Help yourself to a healthy dose of holiday cheer at our annual Baroque Christmas, an evening of musical merriment. Led by conductor Ruben Valenzuela, a rising star “well known for his masterful Baroque music interpretations” (The San Diego Union-Tribune), this yearly Yuletide celebration features a sleighful of new gifts to cherish—including four pieces from the Latin American Baroque, evoking the tranquil Nativity before bouncing with boundless joy.

One of Blue Heron’s most beloved programs, presented for the first time since 2018.

One of Blue Heron’s most beloved programs, presented for the first time since 2018.

Help yourself to a healthy dose of holiday cheer at our annual Baroque Christmas, an evening of musical merriment. Led by conductor Ruben Valenzuela, a rising star “well known for his masterful Baroque music interpretations” (The San Diego Union-Tribune), this yearly Yuletide celebration features a sleighful of new gifts to cherish—including four pieces from the Latin American Baroque, evoking the tranquil Nativity before bouncing with boundless joy.

The Worcester Chorus is one of America’s oldest and longest-running choral ensembles. Attending their annual performance of Handel’s Messiah at historic Mechanics Hall on the first weekend of December each year is a holiday tradition for many families and choral music fans in the Greater Worcester community and beyond.

Chris Shepard, Conductor
Kim Leeds, Mezzo-Soprano Soloist

Featuring True Concord Choir,
Chamber Players & James Sewell Ballet

TAKACH Unfashioned Creature: A Choral Ballet
BRAHMS Neue Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 65
WINNER Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition

Featuring True Concord Choir,
Chamber Players & James Sewell Ballet

TAKACH Unfashioned Creature: A Choral Ballet
BRAHMS Neue Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 65
WINNER Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition

Featuring True Concord Choir,
Chamber Players & James Sewell Ballet

TAKACH Unfashioned Creature: A Choral Ballet
BRAHMS Neue Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 65
WINNER Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition

Featuring Britten's Ceremony of Carols and works by female composers.
Chris Lowrey, Conductor

Featuring Britten's Ceremony of Carols and works by female composers.
Chris Lowrey, Conductor

UVB musicians invite us to celebrate with the majesty of Charpentier’s Te Deum and Vivaldi’s Gloria, on period instruments, under the direction of Maestro Filippo Ciabatti.

Kim Leeds, Mezzo-Soprano Soloist

UVB musicians invite us to celebrate with the majesty of Charpentier’s Te Deum and Vivaldi’s Gloria, on period instruments, under the direction of Maestro Filippo Ciabatti.

Kim Leeds, Mezzo-Soprano Soloist

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 Sanlıkol’s Devran and a new piece written for the occasion.

Blue Heron’s 25th Birthday Party Reception to follow!

A concert performance of Monteverdi’s beautiful 1639 opera with a stellar cast of 15 outstanding ARTEK singers.The story tells us of Ulysses (Richard Pittsinger) returning to his kingdom in Ithaca from his long travels, where his wife Penelope (Kim Leeds) and son Telemaco (Jonas Budris) do not know if he is alive or dead. Penelope, who is pressured to remarry, devises an archery contest for her suitors which is won by Ulisse with the aid of Minerva (Christina Kay), and Penelope and Ulisse are reunited in a heartfelt ending. Don’t miss this love story for all time, sung and accompanied brilliantly by ARTEK as a special 40th anniversary project.

Ulisse: Richard Pittsinger
Telemaco: Jonas Budris
Penelope: Kim Leeds
Minerva: Christina Kay
Melanto: Sarah Chalfy
Eurimaco: Andrew Fuchs
Nettuno: Peter Becker
Giove: Eric Brenner
Giunone: Laurie Heimes
Eumete: Ryland Angel
Ericlea: Barbara Hollinshead
Iro: Rocky Duval
Continuo: Dan Swenberg, Grant Herreid, Christa Patton, Gwen, Dongsok

A concert performance of Monteverdi’s beautiful 1639 opera with a stellar cast of 15 outstanding ARTEK singers.The story tells us of Ulysses (Richard Pittsinger) returning to his kingdom in Ithaca from his long travels, where his wife Penelope (Kim Leeds) and son Telemaco (Jonas Budris) do not know if he is alive or dead. Penelope, who is pressured to remarry, devises an archery contest for her suitors which is won by Ulisse with the aid of Minerva (Christina Kay), and Penelope and Ulisse are reunited in a heartfelt ending. Don’t miss this love story for all time, sung and accompanied brilliantly by ARTEK as a special 40th anniversary project.

Ulisse: Richard Pittsinger
Telemaco: Jonas Budris
Penelope: Kim Leeds
Minerva: Christina Kay
Melanto: Sarah Chalfy
Eurimaco: Andrew Fuchs
Nettuno: Peter Becker
Giove: Eric Brenner
Giunone: Laurie Heimes
Eumete: Ryland Angel
Ericlea: Barbara Hollinshead
Iro: Rocky Duval
Continuo: Dan Swenberg, Grant Herreid, Christa Patton, Gwen, Dongsok

A concert performance of Monteverdi’s beautiful 1639 opera with a stellar cast of 15 outstanding ARTEK singers.The story tells us of Ulysses (Richard Pittsinger) returning to his kingdom in Ithaca from his long travels, where his wife Penelope (Kim Leeds) and son Telemaco (Jonas Budris) do not know if he is alive or dead. Penelope, who is pressured to remarry, devises an archery contest for her suitors which is won by Ulisse with the aid of Minerva (Christina Kay), and Penelope and Ulisse are reunited in a heartfelt ending. Don’t miss this love story for all time, sung and accompanied brilliantly by ARTEK as a special 40th anniversary project.

Ulisse: Richard Pittsinger
Telemaco: Jonas Budris
Penelope: Kim Leeds
Minerva: Christina Kay
Melanto: Sarah Chalfy
Eurimaco: Andrew Fuchs
Nettuno: Peter Becker
Giove: Eric Brenner
Giunone: Laurie Heimes
Eumete: Ryland Angel
Ericlea: Barbara Hollinshead
Iro: Rocky Duval
Continuo: Dan Swenberg, Grant Herreid, Christa Patton, Gwen, Dongsok

Kim Leeds and Dani Zanuttini-Frank make their SoHIP debut with a compelling program of English and Italian music that explores imagery of burning love and icy rejection. Lute songs of the 17th century prominently feature these amorous themes, often through surprising allegories of pastoral idylls, militaristic conquests, and discordant bodily organs. Across its different allegorical incarnations, love pushes our 17th century poets to the physical breaking point: blazing heat and bitter cold express love's blistering sensation throughout this program. The duo performs works by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, Henry Purcell, William Lawes, and others.

Kim Leeds and Dani Zanuttini-Frank make their SoHIP debut with a compelling program of English and Italian music that explores imagery of burning love and icy rejection. Lute songs of the 17th century prominently feature these amorous themes, often through surprising allegories of pastoral idylls, militaristic conquests, and discordant bodily organs. Across its different allegorical incarnations, love pushes our 17th century poets to the physical breaking point: blazing heat and bitter cold express love's blistering sensation throughout this program. The duo performs works by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, Henry Purcell, William Lawes, and others.

Kim Leeds and Dani Zanuttini-Frank make their SoHIP debut with a compelling program of English and Italian music that explores imagery of burning love and icy rejection. Lute songs of the 17th century prominently feature these amorous themes, often through surprising allegories of pastoral idylls, militaristic conquests, and discordant bodily organs. Across its different allegorical incarnations, love pushes our 17th century poets to the physical breaking point: blazing heat and bitter cold express love's blistering sensation throughout this program. The duo performs works by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, Henry Purcell, William Lawes, and others.

The festival reaches its grand conclusion with one of the greatest compositions of all time. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is made even more remarkable by the fact that, at its premiere in 1824, Beethoven was completely deaf. The triumphant work culminates with the iconic, transformative finale - the famous Ode to Joy chorus.

Eric Whitacre and the world-renowned OBF Chorus present a hauntingly beautiful, intimate, and compelling story of courtship, love, and loss. Called “heartbreaking” and “[a way to] memorably celebrate the precarious beauty of life” by the Los Angeles Times, “The Sacred Veil” promises to be a cathartic, emotional, and deeply personal concert. 

A spectacular adventure through the cosmos! Projected in HD on a giant screen over the stage, the latest images from modern space – produced in cooperation with NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, and filmmaker Duncan Copp – provide a stunning visual canvas as the OBF orchestra performs Holst’s glorious musical score. The jolting rhythms, grand tunes, and eerie atmospheres have been the inspiration for sci-fi and adventure films since the late 1910s. The concert also includes Stravinsky’s beloved Symphony of Psalms.

The powerful “Great” Mass in C Minor offers us Mozart at the height of his brilliance. A work of mysterious origins, the music is a layered, shimmering tapestry. Moods shift constantly, sometimes dazzling, sometimes movingly somber. Left unfinished at Mozart’s death, the mass is lovingly and studiously reimagined by Jos van Veldhoven. 

The Oregon Bach Festival Chorus and Period Orchestra explore the universal human experiences of grief, healing, acceptance, and joy. Join “exuberant” conductor (Gramophone) John Butt for an emotional journey, from the opening text of BWV 21 – “I had much grieving in my heart” – to the lively, trumpet-dominated choruses and exquisite vocal solos of Bach’s “Ascension” Oratorio.

J.S Bach: Cantata: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21
J.S. Bach: “Ascension Oratorio,” BWV 11OBF Chorus  
OBF Period Orchestra
Kim Leeds, Mezzo-Soprano soloist
John Butt, conductor    

The Orchestra of St. Luke’s concludes its 2023–2024 series with a glorious evening of Brahms choral works. The program opens with the first-ever Carnegie Hall performance of Brahms’s Begräbnisgesang, a short and deeply personal early work, likely written in remembrance of Brahms’s close friend Robert Schumann. The magnificent requiem follows, treating audiences to a singular masterpiece of the choral repertoire that combines sacred music with a profoundly universal and humanistic spirit.

Furniture or architecture might come to mind when one hears the phrase mid-century modern, but the creative style also impacted the music of the time. Inspired by rapid technological advancements and a post-war world, artists in the mid-20th century strove to predict and create the art of the future. Composers like Arnold Schoenberg experimented with new sounds and compositional techniques. At the same time, others like Alan Hovhaness and Samuel Barber returned to styles of the past with new understanding. You’ll likely discover a mid-century work you’ve never heard before on this program for a cappella chorus.

JAMES K. BASS, CONDUCTOR

Furniture or architecture might come to mind when one hears the phrase mid-century modern, but the creative style also impacted the music of the time. Inspired by rapid technological advancements and a post-war world, artists in the mid-20th century strove to predict and create the art of the future. Composers like Arnold Schoenberg experimented with new sounds and compositional techniques. At the same time, others like Alan Hovhaness and Samuel Barber returned to styles of the past with new understanding. You’ll likely discover a mid-century work you’ve never heard before on this program for a cappella chorus.

JAMES K. BASS, CONDUCTOR

Furniture or architecture might come to mind when one hears the phrase mid-century modern, but the creative style also impacted the music of the time. Inspired by rapid technological advancements and a post-war world, artists in the mid-20th century strove to predict and create the art of the future. Composers like Arnold Schoenberg experimented with new sounds and compositional techniques. At the same time, others like Alan Hovhaness and Samuel Barber returned to styles of the past with new understanding. You’ll likely discover a mid-century work you’ve never heard before on this program for a cappella chorus.

JAMES K. BASS, CONDUCTOR

Furniture or architecture might come to mind when one hears the phrase mid-century modern, but the creative style also impacted the music of the time. Inspired by rapid technological advancements and a post-war world, artists in the mid-20th century strove to predict and create the art of the future. Composers like Arnold Schoenberg experimented with new sounds and compositional techniques. At the same time, others like Alan Hovhaness and Samuel Barber returned to styles of the past with new understanding. You’ll likely discover a mid-century work you’ve never heard before on this program for a cappella chorus.

JAMES K. BASS, CONDUCTOR

Savor the richness of Brahms in this profound performance that captures the full shimmering spectrum of human emotion. It’s a perfect showcase for our chorus—almost as if this deeply spiritual music were written just for them. With celebrated period instrument conductor Bernard Labadie at the helm, you’ll take part in the rare thrill of hearing these pieces played on the instruments Brahms knew best, surrounding yourself with the healing sounds that brought him solace following his mother’s death. This majestic offering matches ferocity with tenderness, boldness with beauty, promising goosebumps from start to finish.