Boston Camerata

Established in 1954, the Boston Camerata ranks among the earliest ensembles devoted to period performance in the United States and worldwide, distinguished from the outset by its practice of shaping concerts around unifying themes drawn from diverse historical sources. For nearly four decades Joel Cohen shaped its artistic identity, imparting a recognizable and steady sonic profile.

Initially affiliated with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the group offered infrequent programs of music contemporaneous with the museum’s celebrated paintings and played upon instruments from its holdings. Cohen, a Harvard alumnus trained as lutenist, conductor, and musicologist under Nadia Boulanger in Paris, assumed leadership in 1969. Under his guidance the ensemble pursued fresh artistic paths, ending its institutional connection with the museum and launching an extensive program of foreign engagements that persists to the present, encompassing repeated visits to Europe, Singapore, Mexico, and additional destinations. Domestically it has maintained an annual subscription series in Boston while appearing at the Tanglewood Festival, the Kalamazoo Medieval Institute, and the Boston Early Music Festival on a biennial basis. A highlight of its activities was the 2011 residency in Reims, France, marking the eight-hundredth anniversary of Reims Cathedral. In 2008 Cohen stepped down in favor of soprano and scholar Anne Azéma, assuming the title of musical director emeritus while continuing to participate in the ensemble’s projects.

The Camerata’s recorded and concert repertory has consistently featured early American choral and vocal works, illustrated by the 2000 Erato release The Golden Harvest: More Shaker Chants and Spirituals. That disc was one of two devoted to Shaker material and recorded at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, site of the last surviving Shaker settlement. The ensemble’s discography extends to 1968 and includes several Elektra releases; numerous later albums appeared on Erato. Following Azéma’s appointment a period without new recordings ensued, yet the group resumed its studio activity in 2019 with Treasures of Devotion: European Spiritual Song ca. 1500, issued by Music & Arts.

Both Cohen and Azéma have been awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.