Folger Consort presents annual holiday concert A Mass for Christmas Eve: Baroque Music for the Season

11 performances with music by Vivaldi, Charpentier, and others set for December 6 – 15, 2024

Folger Consort, the early music ensemble-in-residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, continues its beloved DC holiday tradition, hosting eleven concerts of A Mass for Christmas Eve: Baroque Music for the Season from Friday, December 6 through Sunday, December 15. Performances will take place at the historic Elizabethan-styled theater, adorned for the season to create an immersive holiday ambiance.

This year’s centerpiece is Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël, a Christmas Mass composed in 1694. Known for his beguiling blend of baroque dance rhythms and sophisticated harmonies, Charpentier drew inspiration from traditional French noels, creating a work rich in folk-inspired melodies that resonate with the joy and reverence of the season. In addition to Charpentier’s captivating Mass, the Consort will present a selection of seasonal pieces to be performed by the Consort’s ensemble of eight instrumentalists and eight vocalists.

“We are delighted to offer a December program this season featuring some of the most lovely and tuneful holiday music from France, Italy and England,” says Folger Consort co-Artistic Director Robert Eisenstein. “We’ve centered the program on Charpentier’s Midnight Mass for Christmas Eve—a wonderful work for choir, strings, and flutes. Along with Charpentier’s Mass, we’ll perform his seldom heard suite for four viola da gambas and three unique arrangements of the sixteenth-century Scottish Nativity lullaby Balalulow, each bringing fresh life to this beloved carol.”

Folger Consort’s ensemble for this seasonal event is composed of seven celebrated instrumentalists, each bringing their mastery of period instruments to the program. Wade Davis will perform on cello, basse de violon, and bass viol; Folger Consort co-Artistic Director Robert Eisenstein will play violin, treble viol, and recorders, and Leslie Nero will be featured on violin, viola, and treble viol. Nina Falk (viola), Paula Maust (organ), Dan Meyers (recorders), and Patricia Ann Neely (violone, bass viol) round out this talented instrumental group.

Eight outstanding guest vocalists will add their voices to the performance. Sopranos Crossley Hawn and Susan Lewis Kavinski, mezzo-sopranos Hannah Baslee and Rhianna Cockrell, tenors Patrick Kilbride and Oliver Mercer, and baritones Mark Duer and Corbin Phillips will bring Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël and other selections to life.

Opening each half of the program are festive concerti by Antonio Vivaldi—his Concerto for Two Trumpets (or recorders) and Concerto for Violin “Il Riposo per il S.S. Natale,” respectively—with Giuseppe Torelli’s Concerto “In forma di Pastorale per il Santissimo Natalea” bringing the first half to a spirited close. The first half will also include Charpentier’s elegant dance suite, Concert pour quatre violes, interspersed with three contemporary British settings of the old Scottish lullaby “Balulalow” by Frances Potts, Peter Warlock, and Oliver Tarney. The concert culminates in Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit.

“No question there’s a special resonance in early music at holiday-time, maybe because it gets us closer to beloved, ancient traditions that date back before the earliest music we perform,” shares Folger Consort co-Artistic Director Christopher Kendall. “The folk sources of Charpentier’s Midnight Mass take us back, and so too, do the recent British settings of the old lullaby Balulalow. In this context, the brilliant baroque concerti will seem positively modern, all celebrating the spirit of the season.”

EARLY MUSIC SEMINAR:

On Wednesday, December 4 at 6pm, Folger Consort co-Artistic Director Robert Eisenstein shares historical and musical background information and a sneak peek at the music performed in A Mass for Christmas Eve: Baroque Music for the Season. This virtual Early Music Seminar is $10 to live-stream, with special discounts for Folger Members and Consort subscribers.

TICKETING INFORMATION:

Tickets can be purchased online or by contacting the Folger box office at (202) 544-7077. Tickets are $20–$60, with discounts available for Folger members and subscribers, seniors, students, educators, military and their families, and groups.

A limited number of Family Four-Packs are available for each performance. Families, including at least two audience members under the age of 18, can purchase a Family Four-Pack for only $120 — a 25% savings on single ticket prices.

More information online at: www.folger.edu/whats-on/a-mass-for-christmas-eve

Folger Consort 2024-25 season flex passes (3-concerts) are available starting at $119—a 20% savings on single ticket prices.

INSTRUMENTALISTS:

Wade Davis (cello, basse de violon, bass viol) is in high demand as a solo performer and chamber music collaborator. He regularly performs with Folger Consort, the Washington Bach Consort, as a guest with the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, and his own baroque ensemble, S’amusant, co-founded with Patrick Merrill, harpsichordist in 2013. Other appearances include Piccolo Spoleto Festival’s Early Music Series, Indianapolis Early Music, MOJA Arts Festival, The Spire Series, and Bach Ascending. Known for wide variety of styles, he’s also featured on popular indie music concert series such as Sofar Sounds Baltimore and has guested with New York-based band Reserved for Rondee and Baltimore-based band Outcalls in addition to the “Swans for Relief” project video curated by Misty Copeland to raise funds for dancers whose companies had been affected by the 2020 pandemic shutdowns. Wade maintains a private studio of cello students in both Baltimore and Washington, DC. He holds both a master’s degree in Baroque Cello Performance and a Graduate Performance Degree in Historical Cello from Peabody Conservatory as a student of John Moran.

Robert Eisenstein (violin, tenor viol, recorders) – see artistic director bio below.

Nina Falk (viola) is a Fulbright scholar in London and Rome. She has played for years with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Boston Orchestra’s Handel and Haydn Society, Opera Lafayette, the Carmel Bach Festival, Apollo’s Fire, and her ensemble, Arcovoce. She is the founder and director of A Musical Heart, which brings live music to the bedsides of hospice patients.

Paula Maust (organ) is a performer, scholar, and educator dedicated to fusing research and creative practice to amplify underrepresented voices and advocate for social change. She is the creator of Expanding the Music Theory Canon, an open-source collection of music theory examples by women and composers of color. A print anthology based on the project was released by SUNY Press in December 2023. Paula also researches the pejorative language used to describe early modern women on stage and harmony books by 19th-century women. She has published articles in Women and Music and the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and she is an early modern area editor for Grove Music Online Women, Gender, and Sexuality project.

Dan Meyers (recorders) is a versatile multi-instrumentalist, and a flexible and engaging performer of both classical and folk music; his credits range from premieres of contemporary chamber music, to headlining a concert series in honor of Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival, to playing Renaissance instruments on Broadway for Shakespeare’s Globe. He is a founding member of the early music/folk crossover group Seven Times Salt, and in recent seasons he has performed with the Newberry Consort, Hesperus, the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Early Music New York, Amherst Early Music, 21st Century Consort, In Stile Moderno, and the Cambridge Revels, making concert and theatrical appearances in New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, Minneapolis, Memphis, Santa Fe, at the Yellow Barn Summer Festival in Vermont, and at the “La Luna e i Calanchi” festival in Basilicata (Italy).

Patricia Ann Neely (violone, bass viol) has appeared with many early music ensembles including the Folger Consort, Tempesta di Mare, Opera Lafayette, TENET Vocal Artists, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the New York Collegium, the Washington Bach Consort, Amor Artis, ARTEK, Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, the Boston Camerata, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, the Newberry Consort, the New York Consort of Viols, and Early Music New York, among others, and was a founding member of Parthenia Viol Consort. For many years she was the principal violone player for Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity. She spent three years touring with the acclaimed European-based medieval ensemble Sequentia as the medieval fiddle player, performing throughout Europe and North America, at festivals including, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Bach Tage in Berlin, Tage Alter Musik in Herne, Wratislavia Cantans in Poland, Music Before 1800, and Early Music Vancouver. Ms. Neely began playing the viol at Vassar College and continued her studies, earning an MFA in Historical Performance at Sarah Lawrence College, with additional studies in Belgium with Wieland Kuijken.

Leslie Nero (violin, viola, treble viol) A native of Washington, DC, Leslie Nero was professionally active for 15 years in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, playing in several orchestras. Upon returning to the Washington metropolitan area, she began playing as a freelance violinist and violist with both modern and baroque ensembles. She often performs with Folger Consort, Opera Lafayette, Modern Musick, and the Washington Bach Consort. She also enjoys teaching violin to many eager fourth and fifth grade students in the Alexandria City Public Schools.

GUEST VOCAL ARTISTS:

Hannah Baslee (mezzo-soprano) Her work in the DC area includes performances with The Thirteen, the Washington Bach Consort, 21st Century Consort, Washington National Cathedral, and the schola at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Recent solo work includes BWV 54 Widerstehe doch der Sünde with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Henry Purcell’s Now does the glorious day appear with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, and Michael Tippett’s A Child of our Time. Internationally, Hannah has toured with the Clarion Choir, The English Concert, Washington National Cathedral in Spain, and the American Soloists Ensemble in South Korea. Selected recordings include: the Clarion Choir’s Grammy-nominated Rachmaninoff: All Night Vigil; The Thirteen’s Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 and Monteverdi: The Lost Vespers; Washington Bach Consort’s Myth’s Contested; and the Clarion Choir’s upcoming album Rachmaninoff Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

Rhianna Cockrell (mezzo-soprano) has captivated audiences with her interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque works as well as her passion for contemporary works. Her singing has been hailed as “luscious” (Washington Classical Review) and “beautifully controlled…breath-taking…otherworldly” (Early Music America). As a frequent and award-winning interpreter of J.S. Bach’s music, Cockrell’s performances have been described as “unforced” and “resolute” (Oregon ArtsWatch). Her 2024–25 season includes her solo debut with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Frederich Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat, and with the Washington Bach Consort in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Recent solo features include an album release of Bach’s B Minor Mass with Cantata Collective, an artist residency with the Cornell University Department of Music featuring a commission premiere of Amelia Brey’s All the Flowers Were Mine, Bach’s St John Passion with True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Bach’s B Minor Mass with The Thirteen, and Bach’s Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir BWV 29 with the Oregon Bach Festival. Cockrell holds degrees from Yale University, University of Minnesota, and George Mason University.

Mark Duer (baritone) Hailed by The New York Times as a “particularly agile singer,” baritone Mark Duer’s poignant lyric singing has been heard in numerous solo engagements with the Washington Bach Consort, and with varied ensembles including the American Virtuosi, New York Chamber Ensemble, the Cleveland Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, Greensboro Opera, Ensemble for Early Music, Cleveland Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony, Berkshire Choral Festival, Woodstock Fringe Festival, Apollo’s Fire, Musica Sacra, and at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and the Mark has also sung and recorded with the Bach Sinfonia, Handel and Haydn Society, Voices of Ascension, Chantry, Opera Lafayette, and sang seventeen seasons as a member of the renowned ensemble, Pomerium. His discography includes the Gothic, Delos, DG/Archiv, Dorian, and Glissando labels. Media appearances include CBS Sunday Morning, NBC’s Today Show, and radio broadcasts as soloist with Pipedreams (NPR), and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Crossley Hawn (soprano) has served as a soloist with ensembles including the Folger Consort, Cathedra, the Washington Bach Consort, The Thirteen, the City Choir of Washington, Chatham Baroque, Choralis, the Reston Chorale, Maryland Choral Society, and University of Maryland Summer Chorus. Hawn was the winner of the 2018 Choralis Young Artists Competition. In addition to her solo work, Hawn is an active ensemble singer. She is a member of Eya Medieval Music and has also appeared chorally with the US Air Force Band’s Singing Sergeants, Kinnara, True Concord, EXO Choir, Chorosynthesis, Chantry, and tThe District Eight. She has performed worldwide in Italy, Canada, Switzerland, France, England, Germany, Austria, and Hungary. She is an Artistic Director of Bridge, a professional vocal chamber ensemble specializing in new works for voices. Hawn served as project manager and ensemble singer for Experiential Orchestra’s Grammy-winning premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison.

Susan Lewis Kavinski (soprano) is a vocalist and active-duty service member with the United States Navy Band, Washington, DC. For two decades, Susan has been privileged to perform as a chorus member of the Navy Band Sea Chanters. As a featured soloist and ensemble member, she has sung for presidents, vice presidents, high-ranking military leaders, Cabinet members, popes, and an array of foreign and domestic leaders and dignitaries. Her military career highlights run the gamut from soloing at the White House to performing with renowned operatic soprano Renée Fleming at Super Bowl XLVIII. As a service member, Susan has toured throughout the contiguous United States, performing for large public audiences at prestigious venues. She is frequently featured as a soloist with the United States Navy Concert Band, and her recording of Antonin Dvořák’s Song to the Moon remains one of the most-viewed classical solo performances on the US Navy Band YouTube channel.

Patrick Kilbride (tenor) Praised for his “beautiful,” “sweet-voiced” tone, and “superbly acted” portrayals, Patrick Kilbride, tenor, is enjoying an international career. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Maryland Opera Studio, with fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, and L’Académie du Festival Aix-en-Provence. He was the winner of the 24th Concours international de chant de Clermont-Ferrand, France, making his European debut in opera houses throughout France in Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Damien Guillon and Le Banquet Céleste (Rennes, Clermont-Ferrand, Chaise-Dieu, Avignon). He has sung roles with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in Francesco Cavalli’s Erismena with Leonardo García Alarcón and Cappella Mediterranea in the opera houses of Paris, Saint-Denis, Luxembourg, and Versailles, and with the Britten-Pears Arts Aldeburgh Festival at Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Frederich Handel’s Theodora with Christian Curnyn and Sarah Connolly.

Oliver Mercer (tenor) Described as “excellent” and “sterling,” by The New York Times, tenor Oliver Mercer performs regularly throughout North America and Europe as a concert soloist, recitalist, and opera singer. A specialist of the Baroque era, he has performed with Glyndebourne Opera Festival; English National Opera; Spoletto Festival USA; Boston Early Music Festival; Opera Theater Company, Dublin, Ireland; Back Society of Charleston; Savannah Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, INseries Opera, and Mid Wales Opera. He has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Trinity Church Wall Street, the Barbican Centre London, Washington National Cathedral, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Royal Albert Hall. Recent and upcoming engagements include an international tour of Handel’s Solome with The English Concert, his debut with Opera Lafayette, and concerts with Folger Consort, the Washington Bach Consort, The Thirteen, and Clarion Music Society.

Corbin Phillips (baritone) Labeled a “standout baritone” by SFGATE, Corbin Phillips is a classical singer with a passion for early music. His most recent solo appearances have included the role of Aeneas in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with newly-founded Baroque opera company based in Baltimore, Opera Henriette, bass soloist in Frederich Handel’s Dublin Messiah with Tempesta di Mare, and Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with Baltimore Choral Arts. Other appearances have included performances with the Boston Early Music Festival, Mountainside Baroque, Opera Lafayette, Concerto Romano, Big Mouth Society, and Quicksilver Baroque.

Folger Consort Artistic Directors:

Robert Eisenstein has led over 200 productions and performances with Folger Consort over the past 40 years include Measure + Dido at the Kennedy Center and Napa Valley Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice at Strathmore, The Fairy Queen, and Hildegard Von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum at the Washington National Cathedral. Director of the Five College Early Music Program; Music Director for the Five College Opera Project production of Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero; former faculty member of Mount Holyoke College, where he taught music history and performed the viola de gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle. He is an active participant in the Five College Medieval Studies. Recipient of Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a college early music ensemble.

Christopher Kendall is founder of the Folger Consort. He is dean emeritus of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance after serving two terms as the school’s dean, where he was responsible for establishing the University of Michigan Gershwin Initiative, for re-instituting international touring, for the funding and design of a $30M expansion/renovation of the music building, and for launching the interdisciplinary enterprise ArtEngine and its national initiative a2ru (Alliance for the Arts at Research Universities). In Washington, in addition to his work with Folger Consort, since 1975 he has been Artistic Director and conductor of the 21st Century Consort, the new music ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Mr. Kendall served as Director of the University of Maryland School of Music from 1996 to 2005 during a period of rapid development and its move to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 1987 to 1992 and Director of the Music Division and Tanglewood Institute of the Boston University School for the Arts from 1993 to 1996, Mr. Kendall has guest conducted many orchestras and ensembles in repertoire from the 18th to the 21st centuries. His recordings can be heard on the Bard, Delos, Nonesuch, Centaur, ASV, Arabesque, Innova, Bridge, and Smithsonian Collection labels.

About Folger Consort:
       

For 47 seasons as the early music ensemble in residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Folger Consort has delighted audiences with a stunning repertoire of early music spanning roughly 800 years. With world-class guest artists, from virtuoso soloists to large choirs and orchestras, Folger Consort has performed masterpieces of the most renowned composers and hidden treasures from those who might otherwise be lost to history. Performing in the intimate setting of the Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre, as well as such grand spaces as Washington National Cathedral and the Kennedy Center, Folger Consort has also toured nationally and internationally to Shakespeare’s Globe and other prestigious venues.

Among other awards and critical acclaim for its performances and recordings, Folger Consort has received Best Classical Chamber Ensemble from the Washington Area Music Awards multiple times. For more on Folger Consort, please visit www.folger.edu/folger-consort.

Folger Consort recordings are available for purchase and digital download at iTunes and available for streaming on Spotify.

About Folger Shakespeare Library:

The Folger Shakespeare Library makes Shakespeare’s stories and the world in which he lived accessible. Anchored by the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is a place where curiosity and creativity are embraced, and conversation is always encouraged. Visitors to the Folger can choose how they want to experience the arts and humanities, from interactive exhibitions to captivating performances, and from path-breaking research to transformative educational programming. The Folger welcomes everyone to connect in their own way—from communities throughout Washington, DC, to communities across the globe.

Following a multiyear building renovation, the Folger’s historic Capitol Hill home reopened to the public on June 21, 2024. Learn more at www.folger.edu.

Tickets & Information:

What: Folger Consort: A Mass for Christmas Eve: Baroque Music for the Season

When: December 6 – December 15, 2024.

Where: Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC

Tickets: $20 – $60, with discounts available.
Purchase via phone at (202) 544-7077 or online at www.folger.edu/whats-on/a-mass-for-christmas-eve

Folger Consort 2024-25 Sponsors:

Premier Season Sponsors
Dr. Bill & Evelyn Braithwaite
Andrea “Andi” Kasarsky

Production Sponsor
Gail Orgelfinger and Charles Hanna

Contributing Sponsors
Mr. Leslie Taylor

Associate Sponsors
David and Lenka Lundsten
Robert J. and Tina M. Tallaksen
Mike Newton and Dr. Linda Werling

Artist Sponsor
Karl K. and Carrol Benner Kindel

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