History
Blue Heron was founded in 1999 by the singer and musicologist Noël Bisson, the singer Cheryl Ryder, and the director, Scott Metcalfe, who is also a baroque violinist. The original intention was to create a professional vocal ensemble devoted to performing medieval and Renaissance music. Blue Heron's first concert on October 16, 1999, under its original name of Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, featured music from theConcerts
The ensemble presented its debut concert on October 16, 1999 at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Cambridge. It now holds concerts all over the Boston area, and since 2004 has presented its own subscription season at First Church in Cambridge, Congregational. Its 20th season (2018–2019) included five concert programs. Including all touring and self-presented concerts, the ensemble offered over two dozen performances. Blue Heron draws from a roster of musicians in order to constitute the ensemble best suited to the repertoire at hand. The performing ensemble may range in size from three singers (for a 15th-century chanson) to as many as thirteen (for a large-scale early 16th-century English mass in a cathedral setting) and adds instruments such as slide trumpet, trombone, dulcian, fiddle, rebec, harp, and lute when appropriate. Most of the members reside in the Boston area, but the ensemble employs musicians from across the US. The group has appeared in other concert series and at venues throughout the United States, including Music Before 1800 in New York City and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., as well as in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Shaker Heights, Milwaukee, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, Grand Rapids, and Philadelphia. In 2008, the ensemble made its West Coast debut at Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, California. Many colleges and universities have hosted Blue Heron, including Harvard, M.I.T., Tufts, Yale (Institute of Sacred Music), Boston College, Boston University, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Endicott, Keene State College, Williams, Queensborough Community College, Colgate, Syracuse University, Salem State College, the University of Chicago, the University of Vermont, and SUNY Binghamton. The group has collaborated with a number of museums, including The National Gallery of Art, Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University), the Cloisters (Metropolitan Museum of Art), the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (Harvard), and the Currier Gallery of Art (Concord, New Hampshire). In October 2017, the ensemble gave its debut concerts in the United Kingdom, performing in the chapels of Peterhouse and Trinity Colleges in Cambridge, and in London at Lambeth Palace Library. In the 2018–19 season, the ensemble made its Canadian debut, appearing in Montreal and Vancouver. In June 2022, the ensemble will make its debut in continental Europe at the Tage Alter Musik festival in Regensburg, Germany.Accolades and awards
With Jessie Ann Owens of the University of California, Davis, Blue Heron was recognized with the 2015 Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society; the prize helped fund the preparation and world premiere recording of Cipriano de Rore's first book of madrigals, ''I madrigali a cinque voci'' of 1542. A 2-CD set of the complete book was released in October 2019. The fifth disc in the series, ''Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks'' (BHCD1007), was selected by ''Gramophone'' magazine as the 2018 winner in the Gramophone Classical Music Awards Early Music category. Blue Heron is a constituent organization ofSpecial projects
In January 2016, Blue Heron collaborated with the Boston-based string ensemble A Far Cry on a performance ofRecordings
Blue Heron's recorded output on its own label includes a series of five CDs containing mostly world premiere recordings, ''Music From the Peterhouse Partbooks''. The first disc was released in 2010 and the fifth in 2017; a five-CD boxed set of these discs, entitled ''The Lost Music of Canterbury'', was released in September 2018. Other CDs include a disc of the music of Guillaume Du Fay, a live recording of English medieval Christmas music, a 2-CD set containing the world premiere recording of Cipriano de Rore's "I madrigali a cinque voci", and a CD of songs of Johannes Ockeghem (and others), which is the start of a series of recordings connected to the group's Ockeghem@600 project. The ensemble also recorded a CD of music to accompany the book ''Capturing Music: The Story of Notation'' by Thomas Forrest Kelly. Blue Heron recorded music composed by Tod Machover for "Vocal Vibrations", an experience offered at Le Laboratoire in Paris in 2014 and at Le Laboratoire's location in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2015.Discography
Full-length CDs and Sets
* ''Guillaume Du Fay: Motets, Hymns, Chansons, Sanctus Papale'' (2007; BHCD1001) * ''Hugh Aston: Three Marian Antiphons'' (Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol. 1) – (2010; BHCD1002) * ''Nicholas Ludford: Missa Regnum mundi'' (Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol. 2) – (2012; BHCD1003) * ''Nicholas Ludford: Missa Inclina cor meum'' (Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol. 3) – (2013; BHCD1004) * ''Robert Jones: Missa Spes nostra'' (Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol. 4) – (2016; BHCD1005) * ''Christmas in Medieval England (Live)'' – (2016; BHCD1006) * ''Anonymous: Missa Sine nomine'' (Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol. 5) – (2017; BHCD1007) * ''The Lost Music of Canterbury: Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks'' (5 CDs) – (2018; BHCD1008) * ''Cipriano de Rore: I madrigali a cinque voci'' (2 CDs) – (2019; BHCD1009) * ''Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs, Volume 1'' – (2019; BHCD1010)Other recordings
* "Taverner: Dum transisset sabbatum (II)", one-track single (2015; BHDR 2001) * Companion CD for ''Capturing Music: The Story of Notation'' by Thomas Forrest Kelly (W. W. Norton, 2014; ; 17 tracks). *Recordings for ''The Oxford Recorded Anthology of Western Music'', edited by David J. Rothenberg and Robert R. Holzer (Oxford University Press, 2012; ): ''En mon cuer'' byReferences
External links