Laurette Goldberg, 73; Harpsichordist Founded Baroque Orchestra

Laurette Goldberg, 73, a harpsichordist and founder of the San Francisco Bay area’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and MusicSources, died Sunday of heart failure at Berkeley’s Alta Bates Hospital.

Born in Chicago and educated at its Chicago Musical College, she did graduate work at Mills College where she later taught harpsichord. She also taught for 40 years at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

In 1966, Goldberg studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam, which set her on a course to make the Bay Area a center for early music.

In 1981, Goldberg launched the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of the West, the first full orchestra using period instruments in the western United States. The group, now the largest of its kind in the country, has regularly performed in Berkeley, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Los Angeles, and is planning its 25th season.

After she turned the orchestra over to her hand-picked successor, Nicholas McGegan, Goldberg in 1986 began organizing her MusicSources enclave. The center includes a museum of early keyboard instruments, a library of documents on historic performance practice, a school for teaching historical performance and a garden of plants prevalent when baroque music was popular.