Boston Early Music Festival Draws Crowds

Outside of a group of devoted fans of early music—a genre that encompasses all European musical production between the 15th and 18th centuries—most Bostonians probably fail to realize that they inhabit not only the early music capital of America, but also one of the early music centers of the world. They may have heard of the venerable Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF), but probably don’t realize it is the only early music festival in America, as well as the largest and most elaborate celebration of its kind in the world.

In fact, BEMF’s popular concert series, an annual string of eight to twelve concerts, draws over 6,000 audience members, and the biennial festival and exhibition has more than 12,500 participants and thousands of fans. This year, the first concert of the season sold out more than a week in advance.

Kathleen Fay, the executive director of BEMF, attributes much of the success to the city’s unusually active musical community.

“At Boston, you can’t help but become immersed in early music if you’re a serious classical music lover,” says Fay. “We’re the world’s center for early music both because of this organization and the number of excellent performing groups and organizations that have concentrated around here.”

Early music draws classical, folk, opera, and choral music lovers, all of which Boston has in abundance.

BEMF was founded in 1980, according to Fay, by “leading practitioners of early music performance with a mission to promote and conserve the genre.” For years, it worked in collaboration with its sister festival in Berkeley and a smaller festival in San Antonio to bring early music to different areas of America.

But when both of the other two festivals disbanded, Boston became the primary center of early music in America. Now, BEMF grows more and more comprehensive and famous each year.

“Our festival audience members now come from all over the world,” says Fay. “Once we did a survey and learned that 7 percent of our audience during festival week was from outside the country.”

Fay also notes the festival’s strong international radio presence, much of which has arisen from its relationship with Boston radio station WGBH. The station records BEMF performances and broadcasts them nationwide on National Public Radio, in addition to Britain’s BBC and Canada’s CBC.

The featured artists also give the festival a distinct international flavor. The first concert in this year’s concert series was given on Oct. 16 by a viol consort from England. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Venice Baroque Orchestra will perform. Later, other artists from such varied countries as Canada, Germany and Russia will participate in the series.

Fay usually decides the year’s concert programs herself. “I’ve always wanted to do so much more than we have the time or money for,” she said. “It’s hard because in any given season, there are more than 50 top quality groups touring so I have to fit in what I can, like a jig-saw puzzle.”

Although such activities do pose a significant challenge, Fay says that the most difficult part of her job is fundraising.

“The budget for a biennial festival is about $2.5 million. The opera is just about $1 million, about $950,000,” she says. “About half of your budget is made up of ticket sales…so just imagine the amount of money that needs to be raised, and 90% of that will be from individual giving.” Still, Fay says the results are often pleasantly surprising.

“It’s staggering how generous people are and can be when they love something,” she says. “This is hard work but it’s a labor of love; you really have to believe in it.”

Fay moved to Boston in 1984 to study music and started working for BEMF in 1985 as an usher. She moved to the role of assistant to the director, then general manager and finally executive director in 1991. As a result, she has watched the organization grow and the early music scene change drastically.

On top of the concert series, another challenge is putting on the biennial festival itself. Its central component is the production and performance of a rare baroque opera masterpiece.

In most years, the opera is an old one that has not been performed for hundreds of years. But in June 2005, BEMF will present the world premiere of a recently rediscovered opera, Boris Goudenow by Johann Mattheson.

The opera was written in 1710 but never produced in the composer’s lifetime. It was kept in the Hamburg Library until World War II, when the score, along with many others, disappeared (apparently hidden from anticipated bombing raids).

“After the war, Boris landed in Soviet hands and was eventually transferred to Armenia by a scholar interested in the works of Mattheson,” says artistic director Paul O’Dette. “The score was ‘discovered’ in an Armenian archive and then returned to Hamburg in 1998.”

The BEMF was contacted and offered the world premiere rights of the opera, says Fay. “We then traveled to Germany where we got to see and touch the original score. We also went to Russia where we auditioned Russian opera singers, since the story is Russian, though the composer was German.”

After the gigantic task of picking an opera comes the even bigger task of producing it. “There are generally 150 costumes per opera, plus very demanding sets,” Fay says. “But that’s what I love the most about my job: the production, development, and realization of the opera. It’s incredibly rewarding.”

Besides the June extravaganza, there are a number of concerts and events throughout the year, including performances by the famous choral groups Tallis Scholars on Dec. 11, and the Hilliard Ensemble on March 6.

“I’m personally very excited about our Feb. 4 concert, which will be held in Sanders Theatre,” says Fay. “Hopefully we will be using Harvard’s fortepiano and one of Harvard’s professors will give a pre-concert lecture.”

Fay also praises the contributions the University has made to the festival. “We definitely love working with Harvard,” she says. “It’s a great resource for us.”