MONOLOGUES Continues Boston Baroque's 'New Directions' Series Tonight

Boston Baroque has announced its New Directions Series for 2013 - 2014 Season, featuring two chamber concerts at Longy School of Music, the second of which runs today, March 29, 2014: MONOLOGUES.

Boston Baroque has announced two chamber concerts as a part of its ongoing New Directions Series, which juxtaposes early music and more recent compositions, with enlightening and sometimes surprising results. The New Directions concerts will be an integral component of Boston Baroque's 40th anniversary season.

The concert will take place today, March 29, 2014 at Pickman Hall, located inside Longy School of Music at 27 Garden Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tickets at $40 and $20 can be purchased at www.bostonbaroque.org or by calling 617/987-8600.

Inaugurated in the 2012-2013 season, the series was conceived by Founder and Music Director Martin Pearlman, who explains, "For me, Boston Baroque's New Directions series is an exciting opportunity to experiment with programming, and especially to put our Baroque music side-by-side with modern music. It was made possible by patrons who knew that my own training as a composer informs my work with period instruments. I have always considered the recent early music field to be a child of our own time, one that is close in spirit to the music of our age."

MONOLOGUES

Saturday, March 29, 2014 - 8 PM

Pickman Hall, Longy School of Music

27 Garden Street • Cambridge, MA

Paula Plum • CHRISTINA DAY MARTINSON • JULIANNE GEARHART

Pearlman: Finnegans Wake: an Operoar, Act 3 (World premiere)

Paula Plum, actress

Bach: Sonata No. 1 in G minor for unaccompanied violin

Christina Day Martinson, violin

Handel: Agrippina condotta a morire, HWV110

Julianne Gearhart, soprano

"The Spring program features three monologues of very different kinds," continues Mr. Pearlman. "The newly- composed third act of my Finnegans Wake: an Operoar sets the text of Anna Livia's famous monologue that ends James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. It is written for an actress with seven instruments. Handel's cantata Agrippina condotta a morire is a dramatic monologue for the mother of the emperor Nero as she is fated to die at the hands of her son. A purely instrumental monologue rounds out the program: J. S. Bach's glorious Sonata No. 1 for unaccompanied violin." Boston Baroque concertmaster Christina Day Martinson will perform the Bach Sonata, soprano Julianne Gearhart will portray Agrippina, and actress Paula Plum will embody Joyce's Anna Livia.

(Programs subject to change)

Tickets, $40 and $20, available at www.bostonbaroque.org or by calling 617/987-8600

About Boston Baroque: Boston Baroque is the first permanent Baroque orchestra established in North America and is widely regarded as being among the world's leading period-instrument ensembles. Founded in 1973 as Banchetto Musicale by Music Director Martin Pearlman, the Boston Baroque orchestra is made up of some of the finest period-instrument players in the U.S.; they are frequently joined by the company's professional chorus and by instrumental and vocal soloists from around the world. The ensemble presents an annual subscription series of five programs that are performed at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall or Harvard University's Sanders Theatre, plus occasional additional concerts at other venues.

Boston Baroque also reaches an audience of millions of listeners around the globe with more than 20 critically-acclaimed recordings, which have been recognized with three Grammy nominations. With its 2012 recording of Haydn's Creation, Boston Baroque began a new recording relationship with the audiophile European label Linn Records, named by Gramophone as Label of the Year in 2010.

Boston Baroque made an acclaimed appearance in 2009 with two programs at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and performed Monteverdi'sVespers of 1610 to a sold-out crowd and standing ovation in New York's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in March 2010. The ensemble made its European debut in 2003, performing Handel's Messiah to capacity crowds in Krakow and Warsaw, Poland, and toured the Vespers to Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and Tanglewood in 2004.

About Martin Pearlman: Martin Pearlman, founder and continuing Music Director of Boston Baroque, is a conductor, harpsichordist, composer and early-music specialist, and is one of America's leading interpreters of Baroque and Classical music. Highlights of his work include the complete Monteverdi opera cycle, with his own new performing editions of The Coronation of Poppea and The Return of Ulysses; the American premiere of Rameau's Zoroastre; Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and Alceste; a survey of Beethoven symphonies on period instruments; major Handel operas including Alcina, Agrippina, Semele, Xerxes and Partenope; and a Mozart series including Abduction from the Seraglio, The Magic Flute, Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte and the North American period instrument premiere of Don Giovanni.

Mr. Pearlman made his Kennedy Center debut with The Washington Opera in Handel's Semele, and has guest conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, Utah Opera, Opera Columbus, Boston Lyric Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony and New World Symphony. Recent compositions by Mr. Pearlman include The Creation according to Orpheus for solo piano, harp, percussion and string orchestra; and music for three plays of Samuel Beckett, commissioned by and premiered at New York's 92nd Street Y and performed in Cambridge in 2007. Writing in the Boston Globe, Anthony Tommasini said: "If fans of Boston Baroque wonder why Pearlman's conducting is so insightful, it's because he knows, as only a composer can, how music goes." Mr. Pearlman is Professor of Music in Historical Performance at the Boston University School of Music.

About New Directions: Boston Baroque's New Directions Series provides its musicians and audiences with an intimate opportunity to explore and create synergy from opposing sides of the musical spectrum. Repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the Contemporary, with works written for both period and modern instruments.

Photo Credit (top): Susan Wilson, Gil Gilbert, Teddie Hwang
Photo Credit (bottom): Arthur Cohen Photography, Guanlang Cao, Elise Bakketun