August 18, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Cambridge Society for Early Music presents its first full Concert Season since 2020
CSEM presents its 2025-26 Concert Season, the organization’s first full Concert Season since 2020, and the first under the new leadership of Artistic Director Annette Klein and General Manager Sarah Vandewalle. With three distinct ensembles and programs to be performed at venues in Cambridge, Weston, and Beverly Farms, this season will present a wide-ranging span of early music from medieval, baroque, and classical periods.
The diverse upcoming Season reflects CSEM’s commitment to compelling and welcoming concert experiences, celebrating Boston’s talented pool of early music musicians as well as discovering and fostering newcomers to the scene. The acclaimed New York-based Concordian Dawn celebrates its latest album release with a medieval take on Christmas and Advent – the ingenuously curated primary source texts and stunning music providing surprising insight into the joys and tensions of the holiday season. CSEM presents the inaugural performances of the newly-formed New England Baroque, featuring some of Boston’s most accomplished period players. And, the Arrow Quartet, founded in 2021 by students in Julliard’s Historical Performance program, share their infectiously joyful musicmaking in a program of Mozart K. 428 alongside a few more rare treasures from the classical string quartet repertoire.
Artistic Director Annette Klein remarks “CSEM stands for welcoming and compelling concert experiences, building community within the Boston Early Music scene, discovering and fostering new talent, and much more. I would like this first season back to reflect these core values. We are excited to connect with audiences in the greater Boston area that are yearning for intimate musical experiences and want to be part of an organization that fosters all sides of the Boston Early Music community.”
Since its founding in 1952, the Cambridge Society for Early Music–the first such society in America–has contributed enormously to establishing the Boston area’s reputation as the early music capital of America. After several years of hiatus following the pandemic and the passing of longtime-president James S. Nicolson, CSEM re-emerges as a focal point for greater understanding and appreciation of the vast repertory in this field. Building on its rich history, the Society carries forward its commitment to making the diverse music of our past a continuing source of enrichment for our present with inspiring and accessible public programming. Current CSEM Board President John Carey notes, “it has been a great cooperative effort, getting CSEM up and running again. Always in our minds have been Jim’s example and dedication. We hope that he would be proud of what CSEM is doing today.”
CSEM will co-present its North Shore concerts in Beverly Farms with St. John’s Episcopal Church as part of the church’s well-established St. John’s Concert Series. In this special collaboration, CSEM celebrates our own re-emergence alongside the Series’ 40th Anniversary Season, which will also include 5 other wide-ranging and exciting concert events.
Tickets to CSEM concerts in the 2025-26 Concert Season will be Pay-What-You-Can, with a suggested donation of $25. Donations can be made ahead or at the door.
Concert-Set 1: Concordian Dawn, Veni Redemptor Gentium
CSEM and Concordian Dawn celebrate the release of CD’s third studio album, Veni Redemptor Gentium, with a program of both rarely-heard repertoire and more traditional gems from the medieval Christmas and Advent holidays. The program also includes two new compositions by Australian-born composer, David Yardley, both of which were premiered by Concordian Dawn and recorded on the album. We warmly invite audiences to ring in the holiday season and celebrate the release with us!
With Christopher Preston Thompson, tenor and harp; Michelle Kennedy, soprano; Nickolas Karageorgiou, haute-contre tenor; Thomas McCargar, baritone and percussion; Amber Evans, soprano and percussion; Daphna Mor, winds and voice
- Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 2:30pm: Village Church in Weston, 130 Newton St., Weston
- Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 7:30pm: University Lutheran Church, 66 Winthrop St., Cambridge
- Sunday, November 23, 2025 at 4pm: St John’s Episcopal Church, 705 Hale St., Beverly Farms
Concert-Set 2: New England Baroque, Baroque Connections – Friends and Rivals
CSEM presents New England Baroque, a new ensemble of acclaimed local musicians, in its debut performance. Friends and Rivals brings to life a circle of 17th-century European composers living in or strongly influenced by the booming baroque musical city of Venice. This program discovers their influences and relationships through their music, especially highlighting the fond long-distance friendship between George Frideric Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann, and the competitive rivalry between Handel and Nicola Porpora.
With Renée Hemsing, Susanna Ogata, violins; Guy Fishman, cello; Ian Watson, harpsichord
- Friday, March 27, 2026 at 7:30pm: University Lutheran Church, 66 Winthrop St., Cambridge
- Saturday, March 28, 2026 at 4pm: Village Church in Weston, 130 Newton St., Weston
- Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 4pm: St John’s Episcopal Church, 705 Hale St., Beverly Farms
Concert-Set 3: Arrow Quartet, Viennese Impressions – String Quartets from the Age of Enlightenment
CSEM is proud to present Arrow Quartet, an up-and-coming string quartet founded in 2021 by students from Julliard’s Historical Performance program. The young quartet brings a passion for expanding the classical repertoire and discovering historical intersections between classical chamber works and music that was performed outside of the concert hall. Viennese Impressions centers Mozart’s string quartet in e-flat, K. 428, one of six quartets he dedicated to Haydn, often referred to as “the father of the string quartet.” From there, the program explores lesser-known composers Guiseppe Cambini and Franz Xaver Richter, prolific and popular in their time, who also contributed to the development of the string quartet genre.
With Amelia Sie, Alyssa Campbell, violins; Jimmy Drancsack, viola; Chelsea Bernstein, cello
- Friday, May 22, 2026 at 7:30pm: University Lutheran Church, 66 Winthrop St., Cambridge
- Saturday, May 23, 2026 at 4pm: Village Church in Weston, 130 Newton St., Weston
- Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 4pm: St John’s Episcopal Church, 705 Hale St., Beverly Farms
Tickets and info can be found at www.csem.org, sarah@csem.org, or 617-468-8273
About The Cambridge Society for Early Music:
Founded in 1952 by pianist and musicologist Erwin Bodky, the Cambridge Society for Early Music is America’s oldest organization for the promotion of music composed prior to the eighteenth century. CSEM seeks to further the musical education of the general public through the study and performance of early music. Through intimate public concerts, workshops, and masterclasses, we strive to bring performers, scholars, audiences and students together into one community.
