Singer

Blue Heron returns to its origins, singing the glorious music of Hugh Aston from the Peterhouse Partbooks, and looks to the future with Boston composer Mehmet Ali Sanl?kol’s Devran and a new piece written for the occasion.

EPSG:4326

25th Birthday Concert: something old, something new

First Church in Cambridge

With the completion of its project Ockeghem@600 in March 2023, Blue Heron is very likely the only ensemble in the world to have sung every piece of music written by the great Johannes Okeghem (c. 1420-1497). Building on this unique expertise, we present a selection of the master’s very best in the context of works by his contemporaries & colleagues.

The World of Johannes Okeghem

Blue Heron’s exploration of the Italian madrigal continues with a new program featuring settings of dramatic scenes by Torquato Tasso, with music by the great Giaches de Wert & others.

Tasso & Wert

A collaboration with GRAMMY award-winning lutenist and conductor Stephen Stubbs; Claudio Monteverdi’s music broke the rules of Renaissance polyphony and created the foundations of modern music. Like Shakespeare, Monteverdi’s genius lay in his ability to communicate the full compass of human emotions, especially the most mysterious, tragic, and magical of them all–love.

Love and Revolution

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church

All Souls' Episcopal Church

Musical portraits of popes & nobles, lovers & spouses, patrons & friends, & theatrical personalities including a cocky cook & a desperately self-absorbed lover. Music by Ciconia, Du Fay, Busnoys, Isaac & others.

Renaissance Portraits

Don’t miss this concert program the Boston Globe calls “stellar” and the Boston Classical Review has dubbed “a hauntingly beautiful and uplifting occasion fit for the holidays.”

Our program offers a selection of music for the Christmas season—plainchant, carols, and polyphonic antiphons and settings of the Mass—that might have been heard in England in the 1440s, when the most modern of the works on the program were composed. The carols, drawn from several manuscripts, are written in a robust popular style with graceful melody and simple harmonies, while the polyphony dazzles with complex cross-rhythms, dashing melodies, and clangorous harmonies, all in celebration of one of the most glorious seasons of the Christian year.

Christmas in Medieval England

Songs about love & freedom, nightingales & other musical birds from Le Rossignol musical (Antwerp, 1597), by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Claude Le Jeune, Andreas Pevernage, Cipriano De Rore & others – a program premiered at Antwerp’s Laus Polyphoniae festival in August 2023.

Le Rossignol Musical

Join the singers, dancers, instrumentalists, and directors of the GRAMMY-winning BEMF Chamber Opera Series for a special presentation of two masterworks by Telemann. Enjoy a rare staged performance of Telemann’s lovely serenata, Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho, which sees Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza stumble upon the wedding of wealthy sheep rancher Comacho to the beautiful Quiteria—but her childhood sweetheart Basilio is ready to disrupt the festivities even if it’s the last thing he ever does! Woven throughout the entertainment will be movements from Telemann’s delightful orchestral suite Burlesque de Don Quichotte, a work that uses strikingly evocative music to depict various episodes from the classic novel by Cervantes.

Boston Early Music Festival Presents: Telemann’s Don Quichotte

New England Conservatory

One of Blue Heron’s most beloved programs, presented for the first time since 2018. Music for Christmas and New Year’s by Guillaume Du Fay, Nicolas Grenon, Johannes Ciconia, Johannes Regis, Jacob Obrecht, Antoine Brumel, Josquin Desprez, Adrian Willaert, and others. Featuring a nave lit by candles, according to Blue Heron tradition.

Christmas in 15th-Century France & Burgundy

Regis’s Mass based on the song L’homme armé is one of the very first in a series of L’homme armé works stretching across musical generations – and the only one whose origins are clearly understood. Written for the celebration of the feast of St. Michael at Cambrai Cathedral in 1462, the Mass is a tour de force setting multiple plainchant cantus firmi and featuring Regis’s brilliant and unique sense of sonority.

The Armed Archangel: Johannes Regis, Missa L’homme armé

A new program featuring the head-spinningly complex music of the generation after Machaut – stories of mythological characters and deities set to jazzy, intoxicating polyphony.

A more subtle art: the late 14th-century Ars subtilior

Two actors join Blue Heron’s singers for a revised version of a dramatic program last performed in 2012: sacred polyphony setting texts from the Song of Songs, Spanish love songs, and poetry in Spanish and Hebrew.

Jason McStoots

Tenor

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 30, 2024

Boston Early Music Festival Presents: Telemann’s Don Quichotte · New England Conservatory

Dec 1, 2024

Boston Early Music Festival Presents: Telemann’s Don Quichotte · New England Conservatory

20 - 21 Dec, 2024

Christmas in 15th-Century France & Burgundy · Blue Heron

Feb 1, 2025

The Armed Archangel: Johannes Regis, Missa L’homme armé · Blue Heron

Mar 1, 2025

A more subtle art: the late 14th-century Ars subtilior · Blue Heron

Past events

Oct 19, 2024

25th Birthday Concert: something old, something new · Blue Heron

Apr 13, 2024

The World of Johannes Okeghem · Blue Heron

About

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