Hello! Bonjour!

If you like early music, or music in general, this is a good place to be. Our page is about one ensemble, The Boston Camerata, but there is plenty here to interest all kinds of human beings. We aim to provide:

• news of our music (updated regularly),
• a description of who we are and what we do,
• a current discography, (including tons of fascinating and hard-to-find info on early music)
• a touring and recording schedule,
• for Boston-area friends, an announcement of our 2003-2004 intown season.
• biographical sketches of Camerata's musicians,
• and other important stuff we haven't thought of yet.

Please check back here from time to time, as we will try to keep our information current.

The Boston Camerata Marks 50th Season anniversary.

A very special thank you to the 50th Season Anniversary Committee!
The Boston Camerata wishes to acknowledge and thank Chairwoman Ingeborg von Huene for her hard work and dedication to The Boston Camerata and to committee members Betsy Northrop, Joseph Payne and Anne Azema.

A ‘kick-off” reception was held at The French Library and Cultural Center in Boston on April 17th. At the reception Friedrich Von Huene, acclaimed Boston maker of historical recorders and other woodwind instruments, and long time supporter of The Boston Camerata remarked on the transformation and successes of The Camerata over the past 50 years, from it’s days as an armature group out of The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, to the world renowned group it is today, led by Music Director Joel Cohen. Joseph Payne authored wonderful account of the Camerata’s 50-year history. A wonderful time was had by old friends and new and we all look forward to a season of superb performances!

Director Joel Cohen spoke of the exciting season upon us, and the continued commitment of The Boston Camerata to bring audiences near and far the best in early music.

CAMERATA TRIUMPHS IN PARIS, NEW YORK AND BOSTON
WITH "ROMAN DE FAUVEL"

Our April production of the famous "Roman de Fauvel" was inspired by a return invitation to the Cité de la Musique in Paris. There, Camerata musicians once again scored a major hit with the Paris concert-going public. Along with our performance of this acerbic medieval satire, an exhibit of medieval musical documents had been organized right within the walls of the Cité, including the original, and priceless, "Fauvel" manuscript itself. This extraordinary event was the subject of an extensive write-up in "Le Monde" (as well as a poster campaign in the Paris Metro). A few days later, audiences in New York and Boston got to enjoy the production -- minus, alas, the manuscript, which had to stay behind its glass case in Paris.

Camerata's next trip abroad will be taking place in October -- more on that project soon.

Tim Evans (Vain Glory), Michael Collver (Fauvel), and Anne Azéma (Dame Fortune) performing in Paris

THE COARAZE WORKSHOP -- 2004 EDITION

By now our annual music workshop in Coaraze, France has become famous among
medieval mavens -- musicians and singers especially, but also poetry and
literature folks as well. The eight edition, in the magnificent setting of an
ancient mountain village, takes place from September 6 to 13. There are still
some openings available; you can find out more by clicking here.

Highlights of the 2003 - 2004 season

July -- At the Boston Early Music Festival, Camerata director Joel Cohen is honored with the Howard Mayer Brown Award for lifetime achievement in early music. A group of Camerata musicians and supporters, representing the many who have created our music over the years, shares the applause.

August We do our bit for improved French-American relations by performing American hymns and spirituals at the medieval Abbey of Sylvanes in southern France. Our singers get a rave review from the paper in Montpellier, and the audience cheers and cheers.

September The Coaraze workshop in France once again attracts students from a dozen countries.

October We perform Italian Renaissance music in an ideal setting, at the Gardner Museum, in conjunction with a special show there. “Nueva España” returns to Boston and Les Amis de la Sagesse, as usual, bring down the house. News gets around, and the production is invited to the Théatre de la Ville in Paris in April, 2005.

December “A Medieval Christmas” works its magic once again on area audiences, as it has so many times since its inception in 1974.

February Joel begins work in Helsinki with Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen on a new ballet based on Shaker music, to be premièred in France in October, 2004.

March Joel and Anne Azéma are invited to an international conference in Italy to discuss some of their work on Jewish music. Many delicious plates of pasta later, they report that lo-carb diets have not yet made their way to the Naples region.

April The renowned Cité de la Musique has Camerata over to perform the “Roman de Fauvel” for a large Parisian audience. We trek back home to share the production with our friends in Boston and New York. Michael Collver wows them everywhere as a horse. We kick off our 50th anniversary celebration with a terrific party at the French Library in Boston.

Here is some press commentary from the past season:

“the heart of America…pure voices…like his compatriot Leonard Bernstein, Joel Cohen accomplished an educational mission…”
-La Dépêche du Midi (Montpellier, August 2003

“All the singers sang with energy, wonderfully fluid lines and beautifully finished phrases...”
-The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, NY, December 2003

“And a full house got to hear an astonishingly diverse range of music, from Old World church music to impoverished instrumentals to Christmas songs full of complex, lively rhythms.”
-The Boston Globe, December 2003

“Highlights were too numerous to mention individually. It was the individuals that made them highlights: Anne Azema, Anne Harley, Deborah Rentz-Moore, Dan Hershey, Donald Wilkinson, Nicholas Isherwood and instrumentalists Jesse Lepkoff, Hazel Brooks and Cohen himself…Such fine players, devoted to the study of early music and inspired by an intelligent sense of interpretation. And we the receivers of those gifts.”
-The Boston Herald, December 2003

“All in all the concert was a rich experience for anyone familiar on unfamiliar with music of this era…”
-The Gazette, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2004

New Concert Ticket Purchase Facility Available OnLine!

Buy Tickets OnLine Now!   Choose Your Own Seats!
BostonCamerata.tix.com