We are not quite there, as intense post-production work for Camerata’s next CD release continues. You will be able to hear all of the glorious results in only a few weeks, but until then, here is a glimpse of our project:
Meanwhile, stay tuned and watch this space for the opening of Camerata’s 2021-2022 box office. On that note, here again is the titular earworm of the coming season, We’ll Be There!
Along with interviewer Harvard Professor Emeritus of Music Thomas Forrest Kelly, Joel discusses the history of the Camerata and the early music movement in general, plus what’s coming up in our 2021-22 season. To illustrate his tantalizing comments on our fall production, here is the now-classic sequence Judicii signum/The Great Day, part of the CD New Britain: The Roots of American Folksong. Have a listen, and keep checking here for news concerning our up and coming 2021-2022 season.
If you are relaxing at the beach, we hope that unlike the forsaken woman of this troubadour song, you are happy and relaxed.
Here is one of the great poems of distant love as performed by Anne Azéma with the Camerata Mediterranea. Please enjoy this languorous moment, and continue to live well during this warm season.
Here are some candids of our wonderful crew – Camila Parias, Deborah Rentz Moore, Anne Azéma, Christa Patton, and Shira Kammen – from this week’s recording sessions for our upcoming Harmonia Mundi CD Hodie Christus Natus Est, which will be released in October. And as part of our 2021-22 Boston series, you can hear this program live in December and all these wonderful musicians in Douce Dame Jolie in March – tickets will go on sale soon!
Our long-delayed Medieval Christmas recording session is almost here! One of our most widely traveled programs in recent years, this program has inspired standing ovations everywhere it goes. Our superlative vocal trio of Camila Parias, Anne Azéma, and Deborah Rentz Moore will be joined by instrumentalists Christa Patton and Shira Kammen, and the recording will be released on the Harmonia Mundi label in time for the holiday season!
As we reflect this weekend on our nation’s history (or just enjoy good food and one another’s company) here is a piece to add to your Independence Day playlist: Rise, Columbia!, from our 2019 Harmonia Mundi CD Free America!
Camerata is about to make a new recording for Harmonia Mundi, and preparations for the up and coming seasons are in full swing.
To celebrate the long days and lush vegetation, here is one of the most lovely texts from the Carmina Burana manuscript from the classic Camerata recording of the same name. Please enjoy!
Tempus adest floridum from Carmina Burana The Boston Camerata, Joel Cohen, Director
The greening season is here, and the flowers appear; the heat repairs the misfortune of the cold…Let us play, for the love of Venus.
We welcome Juneteenth and its commemoration of emancipation from bondage, with a joyful noise: here’s the Cuba March, harmonized in 1805 by Jeremiah Ingalls, paired with The New Union, a universalist text from New Hampshire (1823). Please enjoy, and celebrate with us as our country moves a step closer to its ideals of liberty and justice for all. The music is excerpted from The Boston Camerata’s most recent CD release, Free America! (Harmonia Mundi, 2019).
Hatred and discord thus will cease,
And love and everlasting peace
Reign unenforced in every place,
And form an endless union.
The Cuba March with The New Union – The Boston Camerata
Text: John L. Peasey, Hymns and Spiritual Songs
(Portsmouth, New Hamsphire, 1823)
Music: ‘Heavenly Union’ by Jeremiah Ingalls, The Christian Harmony (Exeter, New Hamsphire, 1805).
This has been a difficult time. For all of us. And our thoughts go out to those who suffered ill health, or loss during this pandemic. And yet, music manages to live on, giving us renewed strength. We are fortified by the transforming and healing powers of great art. I want to thank you for your support of Camerata’s music and musicians. Under Anne Azéma’s leadership, we were able to keep our company going, and in fact to produce beautiful and unusual media events like Dido and Aeneas, An American Christmas and Songs to the Lute. All of this happened, thanks in large part to your generosity.
Moreover, because you have enabled our company to remain healthy and creative, we can announce, with joy, a new 2021-22 calendar of extraordinary programs. Here’s our plan:
We’ll be There in November will see us returning to our beloved repertoire of early American spiritual songbooks, but this time with an enlarged perspective, as we include and honor the African-American contribution to this wonderful art form of ours.
In December, Anne and her cohort of angelic high voices will once again transport us to the Middle Ages, including Christmas works that have been Camerata favorites for two generations, as well as some ‘new’ surprises. A Medieval Christmas — Let the bells ring!
And in early 2022, we sing, play, and narrate the bittersweet tale of the great Guillaume de Machaut, and his adventure with Perônne, a gifted young poetess and dancer. Douce Dame Jolie will tug on your heartstrings, even as the magnificent, elderly musician ends his impossible dream with a paean to beauty, and to love.
It’s an extraordinary menu! But to make all this happen, of course, requires resources. Whether these production concepts become streaming media events or live performance, or some combination of the two — and that will depend on our public health situation in the coming months — they require substantial financing.
Won’t you become, once again, a part of our collective effort? Please help to make The Boston Camerata a continued and vigorous part of the arts community, here and around the globe. Every gift, small and large, is received with gratitude.
With thanks and many good wishes for happiness and health,
