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Press Releases
Three Seasons, Three Passions - Emmanuel Music Presents Bach: St. Matthew Passion Featuring Boston Children's Chorus
The orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Music, under the direction of Ryan Turner, will present “Bach: St. Matthew Passion,” with Boston Children’s Chorus, Anthony Trecek-King, Artistic Director, on March 31 at 7:30 p.m. and April 2 at 3 p.m. at Emmanuel Church in Boston. Two orchestras, two choruses, acclaimed soloists, and one masterpiece will fill the immense Gothic Revival sanctuary of Emmanuel Church for the performances. The concerts will be preceded by a talk with John Harbison, Principal Guest Conductor. Additionally, on March 19 at 12:30 p.m. at Emmanuel Church, there will be a panel discussion open to all, with Pamela Dellal and Ryan Turner.
This will be the first time that Emmanuel Music has presented Bach: St. Matthew Passion under Turner’s leadership as artistic director. It is the third Bach Passion performance for the ensemble in three years: St. John Passion in 2015 and a highly regarded “reconstruction” of the lost St. Mark Passion in 2016.
Seven years ago, Turner was appointed Artistic Director after the passing of Emmanuel Music’s beloved founder Craig Smith. Since then, Turner has led the ensemble through performances that speak to Emmanuel Music’s long-held traditions —presenting the complete cycle of Bach’s sacred cantatas — and traversed new ground with the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s grand opera “The Great Gatsby” and Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.”
Most of the soloists for St. Matthew Passion are long-time Emmanuel Music ensemble musicians. They include: Evangelist: Charles Blandy, tenor; Jesus: Paul Max Tipton, baritone; and Pilate, David Kravitz, baritone. Other soloists are: Kendra Colton, Susan Consoli, Jessica Petrus and Teresa Wakim, sopranos; Pamela Dellal, Margaret Lias, Emily Marvosh, Deborah Rentz-Moore and Krista River, altos; Matthew Anderson and Jonas Burdris, tenors; and Mark McSweeney, David Tinervia and Dana Whiteside, baritones.
About Emmanuel Music Emmanuel Music is world-renowned for its performances of J. S. Bach’s complete cycle of nearly 200 sacred cantatas, performed in the liturgical setting for which they were intended as part of Emmanuel Church’s Sunday worship services in Boston. They are one of the only ensembles in the United States to complete this mighty endeavor. What began in 1970 under the direction of Emmanuel Music founder Craig Smith continues under the current Artistic Director, Ryan Turner. The ensemble completed one cycle under Smith in 1978 and plans to complete another cycle under Turner by the end of the 2017-18 season. Emmanuel Music includes a full orchestra and chorus that includes a vast ensemble of in-demand soloists. It has garnered critical and popular acclaim through its presentations of large-scale and operatic works by Bach, Handel, Schubert and Mozart as well as its in-depth exploration of the complete vocal, piano and chamber works of Debussy, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, among others. Under Turner’s direction, Emmanuel Music has remained true to its mission of presenting Bach’s larger works, including “B minor Mass” and “St. John Passion.” Turner has also given the ensemble license to take on vastly different projects, such as the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s “The Great Gatsby,” a presentation of Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and also a performance that reconstructed Bach’s essentially lost third Passion, “St. Mark Passion.” Emmanuel Music’s long-time association with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison and innovative collaborations with leading visionaries among the other arts, including the Mark Morris Dance Group and stage director Peter Sellars, has yielded international recognition from audiences and critics alike. Guest conductors have included Harbison, Seiji Ozawa, Christopher Hogwood and Bach scholar Christoph Wolff. Emmanuel Music has completed nine recording projects featuring works of Heinrich Schütz, John Harbison and J. S. Bach, including the critically acclaimed best seller, “Bach Cantatas BWV 82 and 199,” featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and hailed as one of the Top CDs of the Year by The New York Times; the “Mozart Piano Concertos and Fantasies” with pianist Russell Sherman, and “Lorraine at Emmanuel,” featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson performing her early works with Craig Smith and John Harbison.
This will be the first time that Emmanuel Music has presented Bach: St. Matthew Passion under Turner’s leadership as artistic director. It is the third Bach Passion performance for the ensemble in three years: St. John Passion in 2015 and a highly regarded “reconstruction” of the lost St. Mark Passion in 2016.
Seven years ago, Turner was appointed Artistic Director after the passing of Emmanuel Music’s beloved founder Craig Smith. Since then, Turner has led the ensemble through performances that speak to Emmanuel Music’s long-held traditions —presenting the complete cycle of Bach’s sacred cantatas — and traversed new ground with the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s grand opera “The Great Gatsby” and Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.”
Most of the soloists for St. Matthew Passion are long-time Emmanuel Music ensemble musicians. They include: Evangelist: Charles Blandy, tenor; Jesus: Paul Max Tipton, baritone; and Pilate, David Kravitz, baritone. Other soloists are: Kendra Colton, Susan Consoli, Jessica Petrus and Teresa Wakim, sopranos; Pamela Dellal, Margaret Lias, Emily Marvosh, Deborah Rentz-Moore and Krista River, altos; Matthew Anderson and Jonas Burdris, tenors; and Mark McSweeney, David Tinervia and Dana Whiteside, baritones.
About Emmanuel Music Emmanuel Music is world-renowned for its performances of J. S. Bach’s complete cycle of nearly 200 sacred cantatas, performed in the liturgical setting for which they were intended as part of Emmanuel Church’s Sunday worship services in Boston. They are one of the only ensembles in the United States to complete this mighty endeavor. What began in 1970 under the direction of Emmanuel Music founder Craig Smith continues under the current Artistic Director, Ryan Turner. The ensemble completed one cycle under Smith in 1978 and plans to complete another cycle under Turner by the end of the 2017-18 season. Emmanuel Music includes a full orchestra and chorus that includes a vast ensemble of in-demand soloists. It has garnered critical and popular acclaim through its presentations of large-scale and operatic works by Bach, Handel, Schubert and Mozart as well as its in-depth exploration of the complete vocal, piano and chamber works of Debussy, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, among others. Under Turner’s direction, Emmanuel Music has remained true to its mission of presenting Bach’s larger works, including “B minor Mass” and “St. John Passion.” Turner has also given the ensemble license to take on vastly different projects, such as the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s “The Great Gatsby,” a presentation of Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and also a performance that reconstructed Bach’s essentially lost third Passion, “St. Mark Passion.” Emmanuel Music’s long-time association with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison and innovative collaborations with leading visionaries among the other arts, including the Mark Morris Dance Group and stage director Peter Sellars, has yielded international recognition from audiences and critics alike. Guest conductors have included Harbison, Seiji Ozawa, Christopher Hogwood and Bach scholar Christoph Wolff. Emmanuel Music has completed nine recording projects featuring works of Heinrich Schütz, John Harbison and J. S. Bach, including the critically acclaimed best seller, “Bach Cantatas BWV 82 and 199,” featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and hailed as one of the Top CDs of the Year by The New York Times; the “Mozart Piano Concertos and Fantasies” with pianist Russell Sherman, and “Lorraine at Emmanuel,” featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson performing her early works with Craig Smith and John Harbison.
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