In a time of siege and despair, a courageous widow defies the odds, using her beauty and cunning to save her people from an overwhelming enemy. Premiered in either Rome or Naples in 1697, Scarlatti’s dramatic oratorio features a libretto by Prince Antonio Ottoboni and a score for three voices, basso continuo, and strings.
In a time of siege and despair, a courageous widow defies the odds, using her beauty and cunning to save her people from an overwhelming enemy. Premiered in either Rome or Naples in 1697, Scarlatti’s dramatic oratorio features a libretto by Prince Antonio Ottoboni and a score for three voices, basso continuo, and strings.
I’m ecstatic to be joining this group on viola and viola d’amore for BWV 205!
https://bachconsort.org/events/cantata-300/
This celebratory opening event uniquely commemorates the 300th anniversary of four of Bach’s finest cantatas, highlighting the rarely performed Dramma per Musica, “Zerreißet, zersprenget, zertrümmert,” commissioned in 1725 by the University of Leipzig with a classical text adapted by Picander, Bach’s longtime collaborator and librettist. The affective range of expression achieved across these works is astonishing, revealing Bach in ways that our audience will experience live for the first time!
Gott, der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79
Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV 103
Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten, BWV 74
Dramma per Musica: Zerreißet, zersprenget, zertrümmert die Gruft, BWV 205
I am very honored to be joining the amazing Elinor Frey for this concert and recording project!
https://www.queensu.ca/theisabel/whats-on/elinor-frey-and-accademia-de-dissonanti
Elinor Frey’s albums on the Belgian label Passacaille and Canadian label Analekta—many of which are world premiere recordings—include Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco Cello Sonatas, winner of a Diapason d’Or, and Early Italian Cello Concertos, winner of the 2023 JUNO Award for Small Ensemble Classical Album of the Year. This program will include music by C. P. E. Bach and Vivaldi, and will also feature a performance by Mélisande McNabney of the C. P. E. Bach Fantasia and Fugue in C minor on the Moira Hudgin harpsichord.
Mountainside is venturing beyond the Baroque! The new era in composition, often dubbed “Rococo,” saw changes in music, with easier harmonies, multi-movement compositions, a focus on the orchestra, and the rise of the piano. New stars emerge with well-known names: Josef Haydn and Wolfgang Mozart. Bach’s sons, especially C.P.E Bach, played an important part in this new transitional music. On the concert is his concerto for harpsichord and fortepiano, featuring soloists Marc Bellassai and Josep Yungen. Additional works will be one of Haydn’s early symphonies as well as his concerto for violin, with our favorite violin soloist, Cynthia Roberts. Enjoy this wonderful 18th-century “new music,” a first for Mountainside Baroque!
https://www.holytrinitynyc.org/bach-vespers-october-26-2025
Resident Conductor of Handel and Haydn Society Anthony Trecek-King makes his Bach Vespers debut in this service featuring "Nun danket alle Gott" alongside works by Telemann, Buxtehude, and Spiritual arrangements by Trecek-King himself. Join us Reformation Sunday to experience the launch of our 58th season, featuring the Bach Vespers Choir and Orchestra joined by Holy Trinity's Parish Choir.
https://www.holytrinitynyc.org/bach-vespers-november-9-2025
Bach Vespers welcomes Morgan Mastrangelo back to the series as featured soloist in "Ich Armer Mensch, Ich Sündenknecht", Bach's precious solo cantata for tenor. Mastrangelo's “fascinating and flexible tone” (Operawire) will be paired with a chamber orchestration to create an intimate atmosphere appropriate for the personal nature of this work. The service begins with motet Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, featuring the Bach Vespers Choir and conducted by Holy Trinity Director of Music Austin Philemon.
https://www.holytrinitynyc.org/bach-vespers-november-23-2025
Soprano Kearstin Piper Brown joins Bach Vespers as the featured soloist in "Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht" fresh off performances with the Metropolitan Opera and the Run AMOC festival at Lincoln Center. Originally performed the week following BWV 55, this cantata opens with the striking and familiar music most often associated with Brandenburg Concerto no. 1. A large ensemble of the Bach Vespers Choir and Orchestra also presents works by Praetorious and Hassler, along with the Overture from Orchestral Suite no. 3, led by Director Robby Meese.
A first for me playing my Tenor Violin at A=465!
Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin), SV 206, is a musical setting by Claudio Monteverdi of the evening vespers on Marian feasts, scored for soloists, choirs, and orchestra. It is an ambitious work in scope and in its variety of style and scoring, and has a duration of around 90 minutes. Published in Venice, with a dedication to Pope Paul V dated 1 September 1610.
Yale Schola Cantorum's interim conductor Stefan Parkman leads the ensemble in this program at Woolsey Hall.
https://ism.yale.edu/events/2025-12-13-yale-schola-cantorum-presents-monteverdis-vespers
https://www.holytrinitynyc.org/bach-vespers-december-14-2025
Former Artistic Director of Netherlands Bach Society Shunske Sato joins Bach Vespers as the stirring conclusion to his two-week New York residency in partnership with Gotham Early Music Scene, Music Before 1800, and The Juilliard School. Sato, regularly featured as soloist and conductor with orchestras around the world, leads the Bach Vespers Choir and Orchestra's largest ensemble of the 58th season in the annual presentation of the Magnificat.
Handel’s Messiah, Part I plus more! Have you ever wondered why the Epiphany story of the Three Kings was not included in Messiah? Handel might have re-used some of his brilliant arias and choruses from his operas and oratorios. Here’s a chance to hear a new reimagined Messiah with the ARTEK Orchestra and Singers, in our annual New Year’s Day holiday concert. This concert generally sells out in advance, so be sure to reserve your ticket early.
https://artekearlymusic.org/concerts/2025-2026/messiah-reimagined/
Lully’s comédie-ballet was first performed in 1675 at the Academie Royale de Musique, created from favorite scenes from his earlier comedies. The libretto lampoons doctors, teachers, and lawyers, and includes the famous Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs from Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Arias in French, Italian, and Spanish, and delightful dance music. Soloists include Christina Kay, soprano; Sarah Frei, soprano; Richard Pittsinger, haute-contre; Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone; and Peter Becker, bass, with ARTEK’s large French baroque orchestra led by Enrico Gatti – with over a dozen of our past Artist Fellows returning to join us.
https://artekearlymusic.org/concerts/2025-2026/jean-baptiste-lully-le-carnaval-mascarade/
Lully’s comédie-ballet was first performed in 1675 at the Academie Royale de Musique, created from favorite scenes from his earlier comedies. The libretto lampoons doctors, teachers, and lawyers, and includes the famous Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs from Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Arias in French, Italian, and Spanish, and delightful dance music. Soloists include Christina Kay, soprano; Sarah Frei, soprano; Richard Pittsinger, haute-contre; Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone; and Peter Becker, bass, with ARTEK’s large French baroque orchestra led by Enrico Gatti – with over a dozen of our past Artist Fellows returning to join us.
https://artekearlymusic.org/concerts/2025-2026/jean-baptiste-lully-le-carnaval-mascarade-2/
https://www.holytrinitynyc.org/bach-vespers-february-1-2026
Artistic Director of the English Concert and Music Director of Santa Fe Opera Harry Bicket leads a service featuring two major works by Bach - cantata 92 "Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn" and motet Komm, Jesu, komm - alongside music by Scheidt and Buxtehude. Bicket, renowned for his breathtaking interpretations of Baroque and Classical repertoire with orchestras around the world, leads the combined forces of the Bach Vespers Choir and Orchestra and the Holy Trinity Parish Choir.
St. Ursula, a princess and her virgin companions embark on a perilous pilgrimage, facing trials, tribulations, and ultimately, martyrdom for their unwavering faith. Premiered between 1695–1700, Scarlatti’s dramatic oratorio features a score for five voices, basso continuo, strings, lute, and trumpet.
The Academy is partnering with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Yale Voxet for the performances of Il martirio di S. Orsola, and we are creating an edition of the manuscript of Scarlatti’s oratorio in the Beinecke Library at Yale University.
St. Ursula, a princess and her virgin companions embark on a perilous pilgrimage, facing trials, tribulations, and ultimately, martyrdom for their unwavering faith. Premiered between 1695–1700, Scarlatti’s dramatic oratorio features a score for five voices, basso continuo, strings, lute, and trumpet.
The Academy is partnering with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Yale Voxet for the performances of Il martirio di S. Orsola, and we are creating an edition of the manuscript of Scarlatti’s oratorio in the Beinecke Library at Yale University.
St. Ursula, a princess and her virgin companions embark on a perilous pilgrimage, facing trials, tribulations, and ultimately, martyrdom for their unwavering faith. Premiered between 1695–1700, Scarlatti’s dramatic oratorio features a score for five voices, basso continuo, strings, lute, and trumpet.
The Academy is partnering with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Yale Voxet for the performances of Il martirio di S. Orsola, and we are creating an edition of the manuscript of Scarlatti’s oratorio in the Beinecke Library at Yale University.
https://bachconsort.org/events/metal-and-gut-two-violas-of-love/
So excited to be featured as a solo artist by this group on multiple violas d’amore!
The Viola d’Amore was an instrument unique in timbre and resonance that evoked special emotions in operas and cantatas of the finest Baroque composers. With no uniform tuning or construction, surviving examples use anywhere from four to seven strings, with as many as 21 “sympathetic strings.” Two distinct versions of the instrument existed, one with bowed strings of gut, and another using metal wire—the type originally heard in J.S. Bach’s compositions. Multi-instrumentalist Daniel McCarthy will showcase both instruments, with collaborators David Ross, Margot Rood, and Marc Bellassai.
https://bachconsort.org/events/metal-and-gut-two-violas-of-love/
The Viola d’Amore was an instrument unique in timbre and resonance that evoked special emotions in operas and cantatas of the finest Baroque composers. With no uniform tuning or construction, surviving examples use anywhere from four to seven strings, with as many as 21 “sympathetic strings.” Two distinct versions of the instrument existed, one with bowed strings of gut, and another using metal wire—the type originally heard in J.S. Bach’s compositions. Multi-instrumentalist Daniel McCarthy will showcase both instruments, with collaborators David Ross, Margot Rood, and Marc Bellassai.
Very excited to be using my tenor viola in tenor violin tuning for this one!
https://bachconsort.org/events/the-light-of-monteverdi/
Among the most celebrated works in Western musical history, Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) was dedicated to Pope Paul V at a moment when Claudio Monteverdi was aiming to make a quantum leap in his career prospects. After 20 years in the service of the illustrious Duke of Mantua, Monteverdi’s Marian vespers was published only three years before his star rose to the great Basilica of San Marco in Venice, where he famously served as music director for 30 years.
Coinciding with Palm Sunday, the Bach Choir presents J.S. Bach's Saint John Passion, a profound and stirring account of Christ's final hours. Anchored in the text of the Gospel of Saint John, this sacred masterwork is heralded for its unbridled emotional immediacy and compels us all to deep reflection, reverence, and awe.
Acclaimed tenor Dann Coakwell, a compelling voice and vivid storyteller who performed on the Bach Choir's Saint Matthew Passion premiere, will return to Bethlehem as the Evangelist. Soaring choruses, contemplative arias, and dramatic recitatives combine to form one of Bach's most intense and intimate pieces, an enduring testament to sacrifice, and ultimately, hope.
https://bachchoirofbethlehem.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0SUw000003pYltMAE
https://www.holytrinitynyc.org/bach-vespers-april-5-2026
Bach Vespers celebrates Easter with cantata 4 "Christ lag in Todesbanden", featuring the full forces of the Bach Vespers Choir and Orchestra led by Director Robby Meese. Also featured in this service are works by Buxtehude, Praetorius, and Schütz. Join us for the conclusion of our 58th season, which will include an announcement of the 59th season to come, and also serve as a farewell to our Paul Fritts & Co Opus 14 organ as we prepare for the arrival of Fritts op. 54.
In the 18th century, more diverse types of opera were appearing throughout Europe–hundreds were composed, many owing a debt to the commedia dell’arte Italian theatrical tradition dating back to the previous century. With an output of at least thirty-three operas, George Philippe Telemann was among the most prolificcomposer in this form. In 1758 he composed his final opera, Don Quixote auf der Hochzeit des Comacho, a portion of Cervantes’ famous satirical story of the escapades of Don Quixote and his Pal, Sancho Panza.
Telemann identified this opera as a “Singspiel,” which was a term often used for shorter comic musicals. In addition to seven solo singers, and a small orchestra, our version will be enlivened with PUPPETS, a common practice throughout Europe, beginning in the 17th century. One of the most famous 18th-century production companies was the Esterhazy Palace marionette theatre, which was the summer residence of Prince Nikolaus I of Eszterházy. Composers such and Haydn, and even Beethoven, provided music for the palace enjoyment.
We’re delighted to welcome Cumberland puppeteers Kristen Evans and Debbie Streicher, who will lead the puppet portion of the production!
In a time of siege and despair, a courageous widow defies the odds, using her beauty and cunning to save her people from an overwhelming enemy. Premiered in either Rome or Naples in 1697, Scarlatti’s dramatic oratorio features a libretto by Prince Antonio Ottoboni and a score for three voices, basso continuo, and strings.
