For Immediate Release
November 1, 2023
PRESS CONTACT
Joanna Boyle, Office and Concert Manager
Musicians of the Old Post Road
781.466.6694
musicians@oldpostroad.org
PHOTOS
https://oldpostroad.org/press-room
MUSICIANS OF THE OLD POST ROAD
presents
Heavenly Baroque Christmas
Saturday, December 9, 2023, 4:00 pm
First Unitarian Church, Worcester, MA and live-streamed at oldpostroad.org
Sunday, December 10, 2023, 4:00 pm
Church of the Covenant, Boston, MA
In-person Audience Tickets $10-$55, kids come free with an adult
Virtual Audience Tickets: $35 individual, $70 family, $10 students
This December, Musicians of the Old Post Road continues its 35th anniversary season Elements, which explores rarely-performed works through the lens of the four Classical elements: water, air, fire, and earth. Known for its mission to “unwrap rediscovered musical treasures” (Worcester Telegram & Gazette), the ensemble continues its tradition of offering unusual and exciting holiday programming.
On December 9th and 10th the ensemble presents Air: Heavenly Baroque Christmas, a holiday concert of celestial works from Spain and New Spain. The program includes lively villancicos and cantatas for voices and instruments by Spanish composers Juan Francés de Iribarren and Joaquín García de Antonio, Guatemalan composer Rafael Antonio Castellanos, Cuban composer Esteban Salas y Castro, and Mexican composers Antonio de Salazar and Manuel de Zumaya, who was the first Mexican Classical composer of Indigenous descent. Instrumental works include trio sonatas by the Catalan brothers Juan and José Pla, and Spanish composers Antonio Rodriguez de Hita, Juan Cabanilles, and Antonio Martín y Coll. Also featured will be the world premiere reconstruction of a Pastorela by an anonymous composer associated with the Puebla Cathedral in Mexico.
Musicians for these concerts, all of whom will play on period instruments, include flutist Suzanne Stumpf, violinists Sarah Darling and Jesse Irons, cellist Daniel Ryan, and harpsichordist Benjamin Katz. The ensemble will be joined by special guests María Diez-Canedo, traverso, and Eloy Cruz, guitar. They are founding members of the Mexican period instrument ensemble La Fontegara, faculty members at the (UNAM) National University of Mexico in Mexico City, and avid researchers.
Vocal soloists are Adriana Ruiz, soprano and Hilary Anne Walker, mezzo-soprano. Adriana Ruiz was named a 2018 Early Music America (EMA) Emerging Artist, and this season marks her debut with Musicians of the Old Post Road. Hilary Anne Walker, a devoted supporter of early music, performs regularly in the greater Boston area and debuted with Musicians of the Old Post Road in the 2022-23 season.
Single In-Person Tickets are $55 general admission, $50 seniors, $35 for under 35. Kids 18 and under are free with an adult. Day-Of-Concert Rush Tickets (students and EBT Card holders only) are $10, availability permitting. Premier Season Subscriptions are available for $250. Virtual single tickets and virtual subscriptions are also available.
For more information, visit www.oldpostroad.org, email musicians@oldpostroad.org, or call 781-466-6694.
The Boston concert is supported, in part, by a grant by the Boston Cultural Council. Programming is also supported by an Early Music America Engagement Award, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
ABOUT MUSICIANS OF THE OLD POST ROAD
Musicians of the Old Post Road takes its name from its acclaimed concert series that brings period instrument performances of music of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries to beautiful historic buildings along New England’s fabled Old Post Road, the first thoroughfare to connect Boston and New York City in the late 17th century.
Winner of the 1998 Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, Musicians of the Old Post Road has also received programming awards from Chamber Music America and the US-Mexico Fund for Culture. The ensemble has toured in Germany, Austria, and Mexico, and has appeared at festivals and on concert series in the US, including the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival Concert Series, the Castle Hill Festival, the Artists Series at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and the Connecticut Early Music Festival. The ensemble has held a residency at Dartmouth College and was featured on WCVB television’s “Chronicle” program and 99.5 All Classical radio’s “Live from Fraser” program.
The ensemble’s discography includes seven recordings that have each been praised in the US and abroad. They include: The Virtuoso Double Bass (Titanic, 1994), Trios and Scottish Song Settings of J. N. Hummel (Meridian, 1999), Galant with an Attitude: Music of Juan and José Pla (Meridian, 2000), Quartets of Telemann and Bodinus (Meridian, 2004), Feliz Navidad: Christmas from Spain and New Spain (Meridian, 2008), and Roman Handel (Centaur, 2013), and Earthly Baroque (Centaur, 2017).
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Press Contact:
Joanna Boyle, Office and Concert Manager
Musicians of the Old Post Road
781.466.6694
musicians@oldpostroad.org
