Media Contact: Emily Kirk Weddle, Baroque [email protected] 617-987-8600 For Immediate Release:

Boston Baroque announces launch of a virtual “Holiday Season Package”

Includes pop-up livestream concert “A Baroque Holiday,” a virtual “ Holiday Special,” a special “A New Year’s Celebration,” and a free full-length release of an all-star Handel’s Messiah

BOSTON, MA—Boston Baroque rings in a holiday season like no other with a line-up of virtual releases and programs scheduled in December 2020. Boston Baroque has recently released an all-star version of Handel’s Messiah as the next full-length concert release on Boston Baroque Live. Then, the newly announced “A Baroque Holiday” pop-up concert will be livestreamed on Saturday, December 5th at 7pm, a festive “Messiah Holiday Special” virtual program will take place on Friday, December 18 and Saturday, December 19 at 7pm, and the holiday season will conclude with “A New Year’s Celebration” toast on December 31st at 7pm and January 1st at 3pm.

During what will be an unprecedented holiday season for everyone this year, Boston Baroque is committed to finding inventive and safe ways to share our music—and some holiday cheer—across and around the world. Starting today, audiences can watch a full-length performance of Handel’s Messiah on the Boston Baroque Live platform for free throughout the entire month of December. Taking an innovative approach, this release compiles Messiah performances from 2014 to 2019, featuring an all-star roster of soloists, and some of the best moments from Boston Baroque’s renowned chorus and orchestra, all led by conductor Martin Pearlman. Featured soloists include bass-baritone Dashon Burton performing the beloved “The Trumpet Shall Sound,” soprano ’s glittering rendition of “Rejoice Greatly,” and other magnificent moments from mezzo-sopranos Ann McMahon Quintero and Paula Murrihy, countertenor Christopher Lowrey, tenors William Burden, Thomas Cooley, and Aaron Sheehan, and baritone Stephen Powell.

Boston Baroque’s holiday celebration continues with “A Baroque Holiday” pop-up concert, featuring Boston Baroque’s entrancing and socially-distanced orchestra, including concertmaster and recent GRAMMY®-nominee Christina Day Martinson, performing an hour-

long program of seasonal Baroque sparklers. Starting with two Noëls by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, orchestrated by Music Director Martin Pearlman, and Arcangelo Corelli’s stunningly beautiful Christmas Concerto, soloist Aldo Abreu then joins Boston Baroque to perform Antonio Vivaldi’s dazzling Concerto in C for sopranino recorder. The program concludes with J.S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor, featuring soloist Christina Day Martinson, and, finally, Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. This concert will be streamed live from Fraser Studio at GBH on Saturday, December 5th at 7pm.

The “Messiah Holiday Special” will celebrate Boston Baroque’s beloved annual performance of Handel’s Messiah with a special virtual celebration. The one hour-long program will feature holiday greetings from Boston Baroque soloists and musicians like soprano Amanda Forsythe, tenor William Burden, and bass-baritone Dashon Burton, alongside excerpts from the beloved oratorio, including the ever-popular “Hallelujah Chorus.” This pre-recorded virtual celebration will be screened on Friday, December 18th at 7pm, and Saturday, December 19th at 7pm.

Finally, Boston Baroque rings in the new year with a virtual champagne toast by Music Director Martin Pearlman, followed by a performance of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, featuring soloists Aldo Abreu and Priscilla Herreid, recorded in January 2019 at our annual New Year’s concert in Sanders Theatre. This pre-recorded virtual celebration will be screened on Thursday, December 31st at 7pm and Friday, January 1st at 3pm.

Single tickets for each holiday program are $10, and are included in virtual season subscription packages. A “Holiday Special Package” will be available for purchase as well, which gives buyers discounted tickets to all three holiday programs, and a bonus documentary short film produced by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Hansen, entitled “What Messiah Means to Me,” for just $30. All may be purchased online at baroque.boston or by calling the Box Office at (617) 987-8600.

BOSTON BAROQUE’S 2020-2021 MONTHLY RELEASES ON BOSTON BAROQUE LIVE

September 15, 2020: Beethoven’s Fidelio October 15, 2020: Biber’s The Mystery Sonatas November 16, 2020: Handel’s Giulio Cesare December 1, 2020: Handel’s Messiah December 31, 2020: New Year’s Celebration February 15, 2021: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 March 15, 2021: Highlights from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea April 15, 2021: Handel’s Suite May 15, 2021: Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 June 15, 2021: Handel’s Jephtha

ABOUT BOSTON BAROQUE

The six-time GRAMMY®-nominated Boston Baroque is the first permanent established in North America and, according to Fanfare Magazine, is widely regarded as “one of the world’s premier period-instrument bands.” The ensemble produces lively, emotionally charged, groundbreaking performances of Baroque and Classical works for today’s audiences performed on instruments and using performance techniques that reflect the eras in which the music was composed.

Founded in 1973 as “Banchetto Musicale” by Music Director Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque’s orchestra is composed of some of the finest period-instrument players in the United States, and is frequently joined by the ensemble’s professional chorus and by world- class instrumental and vocal soloists from around the globe. The ensemble has performed at major music centers across the United States and performed recently in Poland for the 2015 Beethoven Festival, with sold-out performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in Warsaw and Handel’s Messiah in Katowice.

Boston Baroque reaches an international audience with its twenty-five acclaimed recordings. In 2012, the ensemble became the first American orchestra to record with the highly-regarded UK audiophile label Linn Records, and its release of received great critical acclaim. In April 2014, the orchestra recorded Monteverdi’s rarely performed opera, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, which was released on Linn Records and received two nominations at the 2016 GRAMMY® Awards.

Boston Baroque's recordings have received six GRAMMY® Award Nominations: its 1992 release of Handel's Messiah, 1998 release of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, 2000 release of Bach's , 2015 release of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and 2018 release of Biber's The Mystery Sonatas.

High-res photos available for download online: https://baroque.boston/press-kit

ABOUT MARTIN PEARLMAN, FOUNDING MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR

Boston Baroque founder, music director, and conductor Martin Pearlman is one of this country’s leading interpreters of Baroque and Classical music on period and modern instruments. In addition to Boston Baroque’s annual concert season, Mr. Pearlman tours in the United States and Europe and has produced twenty-six major recordings for Telarc and Linn Records. Mr. Pearlman’s completion and orchestration of music from Mozart’s Lo Sposo Deluso, his performing version of Purcell’s Comical History of Don Quixote, and his new orchestration of Cimarosa’s Il Maestro di Cappella were all premiered by Boston Baroque.

Highlights of his work include the complete Monteverdi opera cycle, with his own new performing editions of L’incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d’Ulisse; the American premiere of Rameau’s ; the Boston premiere of Rameau’s Pigmalion; the New

England premieres of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride and ; and the Beethoven symphonies on period instruments. Mr. Pearlman is also known for his internationally acclaimed series of Handel operas including Agrippina, Alcina, Giulio Cesare, and . He made his Kennedy Center debut with The Washington National Opera in Handel’s Semele and has guest conducted the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa, Utah Opera, Opera Columbus, Boston Lyric Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony and the New World Symphony. Mr. Pearlman is the only conductor from the field to have performed live on the internationally televised GRAMMY® Awards show.

Mr. Pearlman grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, where he received training in composition, violin, piano, and theory. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University, where he studied composition with Karel Husa and Robert Palmer. In 1967–1968, he studied in Amsterdam with on a Fulbright Grant, and in 1971 he received his Master of Music in composition from Yale University, studying composition with Yehudi Wyner and harpsichord with Ralph Kirkpatrick. In 1971, he moved to Boston and began performing widely in solo recitals and concertos. From 2002–2016, he was a Professor of Music at Boston University’s School of Music in the Historical Performance department.

Recent compositions by Martin Pearlman include his comic chamber opera Tristram Shandy, 3-act Finnegans Wake: an Operoar!, as well as The Creation According to Orpheus, for solo piano, harp, percussion and string orchestra. He has also composed music for three plays of Samuel Beckett, commissioned by and premiered at New York’s 92nd Street Y and performed at Harvard University in 2007.

ABOUT FILMMAKER NATHANIEL HANSEN

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Nathaniel Hansen is a Peabody Award winning, (national) Emmy nominated producer, and an award-winning Director, Cinematographer, and Editor. His independent film work has screened at hundreds of festivals world-wide including Tribeca, SXSW, Hot Docs, Camden, RiverRun, and Independent Film Festival Boston, with the Boston Globe calling his feature film “The Elders” ‘Outstanding.”

His investigative short films have been featured online by sites like the New York Times, LA Times, The Atlantic, Quartz, and PBS. Nathaniel’s commercial work has been featured by brands such as Pantone, Clinique, Care.com, Health Catalyst, D&B, Estée Lauder, Johnson & Johnson, and Dartmouth Hitchcock.

He holds MA and MFA degrees from Emerson College, where he is also an affiliated faculty member and frequent lecturer, and resides in Boston with his family.