The Boston Camerata and its Artistic Director are intensely involved in residency and other educational projects. This page summarizes our upcoming projects, our most important past activities, and suggestions for further educational enterprises.

Teaching and Exchanging

  • Camerata has conducted talks, workshops and master classes in many schools, universities, and institutions of higher learning. These range in length and ambition from brief pre-concert lectures to daylong to multiweek activities. The most ambitious of these past projects was a ten-week residency during the autumn of 2007 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Other recent stints at American schools include a Shaker Music workshop at the New England Conservatory, Boston (2002); and Anne Azéma's interdisciplinary (music and Romance languages) teaching semester at the University of Oregon (2006). You can find a dedicated link to Anne Azéma's pedagogical activities here .
  • Camerata’s Artistic Director, Anne Azéma, occupied the Richard M. Trotter Distinguished Visiting Professor chair at the University of Oregon, Eugene, in the spring of 2012. She taught an interdisciplinary academic course in collaboration, with several departments, led masterclasses, and directed a staged production, “The Night's Tale,”involving students and professionals.
  • American schools inviting Camerata, or Joel Cohen, or Anne Azéma to speak include Harvard, Yale, New York University, Brandeis, Wellesley, Boston College, Boston University, and others. Abroad, we have given masterclasses at conservatories in Amsterdam, The Hague, and Tilburg (Netherlands), Strasbourg, Metz, Rouen and Paris (France), Barcelona (Spain) and Basel (Switzerland). From 1997 to 2006 Camerata produced a well-known annual summer workshop in medieval song in the French village of Coaraze, near the Italian border. You can consult an archived description of one such session here .

Other Past Projects:

  • "Explore Her World" , a series of workshops with Anne Azéma at New England Conservatory – Click here for more information.
  • In June of 2009, The Boston Camerata participated in the Colloquium on music of the Mediterranean world in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, France.
  • Joel Cohen presented "Singers of Psalms (1520-1620)" at the New England Conservatory.

Upcoming Projects:

  • Under the directorship of Anne Azéma, Camerata will be in Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2015. The ensemble will collaborate with Prof. Michael Cuthbert on late Medieval repertoires, perform on campus, and engage in dialogue with students in various contexts.

FOR YOU!

Some proposals for your school, institution, or ensemble:Topics of Special Interest for workshop/masterclass/coursework opportunities:

  • A number of Camerata's touring programs are appropriate for collaboration with local student or adult choirs, providing a unique on-the-job learning environment for both amateurs and professionals-in-training.
  • We enjoy working with children! You can get an idea of how we prepare material for young audiences by clicking here or here (a booklet byAnne Azéma, on chivalry and courtly love in the Middle Ages).
  • Medieval Narrative and Storytelling
  • Medieval Solo Song
    • This intensive workshop will introduce advanced music students and performers-in-training to the world of Medieval solo song during its "golden age" (ca. 1100-1300) from Provence and France. The main repertoire to be considered will be trouvères (and troubadours) poems and music. Topics will include the social and historical context of Medieval music making, musical notation and manuscript transmission, the relation of poetry to music, vocal style and technique, instrumental technique, instrumental repertoire, and the question of instrumental accompaniment. The goal of this brief, intensive introduction is to provide a clear and helpful road map for further inquiry, study, and enjoyment of this beautiful and important repertoire.

      All participants are expected to perform. For more information on our 2012 session please contact us .

  • In collaboration with Camerata Mediterranea music of the three religions, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish, in medieval Spain
  • Early American Folk Hymnody and Choral Song
  • Shaker Life and Shaker Music

For further inquiries on workshop/coaching/educational projects calibrated to your needs, please contact us .