THE X-TET: SOUNDS OF ITALY
November 13 & 14, 2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Seully Hall
The X-tet returns with a sweeping celebration of Italian Baroque and Renaissance music, joined by GRAMMY® award-winning soprano Amanda Forsythe and viola da gamba player Cristiano Contadin. Spanning four centuries of Italy's most treasured chamber repertoire, the ensemble brings to life virtuosic works by Vivaldi, Albinoni, Castello, and Handel alongside rarely heard gems by Maria Teresa Agnesi and Antonio Archilei.
Highlights include Handel's dramatic cantata “Armida abbandonata” and Archilei's celestial “Dalle più alte sfere,” both featuring Forsythe's celebrated voice, alongside instrumental showpieces for strings, theorbo, and harpsichord. The program concludes with a nod to folk tradition in the spirited Tarantella Gargano, before Colin Jacobsen's new work, Morgantina Studies, brings the evening to a close.
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Amanda Forsythe Masterclass
November 15, 2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Seully Hall (A Livestream Link will also be made available)
Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Vocal Arts Division—in partnership with Boston Baroque—proudly presents Grammy-winning American soprano Amanda Forsythe for a master class.
Forsythe has been warmly praised for her performances on both sides of the Atlantic and is a regular soloist with the highly acclaimed baroque ensembles Les Talens Lyriques, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, Apollo’s Fire, Opera Prima, Pacific Musicworks, Early Music Vancouver, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
She has performed under the baton of Giovanni Antonini, Jonathan Cohen, Laurence Cummings, Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Matthew Halls, Thomas Hengelbrock, Nicholas Kraemer, Bernard Labadie, Susanna Mälkki, Nicholas McGegan, Christopher Moulds, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Sir Antonio Pappano, Martin Pearlman, Christophe Rousset, Jeannette Sorrell, Stephen Stubbs, and Jaap van Zweden. She has premiered opera productions by Gilbert Blin, Robert Carsen, Tobias Kratzer, and Graham Vick.
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HANDEL’S MESSIAH
December 12 & 13, 2026
NEC’s Jordan Hall
TIMELESS. JOYFUL. LUSTROUS. Boston Baroque returns to a cherished holiday tradition with Handel’s Messiah, one of classical music's most beloved and enduring works. Since introducing Boston’s first complete period-instrument performance of the oratorio in 1981, Boston Baroque’s acclaimed, GRAMMY®-nominated interpretation has become a holiday-season cornerstone, bringing generations of audiences together through Handel’s timeless message of hope and joy.
This season, Christoph Koncz will conduct Messiah with soloists soprano Liv Redpath, mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce, tenor Eric Ferring, and baritone Benjamin Appl.
NEW YEAR’S CELEBRATION
December 31, 2026 & January 1, 2027
Harvard’s Sanders Theatre
Ring in the New Year with Boston Baroque at our annual celebration of music and new beginnings! Principal Guest Conductor Filippo Ciabatti leads a festive program of Mozart and Beethoven at Sanders Theatre on December 31 and January 1.
The program will feature Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro and a Mozart horn concerto with soloist Todd Williams, alongside Beethoven’s Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus and Romance No. 2 for violin and orchestra, featuring concertmaster Christina Day Martinson. After intermission, the orchestra will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, known for its driving rhythms, celebrated Allegretto, and high-energy finale. Raise a toast to the year ahead!
PERGOLESI’S STABAT MATER
Coupled with Solo Cantatas by J.S. Bach
February 27 & 28, 2027
NEC’s Jordan Hall / Harvard’s Sanders Theatre
Join Boston Baroque, Music Director Marc Minkowski, and soloists soprano Maya Kherani and countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen for an evening exploring two distinct eighteenth-century voices: J.S. Bach and Pergolesi.
The first half centers on two solo cantatas by Bach. One is intimate and reflective, the other celebratory and extroverted, yet both reveal Bach's ability to shape theological ideas into music of extraordinary clarity and invention. The second half is devoted to Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, composed in 1736 during the composer's final months. Written for two voices and a small ensemble, the work sets a medieval poem describing Mary's grief at the crucifixion. Together, these works offer two perspectives on sacred music in the Baroque era: Bach's deeply considered musical architecture and Pergolesi's direct, melodic approach. Nearly three centuries after their composition, both remain central works in the choral and vocal repertoire.
BLOW’S VENUS AND ADONIS & PURCELL’S DIDO AND AENEAS
April 23 & 25, 2027
NEC’s Jordan Hall
Join Boston Baroque for an evening of two landmark English operas: John Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Closely connected in both style and history, Venus and Adonis is widely believed to have influenced Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, which was composed only a few years later. Both works place a powerful woman at the center of the drama, draw on stories from classical mythology, and conclude with some of the most poignant music of the Baroque era.
Performed under the musical direction of Lionel Meunier, these performances feature Avery Amereau as Dido, Song Hee Lee as Belinda and Cupid, Roderick Williams as Aeneas and Adonis, Sophie Michaux as the Sorceress, and Amanda Forsythe as Venus.
Roderick Williams Masterclass
April 24, 2027
Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Seully Hall (A Livestream Link will also be made available)
Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Vocal Arts Division, in partnership with Boston Baroque, proudly presents acclaimed British baritone Roderick Williams, OBE, for a master class.
Williams enjoys an international career spanning opera, concert, and recital, with repertoire ranging from the Baroque to contemporary world premieres. His operatic engagements include leading roles with the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, and Dallas Opera. He has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Bach Collegium Japan, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
A regular guest at Wigmore Hall and the BBC Proms, Williams is also an accomplished composer and a celebrated interpreter of English song. He received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the Year award in 2016 and was appointed an OBE for services to music in 2017. In 2023, he was a featured soloist at the coronation of King Charles III.
LINK TO BE RELEASED IN THE SPRING
THE X-TET: SONGS OF
THE AVIARY
May 14, 2027
Harvard’s Sanders Theatre
Join Boston Baroque for an imaginative program exploring the ways composers have listened to, imitated, and been inspired by the natural world. At the center of the program is the world premiere of a new work by composer Lei Liang. Inspired by the song of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a Hawaiian bird declared extinct in 1987, the piece reflects on memory, loss, and the traces that remain after a voice has disappeared.
This program brings together 17th- and 18th-century works that transform birdsong into musical motifs, from Biber's and Schmelzer's playful cuckoo calls to Vivaldi's vivid evocations of spring and Rameau’s elegant portrait of birds in conversation.
PAST PERFORMANCES · 2026/27
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