Handel and Haydn Highlight Boston Baroque's 2012-2013 Season, Opening 10/19

Performances take place at the following venues, both fully wheelchair accessible and convenient to public transportation:

NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA 02115

Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Pre-concert talks take place one hour before every performance, and are open to all ticket holders.

Subscriptions for the 2012-2013 season range from $66 for a three-concert package, to a maximum of $380 for all five concerts in the top seating category. Subscribers enjoy a variety of benefits, including price discounts, easy ticket exchange, special subscriber events throughout the season, and more.

For more information or to place subscription orders, patrons can call the Boston Baroque box office, at 617/987-8600 ext. 1, Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Information is also available online at www.bostonbaroque.org.

Tickets to individual concerts will be available on September 1.

Boston Baroque is the first permanent Baroque orchestra established in North America and is widely regarded as being among the world's leading period-instrument ensembles. Founded in 1973 as Banchetto Musicale by Music Director Martin Pearlman, the Boston Baroque orchestra is made up of some of the finest period-instrument players in the U.S.; they are frequently joined by the company's professional chorus and by instrumental and vocal soloists from around the world. The ensemble presents an annual subscription series of five programs, performed at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall or Harvard University's Sanders Theatre, plus occasional additional concerts at other venues.

Boston Baroque also reaches an audience of millions of listeners around the globe with more than 20 critically-acclaimed recordings, which have been recognized with three Grammy® nominations. With last season's recording of Haydn's Creation, Boston Baroque begins a new recording relationship with the audiophile European label Linn Records, named by Gramophone as Label of the Year in 2010.

Boston Baroque made an acclaimed appearance in 2009 with two programs at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and performed Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 to a sold-out crowd and standing ovation in New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine in March 2010. The ensemble made its European debut in 2003, performing Handel's Messiah to capacity crowds in Krakow and Warsaw, Poland, and toured the Vespers to Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and Tanglewood in 2004.

Martin Pearlman, founder and Music Director of Boston Baroque, is a conductor, harpsichordist, composer and early-music specialist, and is one of America's leading interpreters of Baroque and Classical music. Highlights of his work include the complete Monteverdi opera cycle, with his own new performing editions of The Coronation of Poppea and The Return of Ulysses; the American premiere of Rameau's Zoroastre; Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and Alceste; a survey of Beethoven symphonies on period instruments; major Handel operas including Alcina, Agrippina, Semele and Xerxes; and a Mozart opera series including The Abduction from the Seraglio, The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte and the North American period instrument premiere of Don Giovanni.

Pearlman made his Kennedy Center debut with The Washington Opera in Handel's Semele, and has guest conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, Utah Opera, Opera Columbus, Boston Lyric Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony and New World Symphony. Recent compositions by Mr. Pearlman include The Creation According to Orpheus for solo piano, harp, percussion and string orchestra; and music for three plays of Samuel Beckett, commissioned by and premiered at New York's 92nd Street Y and performed in Cambridge in 2007. Writing in the Boston Globe, Anthony Tommasini said, "If fans of Boston Baroque wonder why Pearlman's conducting is so insightful, it's because he knows, as only a composer can, how music goes."

Pearlman is Professor of Music in Historical Performance at the Boston University School of Music.