Musicians of the Old Post Road (MOPR) is a

chamber music 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 numb ...

ensemble based in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area that specializes in period instrument performance. The ensemble often performs "rediscovered" works from the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

, Classical, and Romantic periods. The ensemble, founded by Artistic Directors Suzanne Stumpf and Daniel Ryan, performs in historical buildings along the

Boston Post Road 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. The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Ro ...

, which was a trade and travel route between Boston and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from the late 17th through mid-19th centuries. MOPR's repertoire spans these dates. 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 The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legitim ...

in 1998.

Notable performances and collaborations

MOPR has toured both within the US and internationally. US appearances include the Boston Early Music Festival Concert Series, and the

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 Indianap ...

Festival. International appearances include performances at the , Germany, and El Museo Regional in Cuauhnáhuac, Mexico. MOPR has collaborated with La Fontegara of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), 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 Guatema ...

, Schola Cantorum of Boston, and Pamela Dellal, mezzo soprano. The ensemble was also commissioned to build a program to accompany an exhibit at the

MIT Museum 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, architecture, robotics, maritime histor ...

. In 2006, the ensemble was featured on Boston's

WCVB WCVB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on TV Place (off Gould Street near the I-95/ MA 128/Highland Avenue ...

television’s ''Chronicle'' program about the history of the old

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.¨ The ensemble presents these rediscovered works within contextualized programs.

Discography

* Roman Handel * Feliz Navidad * Telemann Twelve Fantasias and Other Works * Telemann and Bodinus Quartets * Galant with an Attitude: Music of Juan and José Pla * Trios and Scottish Song Settings of J.N. Hummel. The ensemble won the 1998 Noah Greenberg Award for this recording. * The Virtuoso Double Bass

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.

External links

Musicians of the Old Post Road

Youtube of Musicians of the Old Post Road

References

{{authority control Chamber music groups Musical groups from Boston