The Boston Musical Intelligencer has published a wonderful Conversation with Anne Azéma, in which she talks about the Camerata and the Machaut Mass.

Our Christmas concerts began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on December 9, where  the magnificent St. Joseph Chapel  was filled to the brim for “Puer Natus Est.”  The audience greeted our processing musicians with   whoops and cries of “bravo.” The Boston crew was assisted by  the Milwaukee Chorale Artists (under the direction of Sharon Hansen), who sounded as smooth and fine as we remembered them from our previous collaboration “Powerful, spirited, and exquisitely controlled singing,” said Milwaukee Magazine.  A lovely experience for all involved.

The feeling in the Schenectady, N.Y., hall a few days later was quieter and sadder than in Milwaukee, as we premièred the 2012 production of “Brotherhood of the Star.”  The terrible shootings in Newtown,  Connecticut, had just taken place, and the tenor of the Christmas celebration,  inevitably, had changed.  Joel Cohen began the evening (as he did in all subsequent performances) by dedicating the concert to the children of the world.

And so, we proceeded.  And the magic of the Spanish and New World repertoire,  the irrepressible life force that is in that music,  took hold.  As in each performance of “Brotherhood,”  the audience rose to its feet as one person at concert’s end.   Our Camerata crew gave its all,  and the vital contributions by Les Fleurs des Caraïbes gave the rhumbas and guarachas the ring of eternity.  Hope for a better tomorrow prevailed. “Wonderful performances,”  said the Boston Musical Intelligencer.  And our best wishes for 2013!

Our photos:  
a. soloists of Puer Natus Est,  Anne Harley, Anne Azéma, and Deborah Rentz-Moore
b. At a rehearsal with Joel Cohen and Les Fleurs des Caraïbes

December 2. 2012 – Concord, MA

We at Camerata, including Singing Centaur and all his associates, are party animals! And we were delighted by the musical party in Concord thrown a few weeks ago, in Camerata’s honor, by hosts Terry and Peter Yanulavitch along with Ronni Olitsky Young. The vibe was just right, the live early music (by Directors Past & Present, the current hot group on this circuit) perfect for the event, and the conviviality around excellent food and drink perfect for the just-past holiday season.

No need to be envious, now. Yes, you, too, can hear the Boston Camerata live in YOUR home, church or club — just ask us, you’d be surprised how easy it is. Don’t be shy, please tell us what you like!-)

Thanks, Terry and Ronni for being such fantastic hostesses (and thanks, Jeff Young, for the photo).

During 2012, Camerata produced TWO programs of early American music: “Patriots and Heroes,” a Patriot’s Day special, last April 16, and, most recently, “The Harvest, ” on October 28, at Harvard University.

The memory of those fine programs lingers on, but something more as well: some student-produced video clips of “Patriots,” including interesting interviews with some of the principals, have been posted on Youtube, and extensive excerpts from “The Harvest” can be heard via the WGBH website. And yes, we are working on a new Americana CD/media product. Stay tuned!

our photo: Anne, the Camerata, and the Harvard Choral Scholars, November 2012

What a joy to see our Shaker friends again (and what good meals they prepared for us!), and what a pleasure to work with a dedicated French-Canadian film crew on location at the Shaker Village.

The subject of the upcoming documentary film is Shaker spirituality as expressed in the arts, and participating in singing and interviews on location in early October were Anne Azéma, Joel Cohen and longtime colleague and associate, basso Joel Frederiksen. All of us on the musician side are veterans of prior recording at Sabbathday Lake, and all of us loved the opportunity to return to the special beauty of Shaker song in the environment from which it grew.

The next phase of the project will take place in Helsinki, Finland, as some of us sing while Tero Saarinen’s peerless dancers take us through some of the choreography to Borrowed Light. The producer tells us to expect at March, 2013 release; we’ll keep you posted.

In our photo, director Raymond Saint Jean and Anne Azéma prepare to shoot an interview (in a very cold room!)

It was our second invitation to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, in tandem as before with the Tero Saarinen Dance Company of Helsinki. And Tero’s magnificent choreography to “Borrowed Light,”
along with the transcendentally beautiful singing of Shaker songs by eight Boston Camerata soloists, had the audience on its feet, clapping and cheering, after every one of the six performances.

We love the “vibe” of that place, its happy marriage of friendly summer conviviality in a beautiful environment with topnotch professional organization. And we thank the Camerata friends and supporters, including board members Sandi Bagley, David Griesinger, and David Levine, for making the trek out to the Berkshires to share the moment with the musicians and dancers. The next “Borrowed Light” performances are currently in the planning stage — as is a documentary film! More on those developments later…

Our farflung correspondents on the other coast tell us that Camerata’s first international tour of 2012 went very well, with capacity audiences and standing ovations in both Vancouver and Seattle, Washington. Anne’s magical program of song and storytelling around Alexander the Great was beautifully performed at both venues by our own soloists, in collaboration with Mehmet Sanlikol’s Dünya ensemble: “a hypnotic and fascinating evening of music” (music blog SunBreak.)

Next, Anne heads to Eugene, Oregon to teach classes and prepare a student version of The Knight’s Tale. Back in Boston, we’re gearing up for a weeklong sumer residency at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. And the beat goes on.

It was a bitterly cold February night, just about the worst of the winter, when Anne Azéma, Deb Rentz-Moore, Jane Sheldon, Shira Kammen, and Tom Zajac gave one of the hotter concerts of the Camerata season. Love and dalliance in medieval France were the subjects, and the audience, undeterred by frigid weather and by the ecclesiastical architecture of First Lutheran Church, rewarded the “Game of Love” cast with a standing ovation at the end. The church acoustics gave a nice sheen to the voices and instruments on the master recording made by WGBH, and on Valentine’s Day thousands heard the Camerata’s passionate music over the airwaves and via the internet. And a few days later, Anne and Shira inaugurated a new early music series in New York City’s currently “in” venue, Baryshnikov Hall, with some of the same French music heard in Boston.

Our December concerts began with three sold-out performances of “The Sacred Bridge,” in Cambridge and in Washington, D.C. We were joined once again by our friends of the Sharq Arabic Music Ensemble. We loved our audiences: quoth the Boston Globe, “The [Boston] audience applauded… as if it would have been happy to stay till dawn.” Joel, too, tells us he was thrilled to be leading this production once again, and also to get his chance, thanks to the miracle of digital photography in the Dumbarton Oaks museum, to produce a Christmas/Hanukah greeting card in the style of King Alfonse the Wise’s medieval illuminated manuscripts…
Then Anne Azéma took over the leadership role for the remainder of the month, and directed the first performances of “A Medieval Christmas” to be heard in our home area in a decade. An enthusiastic cast of Camerata veterans and newcomers helped Anne shape her own, personal vision of this now-classic Camerata program. People who have been following the evolution of this production over the years tell us they loved the current blend of old and new. WGBH radio was present, and broadcast large excerpts of “Medieval Christmas” coast-to-coast on Christmas day. And resident sound-and-image gurus David and Harriet Griesinger documented the Cambridge performance on video. We’ll have more news on that audiovisual front a little later…

For the fifth and final time in 2011, Camerata musicians packed their bags and passports, headed to Logan airport, and embarked on a European tour. Our five-performance itinerary on this swing had us return to Strasbourg, Rouen, and Caen, all places that had warmly welcomed us on previous tours. November brought us as well our Belgian début, in the magnificent medieval city of Bruges.

Notwithstanding our pleasure in the quaint streets and ancient church spires of Northern Europe, our particular delight this time was sharing our own, homegrown American hymns and spirituals with our enthusiastic French and Belgian audiences. And, in three of the five events, we had the joy collaborating once again with the superb dancers of the Tero Saarinen company in “Borrowed Light.”

We returned in time for Thanksgiving, and the December concerts closer to home – “A Medieval Christmas” and “The Sacred Bridge.” A rich harvest, indeed.