Past Performances | Emmanuel Music

2023 - 2024 Cantata Schedule

Continuing our 50-year old tradition, the Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music presents Bach’s astounding human document, in the liturgical setting for which it was intended, as well as other sacred works.
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Cantata Series

Bachfest in Boston

June 5, 2024

Emmanuel Church

Prelude motet: Prayer [Was frag ich nach der Welt/Hine Ma Tov Umanayim] Marti Epstein (b. 1959)
‍Was frag ich nach der Welt, BWV 94 J.S.Bach (1685-1750)
‍ soloists:Carley DeFranco, soprano; Katherine Maysek, alto; Omar Najmi, tenor; WillPrapestis, bass;
Vanessa Holroyd, flute; Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore
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Prelude motet: Fadensonnen JohnHarbison (b. 1938)
‍Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101 Bach
‍soloists: Corrine Byrne and Sonja Tengblad, sopranos; Carrie Cheron, alto; Matthew Anderson and Charles Blandy, tenor; Andrew Padgett, bass;
Heidi Braun-Hill, violin; Vanessa Holroyd, flute; Jennifer Slowik, English horn
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‍Prelude motet: Your Healing Word ElenaRuehr (b. 1963)
‍Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut, BWV 113 Bach
‍soloists:Susan Consoli, soprano; Clare McNamara, alto; Jonas Budris, tenor; DavidMcFerrin, bass;
VanessaHolroyd, flute; Peggy Pearson & Catherine Weinfield-Zell, oboe d’amore

Prelude motet: Let the Music be Heard Errollyn Wallen (b.1958)
‍Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137 Bach
soloists: Kristen Watson, soprano; Krista River, alto; Jonas Budris, tenor; Dana Whiteside, bass;
Heidi Braun-Hill, violin; Peggy Pearson & Jennifer Slowik, oboe d’amore; Terry Everson, trumpet
The Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music, RyanTurner, conductor

Emmanuel Music went to Leipzig! We were deeply honored to have been invited to participate in this global celebration of Bach, and wish we could take all our Boston friends with us. Before we headed to Bachfest in Germany, we shared the experience of Bachfest — with some added benefits — for our local audience. We presented our program of four Bach cantatas, accompanied by newly commissioned motets inspired by each of the Bach works. Emmanuel Music continues our mission of serving as a living laboratory of Bach, both at home and abroad.
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PDF Concert Program

Bach St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244

March 23, 2024

Emmanuel Church

‍‍‍ Ryan Turner, conductor
Evangelist Jonas Budris, tenor
Jesus David McFerrin, bass
St. Paul's Choir School

Aria Soloists:
Part I        Part II
Clare McNamara, alto Elizabeth Eschen, alto
Janet Ross, soprano Omar Najmi, tenor
‍Kristen Watson, soprano Carrie Cheron, alto
Charles Blandy, tenor David Kravitz, bass
‍Andrew Padgett, bass CarleyDeFranco, soprano
Susan Consoli, soprano Katherine Maysek, alto
Deborah Rentz-Moore, alto Will Prapestis,bass
       Krista River, alto
                                                                          Dana Whiteside, bass
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Emmanuel Music presents Bach’s towering masterpiece, considered by some to be the greatest achievement in Western music: the St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244. Profoundly beautiful, dramatic, and compelling, the St. Matthew Passion expresses our human condition and our capacity for hate, love, and transcendence like no other work.

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Christmas at Emmanuel

December 17, 2023

Emmanuel Church

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Ryan Turner, conductor
with Cambridge Common Voices and Boston Children's Chorus

Britten St. Nicolas
Woody as though on snow
Bach Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65

Charles Blandy, tenor (Nicolas)
Jonas Budris, tenor
David Tinervia, bass

PDF Concert Program

2022 - 2023 Cantata Schedule

Continuing our 50-year old tradition, the Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music presents Bach’s astounding human document, in the liturgical setting for which it was intended, as well as other sacred works.
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Cantata Series

This Love Unbound

April 29 & 30, 2023

Arts at the Armory

Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings: William Hite, tenor & Clark Matthews, horn
Harbison For violin alone: Selections performed by Heidi Braun-Hill, violin
Britten Phaedra: Krista River, mezzo-soprano
Shaw Limestone and Felt: Mark Berger, viola; David Russell, cello
Britten Les Illuminations: Carley DeFranco, soprano

Emmanuel Music partners with Urbanity Dance, and critically acclaimed choreographer,Shura Baryshnikov, for an exploration on the wilder boundaries of the theme of love. Esteemed soloists Carley DeFranco, soprano; Krista River, mezzo; William Hite, tenor; and Clark Matthews, horn; and the orchestra of Emmanuel Music will perform three cantata-inspired works of Britten — Phaedra, Serenade, and Les Illuminations. This unique performance will guide you from the heights of Greek melodrama to the libertine Bacchanalias of Arthur Rimbaud, in an expression of the everlasting theme of intemperate and unrestrained love.
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PDF Concert Program

Bach Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248

December 18, 2022

Emmanuel Church

‍‍‍ Ryan Turner, conductor
Evangelist: Jonas Budris
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Soprano: Corrine Byrne | Carley DeFranco | Janet Ross | Sonja Tengblad | Kristen Watson
Alto: Carrie Cheron | Margaret Lias | Clare McNamara | Krista River
Tenor: Matthew Anderson | Charles Blandy | Omar Najmi
Bass: David Kravitz | David McFerrin | Andrew Padgett | Will Prapestis

J. S. Bach’s radiant Christmas Oratorio has become a holiday favorite at Emmanuel Music. The six cantatas that comprise this work fully set the festival mood for the Christmas season. Bach engages us with exquisite pastoral soundscapes, profound arias and chorales, and dazzling choruses with trumpets and drums.

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PDF Concert Program

This Love Between Us

October 1, 2022

Emmanuel Church

Reena Esmail: This Love Between Us
‍Corrine Byrne, soprano
Elizabeth Eschen, alto
Matthew Anderson, tenor
David McFerrin, bass
Giri Subramaniam, tabla
Usha Verma, sitar
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‍‍J.S. Bach: O große Lieb (arr. Turner/Dellal)
‍Sonja Tengblad, soprano
Krista River, alto
Jonas Budris, tenor
Will Prapestis, bass

Ryan Turner, conductor
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Emmanuel Music opens its 53rd season with a program devoted to the theme of unity and neighborly love.

This Love Between Us is a piece about unity. Its seven movements juxtapose the words of seven major religious traditions of India (Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism and Islam), and specifically how each of these traditions approaches the topic of unity, of brotherhood, of being kind to one another. The texts come either straight from canonical religious writings or from poets who write through the lens of their religion. Each text is itself a union: it is set simultaneously in English and in its original language (with the exception of the Christian text, where the Malayalam is a translation), so you can hear the beauty of the original and grasp its meaning through translation. Each movement also contains a unique combination of Indian and Western classical styles, running the continuum from the Christian movement, which is rooted firmly in a baroque style, to the Zoroastrian movement, which is a Hindustani vilambit bandish. Each of the other movements live somewhere in between these two musical cultures in their techniques, styles and forms. But even more than uniting musical practices, this piece unites people from two different musical traditions: a sitar and tabla join the choir and baroque orchestra. Each of the musicians is asked to keep one hand firmly rooted in their own tradition and training, while reaching the other hand outward to greet another musical culture.
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Inspired by Reena Esmail's cantata, This Love Between Us, Artistic Director Ryan Turner and Bach Institute Director Pamela Dellal turned to the vast collection of Bach’s sacred cantatas for music on the common theme of charity, universal love, and compassion. Given that no single cantata captured the breadth of Bach’s meditations on the subject, O große Lieb combines movements from disparate pieces, integrated into a 'composite cantata.'

We offer you this evening a new way to hear Bach: while these specific movements were not intended to be juxtaposed, the composer's spirit still radiates through them. In a manner of speaking, we have asked for wisdom on charity and love, and Bach responds with these selections from his cantatas. Out of these a new cantata is woven that expresses this message.
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PDF Concert Program