As of tonight, May 13, the Spring 2011 tour of “Borrowed Light” will be gliding past its halfway point, with six performances down and five to go.

So far, in Turku and Helsinki, Finland, every show has played to a capacity hall of applauding and cheering music and dance lovers. We estimate that about 6,000 happy Scandinavians have seen the show live so far, not counting those who have viewed excerpts on television and the internet. Continue reading →

Opening night in Turku was standing room only – a huge success! Here’s a video clip of us rehearsing in Turku last week, with a brief interview with Tero Saarinen and Joel Cohen – don’t worry, it’s all in English!

And here are a few photos:

Did we hear you say that you are tired of winter snow? Would you say that a little louder please? The snow blower outside makes a deafening racket.

Well, Camerata’s snowy ordeal began in early December, when the Sacred Bridge cast trudged through the drifts to give a master class and a concert at the University of Idaho. Did we grumble? Sure, but we had no idea what was coming.

Things got SERIOUSLY complicated late December, as we finished up our U.S. run of An American Christmas. The very evening of the Newbury concert, Anne and Joel were scheduled to fly to Paris and then Strasbourg, for the much-awaited Christmas event sponsored by the city itself, on December 23. The next night, the remainder of the cast was to be on route to Strasbourg, via Dublin, or Frankfort, or Zurich (don’t ask).

No way, José des Près. Our people were grounded at the Dublin airport, messed up in Frankfort and Zurich, and Joel and Anne had to take a taxi and a train to Newark (Newark!) in order to occupy the last two seats available out of the east coast in the general direction of Europe. Annick and Clive in London, thank you for the hours you spent with us finding a solution!

On December 21, we weren’t sure there would even BE a Strasbourg concert. But Cecelia, our patron saint, pressed the all right keys, and miraculously, everyone was there by the concert days. We rehearsed intensely that very day with our partner ensemble, the Parlement de Musique, and gave exactly the program we had planned.

The medieval church, Saint Pierre le Jeune, was packed, maybe 950-1000 people…it looked like some of them were hanging from the chandeliers. Comfortably seated in the front row, however, were the Mayor of Strasbourg Roland Ries and his wife, the deputy mayor Nawel Rafik-Elmrini, Father Geissler, who had organised the event, the US Consul Vincent Carver and other important folks we are too ignorant to name…but how lovely to feel that we were serenading a large, representative audience in this magnificent European city, the town where Anne Azéma grew up and discovered her vocation for music. Yes, for some of us at least, who have been presenting Camerata’s music on tour in this region for many seasons, it felt like we were, in some sense, at home with friends.

In keeping with the multi-ethnic character of Strasbourg, and the Boston-Strasbourg twin-city relationship that had a lot to do with our receiving this invitation, this was a trilingual, nay, a quadrilingual concert. Martin Gester’s Parlement sang 18th century Christmas anthems from the Rhine valley in German and Latin; Camerata presented large excerpts of the American Christmas program in English (the audience whooped with pleasure at our New England shapenote fugueing tune, Sherburne); and both ensembles joined together for a carol singalong in German and French. The hankies came out for Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. A standing ovation greeted the musicians at concert’s end.

It was the concert the snow couldn’t stop, and we were so happy to be able to give it despite the many dangers, toils, and fears en route. Thanks, Boston-Strasbourg committee, and thanks, good people of Strasbourg!

Another thing we wanted to talk about, before the avalanche of snow-related emergencies took us over, was the wonderful ceremony offered by the French Consul in Boston and his staff last December to Anne Azéma.

During that event Consul General Christophe Guilhou read a touching tribute to Anne, her musicianship, her personal magnetism, and her extraordinary combination of performance artistry and unique, creative programming flair. Some of us who know her well were moisty-eyed by the end of the speech, but we blew our noses and watched with joy as the Consul pinned the medal on Anne’s, ahem, chest with incredibly suave gallantry.

So Anne is now a Chevalier/Knight of Arts and Letters. Thank you, France, from the Boston Camerata, for this recognition.

Yes, we know it is 2011 by now. But we simply must share the most recent Boston Globe review with you, even if we are several weeks behind…you know, the snow and whatever hit us hard, too. We’ll tell you about the incredible late-December Strasbourg odyssey in a future post, once we’ve finished shovelling…

But meanwhile, back to the Globe, which headlined its December 20 story, “Boston Camerata makes holiday classics sound new.” We are grateful that David Weininger noted the extraordinary quality and cohesion of the 2010 American Christmas cast. In our opinion, it was the best consort ever for this now-classic program, and we agree with the print review that “this incarnation of Camerata was superb to a person.” Our snowcaps are doffed to Mesdames Azéma, Sheldon, and Rentz-Moore, and to Messieurs Lepkoff, Cohen, Hershey, Wilkinson, and Frederiksen. Thanks to them, the program, as the reviewer remarked, “has lost none of its freshness and power…wonderful music.”

Not to be overlooked was the wonderful group of Sacred Harp singers, led by Chris Noren, some coming from as far away as North Carolina, that joined us in Boston and Newbury for some roof-raising tuttis.

And yes, we also appreciated the standing ovations from our terrific Boston-area friends and supporters.

Then, right after the final Newbury performance, we headed off for Strasbourg, but that’s another can of choucroute…..meanwhile, you can read the entire Globe review here.

Our photo: the all-star cast warms up in Schenectady, N.Y