Saturday, February 23, 2013

CONCERT PICKS: Blue Heron- March 2, 2013

MMM's new feature "MUSICAL PICKS" will occasionally highlight  upcoming concerts in the Boston area, particularly those connected to musicological conferences and activities.

This should be splendid! And please note that Blue Heron will also be performing on March 1st at BU as part of the conference Voice and Voicelessness in Medieval Europe and Beyond.

Press Release:

BLUE HERON PRESENTS
Divine Songs

Connections and exchanges between secular song and sacred music, featuring the music of Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1420-1497)

Johannes Ockeghem, one of the greatest composers of all time, is completely unknown to many listeners today. His endlessly fascinating sacred music has been characterized as mystical; his songs, each one a gem of invention, can be funny, heart wrenching, or profound. The program includes French songs and sacred music based on them.

Free pre-concert talk at 7:15 by Sean Gallagher (Boston University)

Blue Heron
Scott Metcalfe, director, harp & medieval fiddle
Pamela Dellal, Paul Guttry, David McFerrin, Owen McIntosh, Jason McStoots, Martin Near, Mark Sprinkle and Sumner Thompson, voices
Laura Jeppesen, rebec & medieval fiddle

DATE: Saturday, March 2, 2013
TIME: 8:00 pm

VENUE: 
First Church in Cambridge, Congregational
11 Garden St
Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets: $50 - Section A and $40 - Section B (reserved seating), $30 - Section C (general seating)
Discounts: Seniors $25, Students/Low Income $10, Under 18 FREE

TO PURCHASE OR REQUEST REVIEW TICKETS:

TO ORDER TICKETS ONLINE:
www.blueheronchoir.org (for print listings)

ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE:
The vocal ensemble Blue Heron, directed by Scott Metcalfe, has been acclaimed by The Boston Globe as "one of the Boston music community's indispensables" and hailed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for the "expressive intensity" of its interpretations; the Boston Musical Intelligencer calls Blue Heron "a fantastic model for the fully-realized potential of early music performance in the 21st century." Combining a commitment to vivid live performance with the study of original source materials and historical performance practices, Blue Heron ranges over a wide and fascinating repertoire.

Blue Heron's first CD, featuring music by Guillaume Du Fay, was released in 2007; its second, of music from the Peterhouse partbooks by Hugh Aston, Robert Jones, and John Mason, followed in 2010. Both discs have received international critical acclaim and the Peterhouse CD made the Billboard charts. The second volume of Blue Heron's 5-CD series Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, featuring music of Nicholas Ludford and Richard Pygott, was released in April 2012. The third in the series is due this Fall.

Founded in 1999, Blue Heron presents subscription series in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in New York City. The ensemble has appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, New York's 92nd Street Y, The Cloisters, and Music Before 1800, Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., the Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque Society, and Monadnock Music in New Hampshire, and with the wind band Piffaro and the viol consort Parthenia in Philadelphia. Blue Heron made its West Coast debut at Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, California, and returned to California in 2012 for a debut at the Berkeley Early Music Festival.

PRAISE FOR BLUE HERON:

"Passionate expression and dramatic attention to text...nuanced dynamic shadings and emotive conviction"
Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times | June, 2012

"Sumptuously beautiful...sung with bravura and grace"
Joshua Kosman, The San Francisco Chronicle | June, 2012

"a revelation - fresh, dynamic and vibrant...urgent and wondrous music-making of the highest order"
Damian Fowler, Gramophone | November, 2012

MUSICALLY MISCELLANEOUS MAYHEM

Mostly Musicology, Teaching, and a bit of Miscellanea