument orchestra, Lyra Baroque.

So what’s so special about playing centuries-old music on instruments faithful to the sound of their original era?

“Early music on period instruments expresses this music like nothing else,” said Julie Elhard, who specializes in the viola da gamba, an ancestor of the modern cello. “The warm tones of gut strings, plucked lutes and keyboards, as well as wooden wind instruments like the recorder and baroque oboe, envelop the listener in warm and earthy tones.”

Elhard said she’s particularly anticipating a concert of music for five viols at the University Club of St. Paul, while lutenist Thomas Walker Jr. is looking forward to a reunion of the Livingston-led Ensemble Sprezzatura.

“Sixteenth-century polyphony performed instrumentally is still quite rare in the ‘Land of 10,000 Choirs,’” Walker said. “So realizing [composer] Josquin des Prez on lute, viols, vielle and harp is a total joy.”

“One of the most important aspects of the Twin Cities Early Music Festival is the spirit of community that Donald Livingston had in mind,” said recorder virtuoso Cléa Galhano. “His idea was to unite the early musicians and groups from the Twin Cities and, since then, this festival has been creating opportunities for the musicians to get inspired.”

And to inspire audiences to get into a middle-of-the-last-millennium frame of mind.

Twin Cities Early Music Festival

Who and when: Cellist Charles Asch and harpsichordist Asako Hirabayashi, 7:30 p.m. Sun.; Ensemble Sprezzatura, 7:30 p.m. Mon.; Early Music Minnesota, 2 p.m., Tue.; Lutenist Phillip Rukavina, 7:30 p.m. Tue.; “Susanna Unbound”: Music for five viols, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16, University Club of St. Paul, 420 Summit Av., St. Paul; “2x2″: Duets for two lutes and two harpsichords, 2 p.m. Oct. 17; L’Arte di Suonare, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17; Soprano Sarah Jackson and lutenist Thomas J. Walker Jr., 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18; Lyra Baroque 40th Birthday Bash, 7 p.m. Oct. 19; The Gregorian Singers, 4 p.m. Oct. 20.

Where: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 1895 Laurel Av., St. Paul, except where indicated

Tickets: $20-$25 (students $10), available at tcearlymusic.org

Twin Cities classical music writer Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.