By |

Summer is a time to relax and enjoy life, agreed. But for a company like ours, it’s also a season of intense work, preparing for the musical events to come, beginning in the fall.

Our roster of superb artists for Camerata’s 2021-22 season is now virtually complete, and we want to share their portraits with you. Individually and together, they will be there, singing and playing repertoire ranging from the European Middle Ages to the historic American spiritual tradition, providing us all with beautiful music and vital life energy during these challenging times. Please come see and hear these exceptional people! We would love to hear from you.


Top row: Anne Azéma, Luke Scott, Camila Parias, Ian Saunders, Allison Monroe
Middle row: Jordan Weatherston Pitts, Craig Juricka, Milton Wright, Mildred Walker, Christa Patton
Bottom row: Dan Hershey, Michael Barrett, Shira Kammen, Deborah Rentz Moore, Joel Cohen

•

And, as a later-summer gift, here’s a lovely American spiritual, “Something New,” to announce our season full of new things, and to celebrate the renewal of life that comes with programming and casting for the coming months.

By |

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).

By |

The American Revolution began close to Camerata’s home, at the battles of Lexington and Concord. To celebrate those anniversaries, on Patriots’ Day, our friends at Classical Radio Boston will be re-broadcasting a live performance of our path-breaking Free America! program, recorded at Boston’s Faneuil Hall. Those early calls for freedom and justice sound just as timely right now as they did in 1776!

You can listen on-demand here or tune in at 7pm on Sunday, April 18 at classicalwcrb.org. And, if you like what you hear, you can order the splendid Harmonia Mundi CD of Free America from us.

By |


The Garden of Love, from the studio of Antonio Vivarini (ca. 1465-70),
The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia

On this Good Friday, as Easter approaches, Passover draws to a close, and Ramadan nears, we offer a beautiful Arabo-Andalusian song about the mystical quest for the Other, excerpted from our currently-online video of The Sacred Bridge. May this be a time of renewal for all of us!

By |

“My mistress embodies all virtues:” so goes the text of one of the 15th centuries’ most beloved melodies, De tous bien plaine. We propose a little bouquet, including three variant settings of this tune, by an all-star lineup of Franco-Flemish masters: Alexander Agricola (1446-1506), followed by Josquin Desprez (ca.1450-1521), and a return to Alexander Agricola.

The vocal soloist is Michael Barrett, and all of the music from this live performance can also be heard on Camerata’s recent, excellent CD Treasures of Devotion. Please enjoy!

By |

Our musical offering to you this week is a beautiful instrumental piece by a gifted, Jewish contemporary of Claudio Monteverdi. It’s the Sonata in Dialogo by Salamone Rossi (1570-1630), and we’ve chosen it because it embodies friendly exchange and relationship — essentials we never want to lose sight of during a winter season of continued pandemic. Soloists are Bruce Dickey, cornetto, and Carol Lewis, treble viol, with Libor Dudas, organ, and Christa Patton, harp, from a December 2018 Boston Camerata concert. May our many conversations continue!
Sound and video by David and Harriet Griesinger

By |

Artwork: Miguel d’Oliveira


Dear friends, when we saw this anonymous picture on Twitter depicting Dame Fortune in the Roman de Fauvel hanging out with a senator from Vermont and his mittens, we laughed out loud and posted it on Facebook.

And lo! Less than a week later, we find that our post has been viewed, ahem, 183,689 times, with over 1,900 shares, as of this morning (1/28/2021).

Here is a sample of the song and story performed by The Boston Camerata. The first piece is about Dame Fortune, who spins the wheel of Fate; the second, Fauvel’s attempt to pitch Fortune some woo. Enjoy!

Le Roman de Fauvel: Deus roes out & Douce Dame debonaire

By |

Flaneries Musicales De Reims
Maison Des Comtes De Champagne
The Boston Camerata Dirige Par Anne Azema
“Thibaut De Champagne” Photos Journal


…but so is a nasty virus. And so friends, we must postpone our February production, Douce Dame Jolie, the touching love story in verse and music of Guillaume de Machaut, an aging ecclesiastic, and a passionate young poetess. It’s a marvelous tale, and how we want to share it with you! And so we shall, at a later date, once our planet’s health situation improves.

Meanwhile, we are preparing other romantic musical episodes to lighten your days around Saint Valentine’s. Please stay tuned for further announcements!

To tide you over until then, here for your enjoyment is Amours me fait desirer et amer de cuer mais c’est si folettement by Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), performed by the Aziman Ensemble (Anne Azéma; Shira Kammen, harp; Fabio Accurso, lute).

The pictures in the video were taken during a project at the Parker Library in Cambridge, UK; Anne looking in awe at the Ferrell-Vogüé Machaut manuscript; Shira and Fabio rehearsing.

Translation: Love makes me desire and love, but it is in such a foolish way…

By |

Click to view and/or download the program book.

Since we cannot gather in concert halls this holiday season, the Boston Camerata will come to you with a newly-produced streaming version of An American Christmas. Filmed at Boston’s historic Old North Church, the performance features inspiring early American music, in a program reimagined specifically for this unique and challenging year. Artistic Director Anne Azéma comments: “This glorious music from a young and hopeful nation will give us all the kind of boost we wish for at the present moment.”

Available online December 27th through January 15th!

By |

As we understand the story, the Wise Men arrived at the cradle, a few days after the birth of Jesus.  

Alas, like them, we are also a little delayed.

The music is done, the visuals are splendid. You have never seen Old North look so beautiful. Unfortunately for our own journey certain essential files were delayed as we were hoping to arrive by Christmas day, were en route to the crêche.

We are disappointed, for us and for you.  

Our full length video will now be available on the third day of Christmas, December 27, at 4pm, rather than the first day, as we had planned.

How can we make it good for you? Well, our Director Emeritus Joel Cohen is here for you today with an informal talk on how Americans of earlier generations made music for the holiday. And you will also find below a sneak preview excerpt: a performance of the magnificent Southern carol Star in the East. For the rest, in the spirit of peace and goodwill, we humbly request a couple of days of forbearance on your part.

The complete video, once online, will be available to ticket holders for unlimited viewing and hearing through January 10. 

With our deepest apologies, and our continued wishes for a happy and blessed Christmas week,

Anne Azéma
Artistic Director

Click to view and/or download our program book
Music Director Emeritus Joel Cohen on early American music
Sneak preview of Star in the East