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Greater Boston Concert Series | Summer
Workshop in Provence
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Camerata tours
France, Norway, Germany.
Lots of music-making (the good part) and many hours logged in airplanes (learn
to live with it). Our company's first-ever appearances in Scandinavia took place
last May, in Norway, at the Bergen Festival . A
total of twenty-three musicians presented two productions in the medieval Hakenshalle
of that beautiful Nordic town: Tristan and Iseult
(with the same outstanding cast that toured Japan in the fall of 1995) and Carmina
Burana (featuring many of the same soloists who appeared at Tanglewood during
the summer of 95). Boston Camerata's sister ensemble, the Camerata Mediterranea,
made its Paris début at the Théatre de la Ville last March with Le Fou sur le Pont ; that same week, the Cam Med made
an hour-long radio special for the BBC, broadcast last September 15. A trio
of Boston Camerata soloists (Azéma, Cohen, and Lepkoff) performed medieval music
in Paris and Frankfort last October. Closer to home, in November, we gave Simple
Gifts , an evening of Shaker music (together with our friends the Shakers)
at Wesleyan College. Our most recent on-the-road memory was the early- December
French tour of An
American Christmas . Eight musicians (Anne Azéma, Margaret Swanson, Elizabeth
Anker, Timothy Evans, Donald Wilkinson, Joel Frederiksen, Jesse Lepkoff, and
Joel Cohen) gave five performances in Mulhouse, Strasbourg, and Paris before
large, enthusiastic audiences. That European swing warmed us up for the American
concerts that followed in Schenectady and the Boston area. Our special thanks
to Suzanne Establie, head of Les Amis de la Boston Camerata, for making the
self-produced Paris event at the American Cathedral such a success.
New Camerata
recordings.
Camerata is arguably the most-recorded early music group of this hemisphere,
and our production continues apace. We enjoy doing this. Erato released three
new Camerata CD's during 1996. Farewell Unkind, the John Dowland program, won
top honors abroad; Trav'ling Home ![[travhome]](../images/travhome.gif)
was on the HMV and
Tower Records best-seller charts and earned a rave review from (among others)
the BBC Music Magazine. And our Carmina Burana
appeared in European record stores in December; expect a U.S. release of that
title this summer. Meanwhile, new projects are being readied: two different
programs of late-Renaissance songs (one French, the other English) are to be
recorded during the spring.
Speaking of
Fran.
If you've had the occasion to call or write us recently, you have certainly
notice some changes for the better. We are back to regular office hours, and
more often than not a real human being answers the phone. Fran Imhoff is a terrific
person, and morale around here has been given a major boost by her presence.
Thanks to those who helped us with their gifts last year: you are making it
possible for her, and us, to do good work. And a reminder that in the non-profit
world, keeping any small organisation stable is a constantly renewed struggle.
Ticket sales and touring fees do not, by themselves, cover the costs of running
our company. We will once again need the help of our friends during 1997 to
maintain and, if possible, improve our administration....
Radio days.
Both locally and abroad, there was lots of Camerata music on the air during
1996. The WGBH syndicated series, Sound and Spirit, dedicated an entire
program to the Shakers and their music, including extensive excerpts from Camerata's
best-selling Simple Gifts CD, and a long interview
with Joel Cohen. 
Last March, Joel accompanied Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer
and a BBC producer to Sabbathday Lake, Maine, where they and the Shakers created
an hour-long radio special for British listeners. During the Bergen Festival,
both of the mainstage Camerata performances were broadcast live, and Scandinavia-wide,
by the Norwegian radio. In October, Joel also collaborated with board member
Robert J. Lurtsema . Together they co-hosted
a five-hour Morning Pro Musica tribute to early American composers on the occasion
of Boston composer William Billings' 200th anniversary. Last December 16, France
Musique, the national French classical music service, broadcast a two-hour special
on the music of medieval Paris, featuring our recordings of Le Roman de Fauvel and
the brand-new Carmina Burana. Joel Cohen and Anne Azéma, on tour with Camerata
at the time, were guests on that broadcast. And, most recently, the Voice of
America made a Christmas-music special out of our Nueva
Espańa recording. About half of that program, you may recall, is composed
of Christmas repertoire from colonial Mexico and Peru. The VOA broadcast, which
was produced in Creole French for a Carribean island listenership, featured
interviews with Joel (who claims to understand a little Creole, but who played
it straight for the interview) and with Pierre-Louis Zephir, pastor of the Les
Amis de la Sagesse congregation in Dorchester.
Upcoming performances.
The Sacred Bridge continues to be Camerata's most popular touring program. We
presented it this spring in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Kalamazoo, Michigan. A
Japan tour of Sacred Bridge is also in the works for May, 1998. We are hoping
to perform Nueva Espańa at the Festival de
Musica of Morelia, Mexico (near Mexico City), in July 1997. Next November Camerata
musicians will be travelling once again to Paris, this time at the invitation
of the very prestigious Cité de la Musique, the French capital's newest and
snazziest performing arts facility. We will be giving four or five presentations
of early American music to the French public. And, next December, we are planning
to present (for the first time since 1985), a new version of the original Camerata
Christmas program, A Renaissance Christmas.
Latest news.
Farewell Unkind , Camerata's recent recording
of songs and dances by the great Elizabethan lutenist-songwriter John Dowland,
has been honored in France by a nomination for the Grand Prix des Discophiles...and
our latest release, Carmina Burana has just
received a perfect "10" from the Paris review "Répertoire."
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