Singer

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.

EPSG:4326

The World of Johannes Okeghem

First Church in Cambridge

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

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

In this third concert in a series exploring complex social issues, frequent guest Giancarlo Guerrero leads American composer Julia Wolfe’s BSO co-commissioned Her Story, featuring the Lorelei Ensemble women’s vocal group. Originally commissioned to commemorate the centenary of women’s right to vote in the U.S., the piece broadly speaks of the continuing struggle for women’s rights. The three movements of Polish composer Henryk Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs movingly contemplates the anguish of the separation of a mother from her child.

Sophie Michaux

Alto

Events

Apr 13, 2024

The World of Johannes Okeghem · Blue Heron

Mar 23, 2024

Tasso & Wert · Blue Heron

Jan 20, 2024

Renaissance Portraits · Blue Heron

15 - 16 Dec, 2023

Christmas in Medieval England · Blue Heron

Oct 14, 2023

Le Rossignol Musical · Blue Heron

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