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Handel and Haydn Society Presents
Special Concert As Part of the
“King’s Chapel Concert Series”
Featuring Susanna Ogata and Ian Watson
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Sunday, February 26, 2017 | 5PM
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[Boston, MA –- February 10, 2017] The Handel and Haydn Society proudly announces a special concert at King’s Chapel as part of the “King’s Chapel Concert Series,” featuring Susanna Ogata on violin and Ian Watson on fortepiano performing Beethoven’s Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin, Op. 12, “Nos. 1, 2, and 3.” The concert takes place Sunday, February 26, 2017 at 5pm, at King’s Chapel located at 58 Tremont Street in downtown Boston. Tickets are general admission, range from $10-20, and may be purchased in advance online at http://www.kings-chapel.org/ and at the door day of. Senior and student discounts are available.
King’s Chapel was the site of the Handel and Haydn Society’s inaugural concert on December 25, 1815. In 2014, in celebration of its approaching bicentennial, H+H began performing regularly on the King’s Chapel Concert Series of free, half-hour lunchtime concerts. “King’s Chapel is always thrilled to host H+H, continuing our collaboration with such an important part of Boston’s musical history,” says Heinrich Christensen, Director of Music for King’s Chapel.
According to Emily Yoder Reed, H+H’s Vice President of Education and Community Engagement, “Ian and Susanna’s interpretation of Beethoven is electrifying and full of energy. Their performance on period instruments is immediate and captivating.” This concert is inspired by “The Beethoven Project,” a recording project of Ogata and Watson’s—where they are recording the complete collection of Beethoven sonatas for violin and fortepiano on the CORO label. They released Volume 1 in 2015 and Volume 2 in 2016.
About Susanna Ogata, Assistant Concertmaster
Susanna Ogata enjoys an active performance schedule in greater New England and beyond. She has been a soloist and participant in concerts presented by Arcadia Players, The Bach Ensemble, Sarasa, Connecticut Early Music Festival, and Boston Early Music Festival. She is a founding member of the Boston Classical Trio. Susanna has been praised for “spontaneous, free flowing playing” (Berkshire Review), her “sensitivity and fire” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), and “playing of electrifying energy, awesome technical command, and rollicking dialogue” (Arts Fuse Magazine) where hers was distinguished as “best solo performance” of 2016.
With fortepianist Ian Watson, Ogata has embarked on “The Beethoven Project,” a venture to record Beethoven’s Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin on period instruments for the CORO label. They have received accolades for the CDs released thus far, including praise in The New York Times for “elegant readings that are attentive to quicksilver changes in dynamics and articulation.” Their performances this season include appearances on The Cambridge Society for Early Music series and a residency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ogata’s teachers have included Charles Castleman, Laura Bossert, and Dana Maiben on baroque violin. She studied extensively with Malcom Bilson and Paul O’Dette while attending the Eastman School of Music. For more information, visit www.susannaogata.com.
About Ian Watson, Associate Conductor
Multi-talented Ian Watson has been described by The Times in London as a “world-class soloist,” performer of “virtuosic panache,” and by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “a conductor of formidable ability.” He is Artistic Director of Arcadia Players Period-Instrument Orchestra, Music Director of the Connecticut Early Music Festival, and Associate Conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. He won a scholarship at age 14 to the Junior School of the Royal Academy of Music in London, later winning all the prizes for organ performance. He completed his studies with Flor Peeters in Belgium. Ian has appeared with most major UK orchestras and also the Polish and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras, Bremen Philharmonic, Rhein-Main Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Komische Oper Berlin, and Darmstadt State Opera among numerous others. He is featured on many film soundtracks including Amadeus, Polanski’s Death and the Maiden, Restoration, Cry the Beloved Country, Voices from A Locked Room, and the BBC‘s production of David Copperfield.
About Harry Christophers, Artistic Director
The 2016-2017 Season marks Harry Christophers’ eighth as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society. Since his appointment in 2009, Christophers and H+H have embarked on an ambitious artistic journey toward the organization’s 200th anniversary with a showcase of works premiered in the U.S. by H+H since 1815, broad education programming, community outreach activities and partnerships, and the release of a series of recordings on the CORO label. Christophers is known internationally as founder and conductor of the UK-based choir and period-instrument ensemble The Sixteen. He has directed The Sixteen throughout Europe, America, Australia, and the Far East, gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in Renaissance, Baroque, and 20th- and 21st-century music. In 2000, he instituted The Choral Pilgrimage, a tour of British cathedrals from York to Canterbury. He has recorded over 120 titles for which he has won numerous awards, including the coveted Gramophone Award for Early Music and the prestigious Classical Brit Award in 2005 for his disc Renaissance. His CD IKON was nominated for a 2007 Grammy and his second recording of Handel’s Messiah on The Sixteen’s own label CORO won the prestigious MIDEM Classical Award 2009. In 2009, he received one of classical music’s highest accolades, the Classic FM Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year Award, and The Sixteen won the Baroque Vocal Award for Handel Coronation Anthems, a recording that also received a 2010 Grammy Award nomination as did Palestrina, Vol. 3 in 2014. From 2007, he has featured with The Sixteen in the highly successful BBC television series Sacred Music, presented by actor Simon Russell Beale. The latest hour-long program, devoted to Monteverdi’s Vespers, will be screened in 2015. Harry Christophers is Principal guest conductor of the Granada Symphony Orchestra and a regular guest conductor with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In October 2008, Christophers was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Leicester. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, of the Royal Welsh Academy for Music and Drama, and was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2012 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
About the H+H Orchestra and Chorus
http://handelandhaydn.org/about/period-instrument-orchestra-and-chorus/
About David Snead, President and CEO
David Snead joined H+H as President and CEO in October 2015 after serving as Vice President of Marketing, Brand and Customer Experience at the New York Philharmonic a role he held since 2001. Previously, he led the marketing programs of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Symphony, and Hartford Symphony. He has also served as Associate Marketing Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, General Manager of the Richmond Symphony, and Executive Director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony. Snead is on the faculty of the League of American Orchestras’ Patron Model seminars, and is a regular lecturer at New York University and Drexel. A noted expert on the relationship between orchestras and their audiences, he has been a featured speaker at national conferences in the United States, England, France, Finland, the Netherlands, and Australia.
H+H 2016-2017 Season Continues…
McGegan and Mozart Symphony Hall March 3 + 5, 2017
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Monteverdi Vespers NEC’s Jordan Hall April 7, 2017
Harry Christophers, conductor The Met Museum April 8, 2017 (New York)
Sanders Theatre April 9, 2017
Handel Semele Symphony Hall May 5 + 7, 2017
Harry Christophers, conductor
About King’s Chapel
King’s Chapel is proudly one of the sixteen historic sites on Boston’s Freedom Trail. As part of Boston’s rich history, discover King’s Chapel’s unique role in the formation of the United States. Founded in 1686, King’s Chapel was established as the first Anglican Church in overwhelmingly Puritan Boston, paving the way for religious freedom in America. While many congregants remained loyal to the British Crown during the revolutionary-era, those members of King’s Chapel who remained in Boston following the evacuation of British troops and sympathizers in 1776 were trailblazers in the establishment of the Unitarian Christian faith in America. While the church as an entity dates to 1686, our historic building dates to 1754, when it was constructed by Peter Harrison, dubbed America’s first architect by architectural historians. Over the years, King’s Chapel has seen notable members and attendees including George Washington, Paul Revere, Thomas Hutchinson, Charles Sumner, Charles Bulfinch, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many more. Visitors of all ages and origins are welcome to King’s Chapel to explore this historic building. For more information visit http://www.kings-chapel.org/history–tours.html
About the Handel and Haydn Society
The Handel and Haydn Society is internationally acclaimed for its performances of Baroque and Classical music. Based in Boston, H+H’s Orchestra and Chorus delight more than 50,000 listeners each year with a nine concert subscription series at Symphony Hall and other leading venues in addition to a robust program of intimate events in museums, schools, and community centers. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Harry Christophers, the ensemble embraces historically informed performance bringing classical music to life with the same immediacy it had the day it was written. Through the Karen S. and George D. Levy Education Program, H+H also provides engaging, accessible, and broadly inclusive music education to over 10,000 children each year through in-school music instruction and a Vocal Arts Program that includes six youth choruses.
Founded in Boston in 1815, H+H is the oldest continuously-performing arts organization in the United States, and is unique among American ensembles for its longevity, capacity for reinvention, and distinguished history of premieres. H+H began as a choral society founded by middle-class Bostonians who aspired to improve the quality of singing in their growing American city. They named the organization after two composers—Handel and Haydn—to represent both the old music of the 18th century and what was then the new music of the 19th century. In the first decades of its existence, H+H gave the American premieres of Handel’s Messiah (1818), Haydn’s Creation (1819), Verdi’s Requiem (1878), and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1879). Between 2014 and 2016, H+H celebrated its Bicentennial with two seasons of special concerts and initiatives to mark 200 years of music making. Since its founding, H+H has given more than 2,000 performances before a total audience exceeding 2.8 million.
In addition to its subscription series, tours, and broadcast performances, H+H reaches a worldwide audience through ambitious recordings including Haydn Symphonies, the critically-acclaimed Haydn: The Creation, the best-selling Joy to the World: An American Christmas, and Handel Messiah, recorded live at Symphony Hall under Christophers’ direction. http://handelandhaydn.org/
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