Masterclass with Rachel Podger
Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 6pm
Williams Hall, New England Conservatory (NEC), 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA
Free for NEC students only; not open to the public
Eminent baroque violinist Rachel Podger leads an NEC masterclass, where she coaches select NEC D.M.A. strings students who perform sonatas by J.S. Bach, both solo and accompanied.

Pre-Concert Lecture
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 7pm
Sunday, October 3, 2010 at 2pm
Cabot Cahners Room, Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA
Free with concert tickets
Musicologist Teresa Neff gives an illuminating look inside the music and historical context of the program. See the video lecture preview.

Opening Fanfare!
Season Opening and CD Release Party
Friday, October 1, 2010, post-concert
Higginson Hall, Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA
$50 per person
Artistic Director Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society present a wine and dessert reception after the Friday night concert to celebrate the opening of the Society’s 196th Season and CD release of Mozart Mass in C Minor — the first of a series of recordings with Harry Christophers leading to the Bicentennial in 2015. Christophers is available to sign CDs at this event. Guest violinist Rachel Podger also attends and signs copies of her CD Bach: Violin Concertos. Tickets are available by calling 617 262 1815 or purchasing online. CDs are available at the concert hall for $19.76 plus tax.

Masterclass with Rachel Podger
Saturday, October 2, 2010 at 11am
Harvard Memorial Hall, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA
Free for Harvard students only; not open to the public
Violinist Rachel Podger leads a masterclass organized by the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra.

Post-Concert CD-Signing with Harry Christophers and Rachel Podger
Sunday, October 3, 2010, post-concert
Cohen Wing, Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA
Free with concert tickets
Artistic Director Harry Christophers and guest artist Rachel Podger meet patrons and sign CDs after the concert. Handel and Haydn’s new CD, Mozart Mass in C Minor and Rachel Podgers’ Bach: Violin Concertos are available at the concert hall for $19.76 plus tax.

BIOS

Harry Christophers
Harry Christophers has conducted the Handel and Haydn Society each season since his first appearance in September 2006, when he led a sold-out performance in the Esterházy Palace at the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. Held in the same location where Haydn lived and worked for nearly 40 years, this Austrian appearance marked the Society’s first in Europe.
 Handel and Haydn’s 2010-2011 Season marks Christophers’ second as Artistic Director. Christophers is known internationally as Founder and Conductor of the United Kingdom- based choir and period instrument ensemble The Sixteen, and as Guest Conductor for major symphony orchestras and opera companies. He has directed The Sixteen throughout Europe, America, and the Far East, gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in Renaissance, Baroque, and 20th century music. He has recorded some 90 titles for which he has won numerous awards, including a Grand Prix du Disque for Handel Messiah, numerous Preise der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics Awards), the coveted Gramophone Award for Early Music, and the prestigious Classical Brit Award (2005) for his disc entitled Renaissance. His CD IKON was nominated for a 2007 Grammy.

In addition to his role with Handel and Haydn Society and The Sixteen, Christophers is Principal Guest Conductor of the Granada Symphony Orchestra and also a regular Guest Conductor with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the Orquestra de la Comunidad de Madrid. Within the last few years, he has conducted the Hallé, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony.

Christophers received one of classical music’s highest accolades in 2009, the Classic FM Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year Award; The Sixteen won the Baroque Vocal Award for Handel Coronation Anthems, a CD that also received a 2010 Grammy Award nomination.

Rachel Podger
Rachel Podger is one of the most creative talents to emerge in the field of period performance over the last decade. Rachel has established herself as a leading interpreter of the music of the Baroque and Classical periods. She was educated in Germany and in England at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied with David Takeno and Michaela Comberti.

After beginnings with The Palladian Ensemble and Florilegium, she was leader of The English Concert from 1997 to 2002. In 2004 Rachel began a guest directorship with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with whom she has toured throughout Europe and the USA. Rachel directed the orchestra at last year's BBC Proms and this year sees performances of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the OAE and violist Pavlo Beznosiuk. Future plans include Haydn and Mozart Violin Concertos in 2009. Rachel is also in demand as a guest director and has enjoyed collaborations with Arte dei Suonatori (Poland), Musica Angelica and Santa Fe Pro Musica (USA), The Academy of Ancient Music and The European Union Baroque Orchestra. Full bio available online (click artist name).

Teresa Neff
Teresa Neff received her Ph.D. in Musicology from Boston University. Her research interests center around Gottfried van Swieten, a late 18th century Viennese patron and composer. Neff’s edition of Swieten’s symphonies will be published by Artaria later this year. She has presented papers at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the New England Chapter of the American Musicological Society and the Architecture/Music/Acoustics Conference. She presents concert preview lectures for Exploritas (formerly Elderhostel) and Boston Lyric Opera, and also teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Boston Conservatory.

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ABOUT HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY
The Handel and Haydn Society is a professional chorus and period instrument orchestra that is internationally recognize­d as a leader in the field of Historically Informed Performance, a revelatory style that uses the instruments and techniques of the time in which the music was composed. Founded in Boston in 1815, the Society is the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the United States and has a longstanding commitment to excellence and innovation: it gave the American premieres of Handel’s Messiah (1818), Haydn’s The Creation (1819), Verdi’s Requiem (1878) and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1879). The Society today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Harry Christophers, is committed to its mission “to perform Baroque and Classical music at the highest levels of artistic excellence and to share that music with as large and diverse an audience as possible.” The Society is widely known through its local subscription concerts, tours, concert broadcasts on National Public Radio, and recordings. The Society’s Lamentations and Praises won a 2002 Grammy Award, and its two most recent CDs, All is Bright and PEACE, appeared simultaneously in the top ten on Billboard Magazine’s classical music chart. The 2010-2011 Season marks the 25th Anniversary of Handel and Haydn’s educational programming. The award-winning Karen S. & George D. Levy Educational Outreach Program fosters the knowledge and performance of classical music among young people including in underserved schools and communities. Annually, the program brings music education and vocal training to more than 10,000 students in the Greater Boston area.

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