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Media Alert: Handel and Haydn Society presents A Bach Christmas, led by Society Associate Conductor and Chorusmaster John Finney, featuring works by Bach, Buxtehude, Schein and more
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2010
Contact: Michele Campbell, Sr. Marketing Communications Mgr.
617 262 1815 or mcampbell@handelandhaydn.org
National/International Contact: Nikki Scandalios
704 340 4094 / 704 568 0888 or nikki@scandaliospr.com
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Society’s first performances of Bach’s Cantata No. 140, Sleepers Awake!
When:
Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 8:00pm
Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 3:00pm
Where:
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA
Repertoire:
A Bach Christmas
Buxtehude: Das neugeborne Kindelein
Buxtehude: In dulci jubilo
Praetorius: In natali Domino
Praetorius: En natus est Emmanuel
Praetorius: Vom Himmel kommt ein neuer Engel geflogen
Praetorius: Psallite unigenito
Telemann: Concerto for Three Oboes and Three Violins
Schütz: Ein Kind ist uns geboren
J.S. Bach: Cantata No. 122, Das neugeborne Kindelein
Schein: Ehr sei Gott in der Höh allein
J.S. Bach: Cantata No. 140, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (Sleepers Awake!)
John Finney, conductor
Handel and Haydn Society Chorus
Tickets:
Subscriptions and single tickets may be purchased through the Handel and Haydn Box Office by phone at 617 266 3605, online at www.handelandhaydn.org, or in person at the Handel and Haydn office, Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston (M-F 10:00am – 6:00pm). Single tickets range from $38 to $75. Student rush available: starting one hour before curtain, $10 cash only with valid ID, best available seats subject to availability. Groups of 10 or more receive a 20% discount.
Details:
Handel and Haydn Society Associate Conductor John Finney takes listeners into the musical heart of baroque Germany with this collection of Christmas favorites from Bach to Schein — including the Society premiere of Bach’s Cantata No. 140, Sleepers Awake! — a work never before played by Handel and Haydn in its near-200-year-history.
“From the late renaissance and early baroque brilliance of Praetorius and Schütz, to the masters of later baroque, Buxtehude and Bach, John Finney aims to show an age of great tradition and amazing development,” said Artistic Director Harry Christophers. As noted by Christophers, Bach himself used to travel many miles north of his home to hear Buxtehude play the organ. Schein’s chorus of angels and shepherds, and Lübeck’s rarely performed Willkommen, süβser Bräutigam, along with Bach’s uplifting chorales help create this holiday program of joyous and glorious sounds.
Biographies:
John Finney has been Handel and Haydn Society Chorusmaster since 1990, occupying the Cabot Family Chorusmaster Chair, and was named Associate Conductor in 1992. He has directed many of the Society’s performances, including Handel’s Messiah at Symphony Hall in 1997 and 2004, and an all-Bach program at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in December 2008. He is widely praised for his harpsichord and organ playing; he holds degrees in organ performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and The Boston Conservatory. He is the Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Boston College, where he serves as Director of the University Chorale and Conductor of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra. He has directed the Boston College Chorale on concert tours in major cities throughout the world, including Berlin, Prague, Vienna, and Rome. Mr. Finney recently celebrated his 25th anniversary as Director of Music for the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, where his organ-playing and conducting continue to enhance worship services every Sunday morning. Since 1987, Mr. Finney has been conductor of the Heritage Chorale in Framingham, and has led that chorus in performances of such major works as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Verdi’s Requiem. He has served on the faculty of The Boston Conservatory and taught for six years at the Academy for Early Music in Bressanone, Italy.
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 Elderhostel and Boston Lyric Opera, and also teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Boston Conservatory.
Associated Events:
Pre-Concert Lecture
Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 7:00pm
Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 2:00pm
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA
Free with concert tickets
Before the concert, ticket holders are invited to expand their experience with an illuminating discussion of the music, composers, and times, led by musicologist Teresa Neff.
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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 two of its 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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