Artist's albums
Carmina Burana [c1230] (Apex)
1996 · album
Farewell, Unkind. Songs & Dances of Dowland
1996 · album
Lamentations - Holy Week in Provence (Apex)
1995 · album
An American Christmas
1993 · album
Certon: Chansons
1980 · album
Hodie Christus natus est
2021 · album
Free America!
2019 · album
Free America!
2019 · EP
L'homme armé, Music of War and Peace
2016 · album
Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
2016 · album
Kaddish
2014 · single
A Mediterranean Christmas
2013 · album
New Britain: The Roots of American Folksong
2013 · album
40 Most Beautiful Folk Classics
2012 · compilation
Sing We Noel (Christmas)
2005 · album
With Joyful Voice
2005 · album
A Medieval Christmas
2005 · album
A Mediterranean Christmas
2005 · album
A Baroque Christmas
2005 · album
A Renaissance Christmas
2005 · album
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Biography
The Boston Camerata is one of the oldest early music ensembles in the U.S., and one of the oldest in the world to have attempted thematic programs that draw on various repertories. Directed for nearly 40 years by Joel Cohen, the ensemble developed a characteristic and consistent sound. The Boston Camerata was founded in 1954. In its first years, it was connected to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts as an ensemble that presented then-rare concerts of music from the eras of the museum's famous paintings and performed on the institution's collection of instruments. In 1969, Cohen became director of the Camerata. Cohen, a Harvard graduate, was a lutenist, conductor, and musicologist who had studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He took the Camerata in new directions, and the ensemble severed its ties to the museum. It began a busy schedule of international touring that has continued unabated, making trips to Europe, Singapore, Mexico, and other locations. At home, in addition to an annual subscription series in Boston, the Camerata has appeared at the Tanglewood Festival, the Kalamazoo Medieval Institute, and, every two years, the Boston Early Music Festival. Especially notable was a 2011 residency in Reims, France, celebrating the 800th anniversary of Reims Cathedral. In 2008, Cohen was replaced by soprano and scholar Anne Azéma; Cohen became musical director emeritus and has remained active with the group. A notable feature of the group's repertory both in performance and on recordings has been the presence of early American choral and vocal music, as on the 2000 release The Golden Harvest: More Shaker Chants and Spirituals. That was one of two albums devoted to the music of the Shakers and made in Sabbathday Lake, Maine, home to the sole remaining Shaker community. The recording career of the Boston Camerata goes back to 1968 and features several releases on the major pop label Elektra. Many of its albums have appeared on Erato. After Azéma's appointment, there was a hiatus in the Camerata's recording career, but the group returned in 2019 with Treasures of Devotion: European Spiritual Song ca. 1500, on Music & Arts. Cohen and Azéma have both received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the government of France.