BEMF Presents Francesco Corti and Agave with Reginald Mobley

BEMF returns in 2025 with keyboard virtuoso Francesco Corti and the BEMF Chamber Ensemble on February 8 and AGAVE with countertenor Reginald Mobley on February 14

ARTISTS: Francesco Corti, harpsichord & organ
Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble
Robert Mealy, Director

Robert Mealy, concertmaster; Sarah Darling, violin; Laura Jeppesen, viola; Phoebe Carrai, violoncello; Heather Miller Lardin, double bass; Debra Nagy & Kathryn Montoya, oboe; Allen Hamrick, bassoon

LOCATION:Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 8pm ET
First Lutheran Church, Boston, MA

VIRTUAL PREMIERE: Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 8pm ET
Available to watch until March 8, 2025 at 11:59pm ET

PROGRAM:Keyboard Masterpieces by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)

Suite No. 3 in D minor, HWV 428
Organ Concerto in G minor, Op. 4, No. 1
Organ Concerto in F major, Op. 4, No. 4

TICKETS: Tickets are priced at $95, $60, $45, and $30 for the in-person performance, and $25 for the virtual event. All in-person tickets include a complimentary ticket for the virtual performance. To purchase tickets, visit BEMF.org or call the BEMF Box Office at 617-661-1812. Discounts are available for students and seniors.

BEMF will also present Francesco Corti in a solo recital in New York City at the Morgan Library & Museum on Thursday, February 6 at 7:30pm. New York audiences can enjoy a program of harpsichord suites by Handel and Bach. Tickets are $50, $40 for Morgan Members, and are available at TheMorgan.org or by calling 212-685-0008 ext. 560.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Join us for a one-of-a-kind event featuring the stunning virtuoso Francesco Corti performing Handel’s Suite No. 3 in D minor for harpischord and joining with our own all-star BEMF Chamber Ensemble and director Robert Mealy to present two Organ Concertos by Handel on the magnificent Richards, Fowkes & Co. Opus 10 organ at Boston’s First Lutheran Church. Celebrating the biennial conference of the American Handel Society—February 6–9, 2025 in Boston—the program will showcase two selections (No. 1 and No. 4) from Handel’s innovative Opus 4, which first established the form of the organ concerto.

ASSOCIATED EVENTS
A pre-concert video featuring Francesco Corti and Robert Mealy will be shared on BEMF.org and social media the week of February 3.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Harpsichordist and conductor Francesco Corti was born in Arezzo, Italy, in a musical family in 1984. He studied organ in Perugia, then harpsichord in Geneva and in Amsterdam. He was awarded at the International “Johann Sebastian Bach” Competition in Leipzig (2006) and at the Bruges Harpsichord Competition (2007). As a soloist and conductor, he has appeared in recitals and concerts all over Europe, in North America, in Latin America, in Asia, and in New Zealand. He has performed in halls such as Thêatre des Champs Elysées (Paris), Bozar (Bruxelles), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Philharmonie (Berlin and Hamburg), Mozarteum and Haus für Mozart (Salzburg), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Teatro Real (Madrid), Palau de la Música Catalana (Barecelona), Tonhalle (Zürich), and Müpa (Budapest). Since 2018, he has been principal guest conductor of il Pomo d’Oro. Among other projects with this ensemble, he has conducted European tours of Händel’s Orlando, Radamisto, Tolomeo, and Berenice and made numerous recordings. He has been invited to lead Freiburger Barockorchester, Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Tafelmusik, Kammerorchester Basel, B’Rock and the Nederlandse Bachvereniging. Starting January 2023, he has beenMusical Director at the Drottningholm Royal Court Theater. His solo recordings have been awarded some of the most prestigious prizes worldwide. His latest solo recording (Arcana) is dedicated to D. Scarlatti. He has taught in masterclasses all over the world. Since September 2016, he has been professor of harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Robert Mealy is one of America’s most prominent Baroque violinists. The New York Times remarked that “Mr. Mealy seems to foster excellence wherever he goes, whether as director of the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, concertmaster of the Trinity Baroque Orchestra in New York, or at The Juilliard School, as director of the historical performance program.” While still an undergraduate, he was asked to join the Canadian Baroque orchestra Tafelmusik; after graduation he began performing with Les Arts Florissants. Since then, he has recorded and toured with many ensembles both here and in Europe, and served as concertmaster for Masaaki Suzuki, Nicholas McGegan, Helmuth Rilling, Paul Agnew, and William Christie, among others. Since 2005, he has led the BEMF Orchestra in their festival performances, tours, and award-winning recordings. In New York, he is principal concertmaster at Trinity Wall Street in their traversal of the complete cantatas of J. S. Bach. He is also co-director of the acclaimed seventeenth-century ensemble Quicksilver. In summers he teaches at the American Baroque Soloists Academy in San Francisco and is often a featured artist at William Christie’s summer festival in Thiré. He made his recital début at Carnegie Hall in 2018. Recent chamber projects have ranged from directing a series of Ars Subtilior programs at The Cloisters in New York to performing the complete Bach violin and harpsichord sonatas at Washington’s Smithsonian Museum. Mr. Mealy has directed the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School since 2012, and has led his Juilliard students in acclaimed performances both in New York and abroad, including tours to Europe, India, New Zealand, Bolivia, and (most recently) China. Before coming to Juilliard, he taught for many years at Yale and Harvard. In 2004, he received EMA’s Binkley Award for outstanding teaching and scholarship. He still likes to practice.


ARTISTS: AGAVE
Reginald Mobley, countertenor

Aaron Westman & Anna Washburn, violin; Katherine Kyme, viola; William Skeen, violoncello; Kevin Cooper, theorbo & baroque guitar; Henry Lebedinsky, organLOCATION:Friday, February 14, 2025 at 8pm ET
First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, Cambridge, MA

VIRTUAL PREMIERE: Friday, February 28, 2025 at 8pm ET
Available to watch until March 14, 2025 at 11:59pm ETPROGRAM:Rum and Rebellion

Anonymous: Baile del Chimo, from Codex Martinez Compañon, Peru, ca. 1780
José Mauricio Nuñes Garcia: Te, Christe, solum novimus
Nuñes Garcia: Sinfonia fúnebre
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Chanson nègre (Lisette quitté la plaine)
Nuñes Garcia: Beijo a mão que me condena
Joaquin Manoel da Câmara: Desde el dia em que eu nasci
Câmara: Ouvi montes arvoredos
Ignatius Sancho: Anacreon Ode XIII
Esteban Salas: Taedet animam meam
Tomás Luis de Victoria: Pueri Hebraeorum
Salas: ¡Tu, mí Dios, entre pajas!
Joseph Boulogne: Quartet concertante, Op. 14, No. 2
Boulogne: Jouissés d’allegresse from L’Amant anonymeTICKETS: Tickets are priced at $95, $60, $45, and $30 for the in-person performance, and $25 for the virtual event. All in-person tickets include a complimentary ticket for the virtual performance. To purchase tickets, visit BEMF.org or call the BEMF Box Office at 617-661-1812. Discounts are available for students and seniors.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Explore the turbulent crossroads of revolution, the rum industry, and the transatlantic slave trade in the Caribbean, South America, and Europe in a fascinating program with the San Francisco–based Agave in the string ensemble’s BEMF début alongside star countertenor Reginald Mobley. These GRAMMY-nominated collaborators explore works by Black British composer, rum merchant, and abolitionist Ignatius Sancho as well as Brazilian master José Mauricio Nuñes Garcia, grandson of sugar cane plantation slaves. Discover the unique and compelling voice of Cuban composer and music historian Esteban Salas and hear Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s setting of the earliest published text in Haitian Creole. From heartbreaking love songs to elegant chamber works and joyous expressions of faith, experience the music of a changing world through the eyes of composers whose stories are finally being told.

ASSOCIATED EVENTS
A pre-concert video featuring Reginald Mobley and a member of AGAVE will be shared on BEMF.org and social media the week of February 10.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
GRAMMY nominated ensemble AGAVE is “an energized, free-spirited group” (EMAg), based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and specializing in string chamber music of the seventeenth through twentieth centuries. Agave has received numerous awards and accolades and gained local and national attention for its “brilliant,” “profound” (EMAg), “precise and stylish” (American Record Guide) playing, “a certain let-down-your-hair quality” (AllMusic), as well as its growing discography. Now in its fourteenth season, AGAVE continues its fruitful affiliations with star countertenor Reginald Mobley, phenomenal soprano Michele Kennedy, and the Acis record label, and continues to be a unique and innovative voice in the chamber music community nationally. Their album, American Originals, features Mobley and celebrates four centuries of music of mostly Black and brown composers from the United States, Mexico, Cuba, and South America, including new transcriptions of songs by Florence Beatrice Price. It received a GRAMMY nomination in the Best Classical Compendium category, got rave reviews in Gramophone Magazine, EMAg, American Record Guide, and MusicWeb International among others. AGAVE make their Boston Early Music Festival début in this performance.

American Countertenor Reginald L. Mobley fully intended to speak his art through watercolors and oil pastels until circumstance demanded that his own voice should speak for itself. Since reducing his visual color palette to the black and white of a score, he’s endeavored to open up a wider spectrum onstage. Mobley is highly sought after for his interpretations of Baroque, Classical, and modern repertoire. He regularly appears as guest with a wide range of Baroque ensembles, festivals, and orchestras in the United States, appearing at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall with organizations including Agave, Seraphic Fire, Bach Collegium San Diego, San Francisco Early Music Society, Opera Lafayette, Chatham Baroque, Washington Bach Consort, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Seattle, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, as well as the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, and New York Philharmonic. In Europe, Mobley has been invited to perform with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Holland Baroque, Academy of Ancient Music, OH! in Poland, and Orchester Wiener Akademie. He recently performed the role of Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s production at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Müpa (Budapest), and at Teatro di Vicenza. Reginald Mobley’s recordings have received great acclaim. In 2021, he released American Originals with AGAVE on the Acis label. It received a GRAMMY nomination. In 2023 he released his solo recording debut with ALPHA Classics, which also received a GRAMMY nomination.

ABOUT THE BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
Recognized as the preeminent early music presenter and Baroque opera producer in North America, the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) has been credited with securing Boston’s reputation as “America’s early music capital” (The Boston Globe). Founded in 1981, BEMF offers diverse programs and activities, including one GRAMMY Award–winning and five GRAMMY Award–nominated opera recordings, an annual concert series that brings early music’s brightest stars to the Boston and New York concert stages, and a biennial week-long Festival and Exhibition recognized as the “world’s leading festival of early music” (The Times, London). The 23rd Boston Early Music Festival will take place from June 8 to 15, 2025, and will feature a fully staged production of Reinhard Keiser’s Octavia. BEMF’s Artistic Leadership includes Artistic Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Opera Director Gilbert Blin, and Orchestra Director Robert Mealy.

The Boston Early Music Festival is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Constellation Charitable Foundation, and WCRB Classical Radio Boston, as well as a number of generous foundations and individuals from around the world.

For more information, please contact Kathleen Fay at kathy@bemf.org.

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