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,
Joel Cohen
Music Director Emeritus