A Medieval Christmas:
Hodie Christus Natus Est
Experience our recent Harmonia Mundi CD release live and in-person! Transcendent Christmas music, featuring a superb all-female ensemble of voices and instruments.
The sounds of Christmas spirituality from Medieval France, Italy, England, and Provence, including music of the church and songs of private devotion around the joyous theme of the Nativity. Included are songs to the Virgin Mary, processionals from Saint Martial of Limoges, hymns, lyrics, and miracle ballads sung in Latin, Old French, Old Provençal, and Saxon, interlaced with Medieval English texts of the Nativity.
Ticketing now available directly through presenter.
A German Christmas:
In Dulci Jubilo
In the European North, the forests are deep; the nights are dark and long. Perhaps this is why, in reaction, the early Christmas music of the German-speaking peoples is so intensely joyful and profoundly rich. Our program explores the marvelous music of German Christmas festivity through
chants and chorales, simple carols, grandiose polyphony, and instrumental fantasias of the 15th to early 17th centuries.
Daniel:
A Medieval Masterpiece Revisited
The fiery prophecies of Daniel, young captive in corrupt Babylon, ring forth again. This stunning, contemporary new production by Anne Azéma of the greatest musical play from the French Middle Ages involves lights, movement, urgent poetry, and a sterling cast including seasoned professionals, children, and Longy School of Music of Bard College students, to make 1310 happen again, in 2025. Our singers and musicians are supported by Peter Torpey’s deeply evocative lighting and special effects.
Borrowed Light
In collaboration with the Tero Saarinen Company (TSC), Borrowed Light captures the ritualistic essence of dance and the profound strength of community. Inspired by the radical Shakers movement of the 1700s and 1800s, the work explores total surrender and devotion to a community. The live performance of original Shaker hymns by The Boston Camerata fills the space with ethereal harmonies that echo through the repetitive rituals of the movement. Collective identity can carry towards something greater, but at what point do its rigid values push the individual to the very limits of their devotion?
This TSC classic returns to the program 20 years after its premiere! 6 performances at Dance House Helsinki 21 February — 1 March 2025.
Trav’ling Home:
American Spirituals, 1770-1870
The Boston Camerata’s pioneering programs of early American music have brought pleasure to thousands of music lovers, and have helped to clarify and define our country’s rich and diverse cultural identity. It traces migratory currents and flows of early American song, largely spiritual but also secular. Among the various communities participating in this rich American mosaic we encounter the Puritans of New England, the Shakers and their visionary monodies, Amish and Mennonites of Pennsylvania, and the newly-freed African-American religious communities. The musical sources of this program are drawn from European and New World oral traditions, hymns, psalms and chants in English, German dialects, early songbooks of Black churches, as well as gems from the still largely unpublished Shaker manuscript archive at Sabbathday Lake, ME.
A Gallery of Kings:
Uses and Abuses of Power ca 1300
Songs and stories of powerful Kings, both good and bad, abound in the Middle Ages. “May he reign forever!” sings the crowd, but the monarch’s power is limited: by his fallible judgement, his formidable adversaries, his love of power, and his own, precarious mortality. These ancient songs of kingship and its snares in Latin, German, Galician, Old English and French resonate strongly down the centuries, into our own, turbulent time.
Ticketing will be available directly through BEMF – stay tuned!
The Boston Camerata is pleased to be participating in the Card to Culture program by extending discounts to EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders. Use the discount codes below at checkout or call (617) 262-2092.
EBT cardholders use code CTCEBT at checkout for $5.00 tickets to Camerata concerts, with a limit of 2 tickets per patron. A collaboration between the Mass Cultural Council and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ Department of Transitional Assistance. See the full list of participating organizations.
WIC cardholders use code CTCWIC at checkout for $5.00 tickets to Camerata concerts, with a limit of 2 tickets per patron. A collaboration between the Mass Cultural Council and the Department of Public Health’s MassWIC. See the full list of participating organizations.
ConnectorCare cardholders use code CTCCCC at checkout for $5.00 tickets to Camerata concerts, with a limit of 2 tickets per patron. A collaboration between the Mass Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Health Connector. See the full list of participating organizations.