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Blue Heron

The small Boston-based choir Blue Heron specializes in innovative performances and recordings of Renaissance and medieval vocal music but has a broad repertory stretching from plainchant to newly composed works. The group studies historical performances and original source materials closely and often performs rarely heard music, notably the 16th century English Peterhouse Partbooks. Nevertheless, its themed programs offer considerable expressive intensity and are not motivated strictly by historical performance practice. The group has a substantial recording catalog on its own Blue Heron label. In 2024, the group released the album Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs, Vol. 2. One of the more durable U.S. early music groups, Blue Heron was founded in 1999 by harpist and Baroque violinist (and medieval fiddler) Scott Metcalfe, who remained artistic director as of the mid-2020s. The other founding members were singers Cheryl Ryder and Noël Bisson. The group is flexible in size, ranging from three singers for small vocal pieces like chansons to a dozen or more for bigger choral pieces such as English masses. The group is also augmented as needed with medieval and Renaissance instruments. Blue Heron members mostly live in the Boston area, but the group has drawn on the talents of musicians from across the U.S. Blue Heron released its debut album, Guillaume Du Fay: Motets, Hymns & Chansons, in 2007. Blue Heron offers an annual subscription series based at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The group's reputation has radiated steadily outward from Boston, and it has appeared at major series and venues, including the Library of Congress in Washington and Music Before 1800 in New York. Blue Heron made its West Coast debut in 2008 in San Luis Obispo, California, at Festival Mozaic. Blue Heron has appeared at many U.S. colleges and universities and has held long-term residencies at Boston College (from 2009 to 2012) and Boston University (from 2012 to 2015). The group made its British debut at the chapels of Peterhouse and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge, in 2017, and the following year, it appeared in several Canadian cities. Blue Heron appeared at the Tage Alter Musik Festival in Regensburg, Germany, in 2022, making its continental European debut. The group has performed a variety of music, including Fauré's Requiem (in collaboration with the Boston string group A Far Cry) and works by contemporary composers such as Tod Machover. However, its recordings have focused on medieval and Renaissance music, and its 2024 Ockeghem release was part of a series devoted to the under-recorded secular music of that composer.
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26 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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