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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.”

The Fine Print (please read!) An American Christmas will be available for streaming at any time from December 27 until January 15. There is no limit on the number of times you can watch the show during this period. Ticket buyers will receive an email with a link, prior to show time on December 27. As our communications sometimes go into spam and junk folders (or your Promotions folder, if you use that feature in Gmail), please make sure to check those places if you can’t find our email. We encourage you to purchase tickets to give to friends this holiday season. Please contact the Camerata office for more information about ticket-gifting.

Here’s Anne in the formal garden where some of the Dido action will be taking place, as we do a live video shoot in a few days. Learn about the sets and the settings for our innovative, multilayered production of Henry Purcell’s masterpiece.

We bid a fond “au revoir” to our friend the centaur, who hails from a Medieval manuscript preserved in an Avignon archive. But times change, and we want to adapt our Camerata “look,” as we face both challenges and opportunities in the seasons and years to come. Music lives!

Songs for the Season

Henry Purcell wrote a “Harvest Home,” and in old England, harvest songs to celebrate the changing season were in fact a tradition. Closer to home, our own Jeremiah Ingalls published one such song in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1805. We find its eloquent melody and somber text to be much in keeping with the current moment, and herewith offer it to you, paired with another tune that Ingalls employed, “The Cuba March.”

Here we hear:
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