Musicians of the Old Post Road

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Musicians of the Old Post Road (MOPR) is a chamber music ensemble based in the Boston area that specializes in period instrument performance. The ensemble often performs "rediscovered" works from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. [1] The ensemble, founded by Artistic Directors Suzanne Stumpf and Daniel Ryan, performs in historical buildings along the Boston Post Road, which was a trade and travel route between Boston and New York City from the late 17th through mid-19th centuries. MOPR's repertoire spans these dates. [2] The group has produced seven CDs, toured throughout Europe and North America, and received numerous awards, including the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society in 1998. [3]

Chamber music form of classical music composed for a small group of instruments

Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.

Boston State capital of Massachusetts, U.S.

Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km2) with an estimated population of 694,583 in 2018, making it also the most populous city in New England. Boston is the seat of Suffolk County as well, although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States.

Classical period (music) genre of Western music (c.1730-1820)

The Classical period was an era of classical music between roughly 1730 and 1820.

Contents

Notable Performances and Collaborations

MOPR has toured both within the US and internationally. US appearances include the Boston Early Music Festival Concert Series, [4] and the Indianapolis Early Music Festival. [5] International appearances include performances at the Tage Alter Musik  [ de ], Germany, [6] and El Museo Regional in Cuauhnáhuac, Mexico. [7]

The Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) is a non-profit organization founded in 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. to promote historical music performance. It presents an annual concert series in Boston and New York City, produces opera recordings, and organizes a weeklong Festival and Exhibition every two years in Boston. A centerpiece of these festivals has been a fully staged Baroque opera production. One of BEMF's main goals is to unearth lesser-known Baroque operas, which are then performed by the world's leading musicians armed with the latest information on period singing, orchestral performance, costuming, dance, and staging at each biennial Festival. BEMF operas are led by the BEMF Artistic Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, BEMF Orchestra Director Robert Mealy, and BEMF Opera Director Gilbert Blin. In 2008, BEMF introduced its Chamber Opera Series as part of its annual concert season. The series presents semi-staged productions of chamber operas composed during the Baroque period. In 2011, BEMF took its chamber production of Handel's Acis and Galatea on a four-city North-American tour. In 2004, BEMF initiated a project to record some of its work in the field of Baroque opera on the CPO recording label. The series has since earned five Grammy Award nominations, including a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

Indianapolis Early Music

Indianapolis Early Music (IEM) is a non-profit organization established in Indianapolis in 1966 to organize concerts featuring music of the medieval, renaissance, baroque, and early classic eras. Since 1966, it has produced the annual Indianapolis Early Music Festival, the oldest continuous Early Music festival in the United States.

MOPR has collaborated with La Fontegara of Mexico, [8] Schola Cantorum of Boston, [9] and Pamela Dellal, mezzo soprano. [10]

Mexico Country in the southern portion of North America

Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost 2,000,000 square kilometers (770,000 sq mi), the nation is the fourth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 129 million people, Mexico is the tenth most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states plus Mexico City (CDMX), which is the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the country include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, and León.

Pamela Dellal is an American mezzo-soprano in opera and concert, a musicologist and academic teacher. She has performed classical music from the medieval Hildegard von Bingen to contemporary. She is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory, Brandeis University, and the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She is known for having translated all texts that Johann Sebastian Bach set to music.

The ensemble was also commissioned to build a program to accompany an exhibit at the MIT Museum. [11] In 2006, the ensemble was featured on Boston's WCVB television’s Chronicle program about the history of the old Boston Post Road. [12]

MIT Museum Science museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts

The MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, technology-related artworks, artificial intelligence, robotics, maritime history, and the history of MIT. Its holography collection of 1800 pieces is the largest in the world, though not all of it is exhibited. As of 2019, holographic art, and works by the kinetic artist Arthur Ganson are the two largest long-running displays. There is a regular program of temporary special exhibitions, often on the intersections of art and technology.

WCVB-TV ABC affiliate in Boston

WCVB-TV, virtual channel 5, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The station is owned by the Hearst Television subsidiary of Hearst Communications. WCVB-TV's studios are located on TV Place in Needham, and its transmitter is located on Cedar Street, also in Needham, on a tower shared with several other television and radio stations.

Boston Post Road road in the northeast United States

The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States.

Rediscovered Works and Programming

The ensemble frequently performs lesser-known, rediscovered works. In a 2008 interview, Stumpf stated ¨We enjoy finding works not often selected for performance and combining it with interesting ways to present it to our audience.¨ [13] The ensemble presents these rediscovered works within contextualized programs. [14]

Discography

Members

The ensemble is composed of five core members: Suzanne Stumpf, flute, Daniel Ryan, cello, Sarah Darling, violin, Michael Bahmann, harpsichord, and Marcia Cassidy, viola. [17]

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References

  1. ↑ Myers, Robert (19 December 2009). "Musicians of the Old Post Road Polish Mediterranean Gems". Classical Voice of New England.
  2. ↑ Duckett, Richard (19 December 2008). "Unusual is Standard for Old Post Road". Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
  3. ↑ Dyer, Richard (6 November 1998). "Classical Notes". The Boston Globe.
  4. ↑ "1998-1999 Season". Boston Early Music Festival. Boston Early Music Festival. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "Concerts Presented by Festival Music Society/Indianapolis Early Music". Indianapolis Early Music. Festival Music Society of Indiana. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "Kurze Geschicte der Tage Alter Musik Regensburg". Tage Alter Musik. Tage Alter Musik Regensberg. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "About Musicians of the Old Post Road". Musicians of the Old Post Road. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "La Fontegara". La Fontegara México. IPOWER. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "Recent Concert Seasons". Schola Cantorum of Boston. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Recordings with Musicians of the Old Post Road". Pamela Dellal. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  11. ↑ "On The Town". The Tech. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "About Musicians of the Old Post Road". Musicians of the Old Post Road. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  13. ↑ Duckett, Richard. "Unusual Is Standard for Old Post Road" (19 December 2008). Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
  14. ↑ Liu, Cathy (31 October 1993). "Playing with History along the Old Post Road". Boston Sunday Globe.
  15. ↑ "Chorus Pro Musica surveys its 50 years". Boston Globe. 6 November 1998.
  16. ↑ "CD Discography". Musicians of the Old Post Road. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  17. ↑ Duckett, Richard (19 December 2008). "Unusual Is Standard for Old Post Road". Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
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