Boston Baroque Sets 23-24 Season Featuring Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' Symphony No. 9, Handel's 'Messiah' & More

Boston Baroque will celebrate its 50th Year with a season led by founding Music Director Martin Pearlman. Highlights of the season include a years-in-the-making return to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" Symphony No. 9, the beloved holiday traditions of Handel's Messiah and New Year's Celebration, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Handel's Silete Venti, and Mozart's dramatic opera Don Giovanni starring Sidney Outlaw in the titular role and Susanna Phillips as Donna Anna.

"This coming season of Boston Baroque's 50th year will be big celebration with major milestones from our past," says Founding Music Director Martin Pearlman, "including Beethoven's Ninth and Mozart's Don Giovanni, as well as some great music that we have not performed before. I look forward to bringing an exciting season to our in-person audiences, as well as to our growing online audiences around the world."

"Even at 50 years, Boston Baroque continues to grow and expand," says Executive Director Jennifer Ritvo Hughes. "The season features new repertoire (Biber's Battalia among others), a new venue for our opera at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, the house debuts for Eric Owens, Michele Bradley, Roderick Williams, and Karim Sulayman, and our first-ever trip to Prague. Our new endeavors are grounded in our longtime commitment to this music-Boston Baroque gave the American period instrument premiere of Don Giovanni in 1986, and we're delighted to return to it in our 50th year."

THE 2023-2024 SEASON

Boston Baroque's five-concert season will be presented in-person at GBH's Calderwood Studio, New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, Harvard University's Sanders Theatre, and Emerson College's Cutler Majestic Theatre, and will stream online to a worldwide audience on IDAGIO Concerts. Subscriptions are now on sale for the 2023-2024 Season, and single tickets will go on sale over the summer.

The season opens on October 13-15 with Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" Symphony No. 9 featuring soloists soprano Heidi Stober, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, tenor William Burden, and bass-baritone Eric Owens making his Boston Baroque debut. The world-renowned soloists are joined by Boston Baroque's glorious chorus and orchestra, all led by Founding Music Director Martin Pearlman. The program will begin with Beethoven's "Coriolan" Overture and "Elegiac Song."

The season opener will bring the all-Beethoven program on tour to all three of our musical homes in Boston and our digital streaming home on IDAGIO. The October 13 performance will be held at Harvard University's Sanders Theater; the October 14 performance will be held at GBH's Calderwood Studio and streamed live on IDAGIO Concerts; and the October 15 performance will be held at NEC's Jordan Hall.

Boston Baroque returns to its December holiday traditions of presenting Handel's Messiah and a New Year's Celebration Concert. Messiah will feature the return of soprano Amanda Forsythe and mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford to Boston Baroque, while tenor Karim Sulayman and baritone Roderick Williams make their company debuts. Performances of Handel's Messiah run December 2 at GBH's Calderwood Studio, and December 3 at NEC's Jordan Hall, with the December 2 performance streamed live on IDAGIO Concerts.

The New Year's Celebration program will include Handel's "Let the Bright Seraphim" and "Eternal Source of Light Devine" featuring Sonja Tengblad, soprano, and Justin Bland, trumpet, Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2, Biber's Partita No. 1 and Battaglia, and Boyce's Symphony No. 1. The program will be held at GBH's Calderwood Studio on New Year's Eve, where it will simultaneously stream live on IDAGIO Concerts, and at Sanders Theatre on New Year's Day.

In March, Boston Baroque returns to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons featuring GRAMMY®-nominated concertmaster Christina Day Martinson, alongside Handel's Silete Venti with soprano Amanda Forsythe. The performances run March 15 at 8pm at GBH's Calderwood Studio and streaming online on IDAGIO Concerts, and March 16 at 8pm at NEC's Jordan Hall.

The season concludes with a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, a return to the iconic opera that Boston Baroque gave the American period performance premiere of in 1986. The performances will take place on Friday, April 26 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, April 28 at 3pm, both held at the Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College, a new venue for the organization. The Friday, April 26 performance will be streamed live on IDAGIO Concerts.

Conductor Martin Pearlman is joined by a star-studded cast in this modernized take on the adventures and demise of the titular character. Baritone Sidney Outlaw makes his role debut as Don Giovanni, joined by Metropolitan Opera star Susanna Phillips as Donna Anna. Michelle Bradley as Donna Elvira, and Patrick Carfizzi as Leporello make their Boston Baroque debuts. Returning to the Boston Baroque stage are Maya Kherani as Zerlina, David McFerrin as Masetto, Nick Phan as Don Ottavio, and Kevin Deas as the Commendatore.

Boston Baroque's period string chamber ensemble, the X-tet, will present a three-concert series. The first program will be held on Friday, November 3 at 7:30pm and Sunday, November 5 at 3pm, and the second will be held on Friday, February 16 at 7:30pm and Saturday, February 17 at 7:30pm, both at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, MA, a Historic New England property. The final program will be held on Thursday, May 30 at 7:30pm at GBH's Yawkey Theater.

Boston Baroque will also renew its partnership with the Lobkowicz Collections, one of Europe's oldest and finest private collections of musical archives, culminating in an international patron tour to the Collections in Prague in March 2024. Boston Baroque will perform in the Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle during its weeklong residency, including performing the world-premiere of a musical work drawn from the Lobkowicz archives. Patrons can join Boston Baroque for this immersive week of musical performances, cultural outings, and more.

Boston Baroque will also continue to offer a season-long roster of virtual programming with leaders in the baroque and classical music fields, including in its partnership with the Lobkowicz Collections.

All streaming performances will be available to watch on-demand on IDAGIO Concerts for 30 days after their debuts.

BOSTON BAROQUE AT 50

Boston Baroque's 50th Year continues a momentous milestone for North America's first permanent Baroque orchestra. Boston Baroque was the first period instrument orchestra to get a major record deal, producing 26 commercial recordings over the last 50 years. The organization was the first period instrument orchestra to perform at Los Angeles' Disney Hall, San Juan's Casals Festival, and numerous festivals in the United States and abroad. Boston Baroque has given numerous American period-instrument premieres including Mozart's The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, and Boston's first complete cycle of Monteverdi's three surviving operas.

As the organization continues to grow, Boston Baroque is delighted to welcome assistant conductor Filippo Ciabatti to the expanded artistic team alongside Music Director Martin Pearlman and Director of Livestreams and Artistic Planning Matthew Principe. Filippo Ciabatti, a native of Florence, Italy, is the Director of Orchestral and Choral Programs at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, and the Artistic Director of the Upper Valley Baroque Ensemble. As a conductor, Mr. Ciabatti has collaborated with artists including Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster David Kim, baritone Nathan Gunn, cellist Gabriel Cabezas, pianist Sally Pinkas, flutist Luciano Tristaino, and mandolinist Carlo Aonzo. Mr. Ciabatti holds advanced degrees in piano, choral conducting, and orchestral conducting from Italy and the United States.

Subscriptions are now on sale, beginning at $50, and feature four levels with in-person, virtual, and hybrid options available. In-person single tickets range from $25-$175, and livestream tickets begin at $9, and will be available for purchase over the summer. All can be purchased on Boston Baroque's website at baroque.boston or by calling (617) 987-8600.

ABOUT BOSTON BAROQUE

The six-time GRAMMY®-nominated Boston Baroque is the first permanent Baroque orchestra 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.

Boston Baroque has expanded its reach globally through its partnership with IDAGIO, the world's leading classical music streaming service. Its 2021-2022 Season was the first full season by a Baroque orchestra to stream on the platform, and brought together virtual audiences from across five continents (North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia) and over 17 countries.

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-six 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 The Creation 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 Mass in B Minor, 2015 release of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and 2018 release of Biber's The Mystery Sonatas.

BOSTON BAROQUE 2023-2024 CONCERT SEASON AT-A-GLANCE

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9, "Ode to Joy"

Heidi Stober, soprano

Daniela Mack, mezzo-soprano

William Burden, tenor

Eric Owens, bass

BEETHOVEN: "Coriolan" Overture

BEETHOVEN: Elegiac Song

October 13, 2023 at 3pm

Sanders Theatre, Harvard University (Cambridge)

October 14, 2023 at 8pm*

GBH Calderwood Studio (Brighton)

*Performance streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days

October 15, 2023 at 3pm

NEC Jordan Hall (Boston)

HANDEL: Messiah

Amanda Forsythe, soprano

Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano

Karim Sulayman, tenor

Roderick Williams, bass

December 2, 2023 at 7:30pm*

GBH Calderwood Studio (Brighton)

*Performance streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days

December 3, 2023 at 3pm

NEC Jordan Hall (Boston)

New Year's Celebration

BOYCE: Symphony No. 1

BACH: Orchestral Suite No. 2

BIBER: Partita No. 1

BIBER: Battaglia

HANDEL: Eternal Source of Light Divine

Sonja Tengblad, soprano

Justin Bland, trumpet

HANDEL: Let the Bright Seraphim

Sonja Tengblad, soprano

Justin Bland, trumpet

December 31, 2023 at 8pm*

GBH Calderwood Studio (Brighton)

*Performance streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days

January 1, 2024 at 3pm

Sanders Theatre, Harvard University (Cambridge)

VIVALDI: The Four Seasons

Christina Day Martinson, violin

HANDEL: Silete Venti

Amanda Forsythe, soprano

March 15, 2024 at 8pm*

GBH Calderwood Studio (Brighton)

*Performance streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days

March 16, 2024 at 8pm

NEC Jordan Hall (Boston)

MOZART: Don Giovanni

Sidney Outlaw, Don Giovanni

Patrick Carfizzi, Leporello

Susanna Phillips, Donna Anna

Michelle Bradley, Donna Elvira

Maya Kherani, Zerlina

David McFerrin, Masetto

Nick Phan, Don Ottavio

Kevin Deas, Commendatore

April 26, 2027 at 7:30pm*

April 28, 2023 at 3pm

Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College (Boston)

*Performance streamed live on IDAGIO and available on-demand for 30 days

X-tet Chamber Series

Friday, November 3 / 7:30pm

Sunday, November 5 / 3pm

Lyman Estate (Waltham)

Friday, February 16 / 7:30pm

Saturday, February 17 / 7:30pm

Lyman Estate (Waltham)

Thursday, May 30 / 7:30pm

GBH Yawkey Theater (Boston)

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