KEYBOARD MINI-FESTIVAL, First Church Boston, 66 Marlborough Street, 9:00am:

First Church Boston, Yi-Heng Yang, clavichord:

Awaken to Love:
The playing of keyboardist Yi-heng Yang has been described as "impeccabl" (BBC Music) and "superbly adep" (Gramophone). For her BEMF début, she explores the dynamic and expressive range of the clavichord in a program of galant, pre-Romantic improvisatory works by Auernhammer, C. P. E. Bach, and Haydn, which spring directly from the composers’ emotional landscapes. Paired with these are 21st-century pieces in historical keyboard style, by Neo-Baroque composers Mondry and Canzano, as well as short historical-style improvisations interspersed throughout.

Exhibition, NEW VENUE FOR 2025: The Colonnade Hotel, 120 Huntington Avenue, 10:am - 7:pm:

The heart of the Boston Early Music Festival is our world-famous Exhibition. As the premier early music trade show in North America and among the largest in the world, the BEMF Exhibition features Early Music tradespeople from across the globe, with makers of period instruments, music publishers, dealers in rare books, prints, and manuscripts, and representatives from the world’s leading conservatories and schools of music. The Exhibition is visited daily by hundreds of amateur and professional musicians, students, scholars, and enthusiasts from around the world seeking to purchase instruments, restock their libraries, renew old friendships, and immerse themselves in an unparalleled opportunity for enrichment and discovery.

With an inviting new venue – the Huntington Ballroom and Foyer at the Colonnade Hotel – only blocks from New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall where most of the evening concert take place, the 2025 BEMF Exhibition is sure to be a hub of activity. Nearby restaurants, cafés and fringe venues make this Back Bay location the perfect new home for the BEMF Exhibition.

Registration for the 2025 BEMF Exhibition is now open! Download a registration form below or contact Exhibition Manager Elizabeth Hardy at [email protected] for more information.

MASTERCLASS, Enrico Gatti, violin & Marcello Gatti, flute
Emmanuel Church Parish Hall, 15 Newbury Street: 10:00am - 12:00pm:

Emmanuel Church Music Room

KEYBOARD MINI-FESTIVAL,  Federico Ercoli, The First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street, 11:30am:

Federico Ercoli, fortepiano:
Farewell: On the Other Side of Love and Power:

Bitterness, hope, faith, and despair are just some of the ingredients that mix at the moment of farewell. Federico Ercoli, laureate of the MA Fortepiano Competition 2024, makes his BEMF début in a recital that explores fortepiano examples of this theme from the late 18th and early 19th centuries: from Dussek’s farewell to his beloved friend Clementi, through Haydn’s depiction of Christ’s farewell to earthly life, to Beethoven’s farewell to Archduke Rudolf, his powerful student and patron.

KEYBOARD MINI-FESTIVAL, Harpsichord, The First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street, 2:00pm:

Justin Taylor, harpsichord:
French Love:

After a spectacular BEMF début with Le Consort in 2024, the stunning virtuoso Justin Taylor returns for the 2025 Keyboard Mini-Festival. His program has its roots in the golden age of French harpsichord, with some of the greatest music ever composed for the instrument, by Rameau, François Couperin, d’Anglebert, and other masters. Be transported by the dazzling emotional intensity expressed by the harpsichord in this recital where all is about love!

PRE-OPERA TALK, 5:30pm:

Keiser’s Octavia: Rivalry and Recompense; presented by John H. Roberts, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley

OPENING FANFARE 6:40pm:
Keiser's Octavia, Members of the BEMF Orchestra Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre

CENTERPIECE OPERA,  Keiser's Octavia, Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 7:00pm

he virtuous Empress Octavia is betrayed by her increasingly erratic husband, Nero, putting all of Rome on the brink of rebellion.
Written for the famed Hamburg Opera in 1705, Keiser’s monumental work brings lavish spectacle and brilliant orchestration to a nuanced tale of the corruption of power and the resilience of love. A fantastical parade of philosophers, clowns, ghosts, and despots comes alive on the stage as the noble Octavia struggles to survive the turmoil and cruelty around her.

Tiridates, the King of Armenia, has come to Rome to pledge his allegiance to the Empire. Emperor Nero officially restores the king to his throne while growing infatuated with Tiridates’ wife, Ormœna, much to the dismay of Empress Octavia. Tensions rise as the Roman citizens grow restless over Nero’s lavish attempts to court the Armenian Queen and rid himself of his own bride. As Rome breaks out in open rebellion, Octavia must find a way to persevere amidst the chaos.

GRAMMY-winning Musical Directors Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs and acclaimed Stage Director Gilbert Blin lead an all-new production replete with opulent stagecraft and impeccable musicianship. Breathtaking sets, sumptuous, period-inspired costumes, exquisite Baroque dance, and beautifully evocative music combine in an operatic feast sure to delight.

CONCERT Vox Luminis, Emmanuel Church, Boston, MA, 8:00pm:

Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas: Music of Carissimi and Forster
Without Giacomo Carissimi, the oratorio might never have existed. The 17th-century Italian composer and priest was a brilliant free spirit at the time of the counter-reformation and advocated using emotional music to convert the people. His masterly oratorios smuggled the intense expression of opera into spiritual music. Lionel Meunier and Gramophone Award winners Vox Luminis explore Carissimi’s sacred oratorios with his reflections on the transience of worldly ambitions in Vanitas Vanitatum (Vanity of vanities) and the biblical stories of Jephte and Abraham et Isaac alongside Kaspar Forster's spiritual take on the vanity of vanities.

CONCERT, Concerto Romano with Luca Cervoni, tenor, 10:30pm:

Arnalta's Cafe: An Operatic Nanny Romp through 17th-Century Italy
Director Alessandro Quarta and Concerto Romano are dedicated to bringing their uniquely Roman perspective to timeless music of the Italian Baroque. They return to BEMF with an uproarious  showcase of the many nurses and nannies featured in 17th-century operas—all very intent on having their say. Arnalta from Monteverdi's Poppea is the master of ceremonies for a parade of irresistible comic characters (performed en travesti, as is traditional, by tenor Luca Cervoni). Beloved composers such as Monteverdi and Cavalli are juxtaposed with lesser-known masters for operatic scenes bursting with irreverent wit, fiendish mockery, surprising tenderness, and some sage advice as only the nurse can offer!

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