Every autumn, when Buffalonians glimpse flocks of geese flying south in a V, they know it can mean only one thing.

The Viva Vivaldi festival is about to begin.

The four-concert festival, a tribute to Baroque music held every year by Buffalo’s Ars Nova Musicians, begins this year on the unorthodox hour of 6:30 p. m. on Halloween.

Halloween night might seem like an odd time to hold a concert. But Marylouise Nanna, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra violinist who leads the Ars Nova Musicians, laughs that it happens sometimes, because of the accidents of the calendar.

“Masks are optional,” she jokes. Can an 18th century priest who

wrote Baroque music compete with trick-or-treating and raucous bar parties? Signs point to yes.

Antonio Vivaldi might have had few pretensions to posterity. He wrote music as a craft, for students and for church occasions. But the graceful, tuneful Italian composer has a hold on modern concertgoers.

Anyone who has been to Viva Vivaldi, now celebrating its 32nd season, knows that the concerts have a way of drawing crowds no matter what. The concerts, which take place in local churches, are a social as well as musical occasion, helping to usher in the holiday season.

“The enthusiasm of the people, how they respond to the concerts— they are like one with us. They’re so excited about it,” Nanna rejoices.

“I tell you, it’s unbelievable. And it’s gone on! It just continues on. It’s very gratifying.”

Besides the Halloween start date, several other things also set this year’s Viva Vivaldi festival apart. The four concerts are featuring Buffalo’s next wave of classical music talent.

Violinists Megan and Tea Prokes, in their early 20s, will be joining their father, BPO violinist Robert Prokes, in a concerto by Vivaldi. Drew Cone, the violinist son of Douglas and Andrea Blanchard-Cone, both violinists in the BPO, is playing an Adagio by the Italian Baroque composer Giuseppe Tartini.

Alex Aylward, a Nichols School student whose father is BPO Associate Concertmaster Ansgarius Aylward, is playing Bach. And singing a Vivaldi motet will be 16-year-old soprano Emily Tworek Helenbrook.

Helenbrook, who was recently featured on “CBS Sunday Morning” with diva Renee Fleming, is already a Viva Vivaldi veteran.

“Right now I’m a lyric coloratura. But I do like early music,” the young singer says. “This will be my fourth Viva Vivaldi. I’ve learned new Mozart. I love Marylouise Nanna. I look forward to these concerts. She’s such a wonderful person.”

In a new spin, this year’s concerts will each feature a contemporary work that pays tribute to the festival’s namesake.

There will be a “Suite Antique” by the colorful English composer John Rutter. Viva Vivaldi has also commissioned a piece by Buffalo composer Persis Vehar.

“It’s based on middle movements of ‘The Four Seasons,’ where Vivaldi reflects on the weather,” Nanna says. Vehar’s music also reflects the weather, Nanna says, “like the quiet of the night and the rain coming down.”

This year brings new Viva Vivaldi merchandise.

“A Musical Mosaic,” the Ars Nova Musicians’ new CD, is set for release by the time the festival gets under way.

Also available will be DVDs of “La Maestra in the House,” a recent film about Nanna. The documentary, which has been screened at the Market Arcade Theater and at Kleinhans Music Hall, is the work of Nanna’s cousin, Julia D’Amico, who lives in New York with her husband, Stuart Rockefeller, and two children.

The film gives a vivid portrait of a vivid personality who has, over the years, become the center of an impressive amount of local collaboration. Personalities, including BPO Music Director JoAnn Falletta and flutist Carol Wincenc, chime in.

“Marylouise is so selfless,” Wincenc says in the movie. “The music comes first.”

Here are this year’s concerts. All concerts take place at 6:30 p. m. Admission is $10. For info, call 662-3598.

•Sunday at St. Benedict’s Church: Featured artists include BPO horn players Jacek Muzyk and Daniel Kerdlewicz, soprano Tworek Helenbrook and BPO flutist Christine Bailey, who joins Claudia Hoca on harpsichord for John Rutter’s “Suite Antique.”

• Nov. 7, Holy Angels Church: Guest artists include the Buffalo Suzuki Strings, soprano Sebnem Mekinulov, violinists Antoine Lefebvre, Douglas Cone and Nadejda Nigrin, violist Maria Hardcastle and cellist David Meyeri. Music includes Persis Vehar’s “L’Acqua Diversa di Vivaldi.”

• Nov. 14, Westminster Presbyterian Church: Featured soloists include Drew Cone, violinists Diana Sachs and Jacqueline Galluzzo — and saxophonist Salvatore Andolina and Paul Schlossman on English horn, playing Michael Touchi’s “Tango Barroco.”

• Nov. 21, First Presbyterian Church: Robert, Megan and Tea Prokes play a Vivaldi concerto for three violins. Alex Aylward plays the first movement of Bach’s Concerto No. 1 in D Minor. The Buffalo Choral Arts Society sings two famous Bach chorales and Mozart’s “Regina Coeli.”

mkunz@buffnews.comnull