BOSTON, MA—Boston Baroque announced today the appointment of Sarah Radcliffe-Marrs to the position of Executive Director. The appointment comes at a time when the organization finds itself expanding at a rapid rate, both within the Boston community at in-person performances and across the world on six continents via streaming on IDAGIO Concerts.
“We are thrilled to welcome Sarah into the Boston Baroque family at this pivotal juncture in our 50-year history,” says Carla Heaton, President of the Board of Directors. “Following the organization’s transformation under prior Executive Director Jennifer Ritvo Hughes, Sarah will nimbly lead Boston Baroque through its next stage of growth and innovation.”
Radcliffe-Marrs is set to join the organization on November 1, 2023. With over fifteen years of experience in the industry, Radcliffe-Marrs was most recently Executive Director of Blue Heron, a Gramophone Award-winning vocal ensemble specializing in Renaissance and medieval vocal music. Previously, she held positions at Celebrity Series of Boston, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Proms & Radio.
“I am delighted that Sarah will be our Executive Director, and I look forward to working with her,” says Founding Music Director Martin Pearlman. “She has impressed all of us as the perfect fit for Boston Baroque at this moment.”
Radcliffe-Marrs joins the organization at a momentous milestone as it celebrates its 50th Year in the 23-24 Season. Highlights from the upcoming season include a much-anticipated return to Beethoven’s final Symphony No. 9, an international patron’s tour to Prague, and a new production of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, 38 years after performing the American period instrument premiere of the work in 1986.
Of her appointment, Radcliffe-Marrs shared, “I am thrilled to have been appointed Executive Director of Boston Baroque, an ensemble I have long admired, in this, its 50th year. As we look to the future, I am inspired by the many exciting prospects ahead, and eager to continue to build on the phenomenal reputation that Martin Pearlman and the orchestra have established.”
ABOUT SARAH RADCLIFFE-MARRS
Sarah Radcliffe-Marrs is an arts leader with over fifteen years of experience in concert, festival, and event planning and execution, as an employee of prominent arts organizations in Boston and England.
Originally from the UK, Sarah grew up surrounded by music, and later earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in music and musicology from the University of Oxford. She went on to work for the Royal College of Music, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Proms & Radio 3 before moving to the US in 2012. In Boston, she held roles in the Artistic and Concert Operations departments at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and at the Celebrity Series of Boston.
Most recently, Sarah served as Executive Director of Gramophone Award-winning vocal ensemble, Blue Heron, and will continue her association with the group as a member of the Board of Directors. Sarah also serves as Co-Chair of the Cultural Council in Malden, where she lives with her husband, two young sons, and a pup named Misha.
ABOUT BOSTON BAROQUE
The six-time GRAMMY®-nominated Boston Baroque is the first permanent Baroque orchestra established in North America and, according to Fanfare Magazine, is widely regarded as “one of the world’s premier period instrument bands.” The ensemble produces lively, emotionally charged, groundbreaking performances of Baroque and Classical works for today’s audiences performed on instruments and using performance techniques that reflect the eras in which the music was composed.
Since 2020, Boston Baroque’s global reach has expanded to include audiences across 55 countries on six continents (North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia) through its partnership with IDAGIO, the world’s leading classical music streaming service. Its 2021-2022 Season was the first full season by a Baroque orchestra to stream on the platform.
Founded in 1973 as “Banchetto Musicale” by Music Director Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque’s orchestra is composed of some of the finest period instrument players in the United States, and is frequently joined by the ensemble’s professional chorus and by world-class instrumental and vocal soloists from around the globe. The ensemble has performed at major music centers across the United States and performed recently in Poland for the 2015 Beethoven Festival, with sold-out performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in Warsaw and Handel’s Messiah in Katowice.
Boston Baroque reaches an international audience with its twenty-six acclaimed recordings. In 2012, the ensemble became the first American orchestra to record with the highly-regarded UK audiophile label Linn Records, and its release of The Creation received great critical acclaim. In April 2014, the orchestra recorded Monteverdi’s rarely performed opera, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, which was released on Linn Records and received two nominations at the 2016 GRAMMY® Awards.
Boston Baroque’s recordings have received six GRAMMY® Award Nominations: its 1992 release of Handel’s Messiah, 1998 release of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, 2000 release of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, 2015 release of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and 2018 release of Biber’s The Mystery Sonatas.
