The Green Mountain Project, the annual venture presented by preëminent New York City-based early music ensemble TENET, celebrates its sixth anniversary in January 2015 when TENET offers a pair of Vespers – Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and a newly recreated vespers from the French master Marc-Antoine Charpentier, featuring music curated by the project's music director, Scott Metcalfe. 2015’s Green Mountain Project expands to four venues, in New York (January 9 and 10), Greenwich, CT (January 11) and Boston (January 12).

Each performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, which Green Mountain Project has presented annually since 2010, the 400th anniversary of the work, has been a popular and critical success. The first performance “was quite simply terrific” and “set a high standard,” according to The New York Times, while in the most recent, a highlight of the inaugural Early Music Festival:NYC, “the playing and singing were grand” (Bachtrack). A live recording of the 2010 inaugural performance is available from http://www.tenetnyc.com/recordings, and a video of the complete 2013 performance can be viewed on YouTube.

TENET’S all-star cast will perform Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 on January 9 in New York City’s St. Jean Baptiste Catholic Church, and on January 10 in Boston’s St. Cecilia Parish.

Green Mountain Project – whose name stems from the English translation of Monteverdi’s name – continues its tradition of presenting new Vespers reconstructed from old music. This year’s recreation draws together music by Charpentier, one of the most highly regarded composers of the 17th century and whose music today is prized for its unique combination of French eloquence and Italian passion. Vespers for the Blessed Virgin Mary includes Charpentier’s settings of five psalms familiar from Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, as well as motets, and concludes with a dramatic and expressive Litany for the Virgin.

Previous offerings are Metcalfe’s original reconstructions, A Grand Festive Vespers in Venice, ca. 1640 in 2012, which assembled music by Monteverdi, Cozzolani, and Gabrieli (observing the 400th anniversary of his death); and Vespers for the Feast of St. John the Baptist, featuring music of various 17th century Italian composers set to liturgically appropriate texts focusing on St. John the Baptist, which was the culmination of the 2014 Early Music Festival:NYC.

The Green Mountain Project follows TENET’s acclaimed season opening presentation of Motets by J.S. Bach and a performance of Odes by Henry Purcell devoted to St. Cecilia, patroness of music. The next concert in TENET’s season is The Grand Tour at the Metropolitan Museum, a program entitled Concerto delle donna featuring works by, for and about women from 17th-century Italy. 

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com

For further information about TENET, please visit http://www.tenet.nyc

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION?
Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610
January 10, 2015 at 7:30pm
St. Jean Baptiste Catholic Church
Lexington Avenue at 76th Street
New York, NY

January 12, 2015 at 7:30pm
St. Cecilia Parish
18 Belvidere Street
Boston, MA

Further information can be found here

Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Vespers
January 9, 2015 at 7:30pm
Church of St. Joseph
371 Avenue of the Americas at Washington Place
New York, NY

January 11, 2015 at 5:00pm
St. Barnabas Church
954 Lake Avenue
Greenwich, CT

Further information can be found here

Performers
Jolle Greenleaf and Molly Quinn sopranos
Luthien Brackett and Virginia Warnken altos
Brian Giebler, Owen McIntosh, Jason McStoots, Aaron Sheehan, and Sumner Thompson tenors
Jesse Blumberg, Mischa Bouvier, and David McFerrin baritones
Steven Hrycelak and Jonathan Woody basses
Scott Metcalfe and Ingrid Matthews violins
Dongmyung Ahn and Daniel Elyar violas
Emily Walhout bass violin
Anne Trout violone
Alex Opsahl and Kiri Tollaksen cornetti
Greg Ingles, Mack Ramsey and Erik Schmalz sackbuts
Hank Heijink and Daniel Swenberg theorbos
Jeffrey Grossman chamber organ

About Jolle Greenleaf
Jolle Greenleaf is the Artistic Director of TENET and one of the leading voices in the field of early music. Hailed as a “golden soprano” and called “a major force in the New York early music-scene” by The New York Times, she is a much sought-after soloist in music by Bach, Buxtehude, Handel, Purcell and, most notably, Claudio Monteverdi. For the virtuosic one-voice-per-part ensemble TENET, Ms. Greenleaf creates diverse programs, directs and sings in performances of repertoire spanning the Middle Ages to the present day.

Greenleaf has balanced a career as a top soloist and innovative impressaria. In January of 2010 she spearheaded a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, (the first performance of the work to celebrate its 400th anniversary), by creating the Green Mountain Project (an annual TENET initiative). For the Green Mountain Project she acts as artistic director engaging singers and instrumentalists, and managing the many logistics of mounting a major musical production.

Greenleaf frequently invites leading musicians from the New York-based early music community to guest direct TENET projects and strives to combine forces with other ensembles in the spirit of collaboration and sharing ideas.

About Scott Metcalfe
Scott Metcalfe is musical and artistic director of Boston's Blue Heron and music director of New York City's Green Mountain Project (Jolle Greenleaf, artistic director). He has been guest director of TENET, the Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), Emmanuel Music (Boston), the Tudor Choir and Seattle Baroque, Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver, BC), Quire Cleveland, the Dryden Ensemble (Princeton, NJ), and Early Music America's Young Performers Festival Ensemble. Metcalfe also enjoys a career as a baroque violinist, playing with Les Délices (dir. Debra Nagy), L'Harmonie des Saisons (dir. Eric Milnes), and other ensembles. When not playing or directing, he is at work on a new edition of the songs of Gilles Binchois and teaches vocal ensemble repertoire and performance practice at Boston University.