About the ensemble
MIRYAM was founded in 2016 by Alicia DePaolo and Ari Nieh in order to bring Jewish early music to New England audiences. Our ensemble members are all critically acclaimed performers and scholars of renaissance and baroque music who have a passion for connecting with audiences. Many of our programs bring well-loved composers like Monteverdi and Schütz into Jewish spaces and other houses of faith, celebrating the Jewish roots in their compositions and opening a fruitful inter-religious dialogue. Other programs highlight Jewish composers, such as Salamone Rossi, or feature music from a specific Jewish community, like Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue. In every space we enter, we set the intention of celebrating the beauty and richness of intersecting identities and musical languages. We hope you will join us for one of our concerts this season!
Listen
Concerts
Join us for a celebration of Jewish baroque music in 17th century Europe, from the synagogues of Carpentras and Bordeaux to the cosmopolitan Portuguese Esnoga of Amsterdam, and from the Jewish Scuola of Mantua to the King’s Chapel in Paris.
In person July 12-14th and online July 29th at 8pm.
Programs
Please contact us at miryam.ensemble@gmail.com to schedule a performance
King David Playing the Harp
Gerard von Honthorst
al naharot bavel
Psalm Settings of the Italian and German Baroque
This program explores the Jewish roots of sacred texts frequently set to music by Christian composers during the baroque period. Vocal and instrumental music by Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, and Johann Hermann Schein is interspersed by Hebrew readings of the original texts.
Kaddish- Salamone Rossi
Lamentations
Music by Emilio de' Cavalieri, Tomás Luis de Victoria, and Salamone Rossi
Eicha, or The Book of Lamentations, describes in heartbreaking detail the destruction in 586 B.C.E. of the holy Temple in Jerusalem. This program offers an exploration of the myriad ways in which this exquisite text has been used throughout history, by Jews and Christians alike. Framed with a sublime setting of Eicha by Emilio de’Cavalieri, the program is interspersed with Hebrew liturgical settings by the Jewish Mantuan composer, Salamone Rossi.
Emanuel de Witte - Interior of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam
Bo'i B'shalom
Music from Amsterdam's Portuguese Synagogue
Built in 1675, the Portuguese Synagogue was a cultural hub for Jews who fled from Portugal to Amsterdam to escape the Inquisition. The synagogue’s Eitz Chayim library contains a wealth of historical documents, including a collection of Hebrew-language musical scores spanning the late baroque and early classical eras.
Bo’i B’shalom features a selection of rarely-performed Hebrew liturgical settings for two voices, violins, and continuo, by the composers Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti, Abraham Caceres, and Volunio Gallicchi.
Esther
A 1774 Hebrew oratorio commissioned by the Jewish Community of Amsterdam
Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti’s oratorio tells the biblical story of how Queen Esther rescued the Jews of Persia from King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and his scheming advisor, Haman. Lovers of baroque music may recognize the libretto from Handel’s 1718 Esther- the text for Lidarti’s oratorio is a direct translation into Hebrew completed by one of Lidarti’s contemporaries, Venetian Rabbi Jacob Raphael ben Simhah Judah Saraval.
BWV 199
Exploring themes of Teshuva in the music of Bach
J.S. Bach’s cantata, Mein Herze shwimmt im Blut, is a deeply moving portrait of a human being’s journey from despair and self flagellation to hope and humility. We offer this cantata as a meditation leading up to the Days of Awe.
Judith and esther
Biblical cantatas by Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre
Jacquet de la Guerre’s vibrant cantatas paint a compelling portrait of two brave women: Esther, who rescued the Jews of Persia, and Judith, who cunningly defeated the Assyrian general, Holofernes.
Roster
Alicia DePaolo, Director and Co-Founder
Alicia DePaolo, soprano, has received critical acclaim for her “perfect combination of clarity and warmth.” She holds a master’s degree in Early Music Vocal Performance from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree from Smith College. Alicia has worked with such distinguished directors as Nigel North, William Jon Gray, Ivars Taurins, Stanley Ritchie, Drew Minter, and Jeffrey Thomas, appearing as a soloist in the United States, Canada, and Italy in a variety of works including Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis, Charpentier’s Missa Assumpta est Maria, J.S. Bach’s Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Faure’s Requiem, and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri. Opera and oratorio roles include “Fatime” in Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, “Castitas” in Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum, “Israelite Man” in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, “La Nymphe des Tuileries” in Lully’s Alceste, and “Mercury” in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
Ari Nieh, bass-baritone and Co-Founder
Ari Nieh is active in the Boston early music scene as a chorister and soloist. Her musical career began in San Francisco, where she sang with the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, Pacific Collegium, AVE, and Volti. She came to Boston to study historical performance at Longy School of Music. She is a regular member of the Choir of the Church of the Advent, and performs frequently with Schola Cantorum of Boston, Canto Armonico, the Orpheus Singers, and the Copley Singers. Her recent stage credits include Devil in Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum, Sir Roderic in Ruddigore, Bellone in Les Indes Galantes, and Theseus in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ari has been featured as a concert soloist in works by Mozart, John Tavener, and P.D.Q. Bach. She has also collaborated with a variety of Boston-area early music ensembles, including Musical Offering, Long and Away, and NEC Baroque. In March 2016, she sang the role of Jesus and bass soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Ensemble Musica Humana. She studies voice with Pamela Dellal.
Elise Groves, soprano
Elise Groves, soprano, has been praised for her “clarion tone” and “transcendent and soulful” singing. A dedicated and versatile soloist and chamber musician, her repertoire ranges from Medieval to new compositions, with a special focus on the late Renaissance and early Baroque. Recent performances include Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass with The Choir and Orchestra of the Church of the Advent, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Brown University and St. John Passion with Ensemble Musica Humana, and performances with True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Exsultemus, Ensemble Musica Humana, and The Bach Project. A native Oregonian, she received a B.A. and M.A. in Music Education from Oregon State University and an M.M. in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music. When Elise isn’t singing, you can find her continuing her lifelong search for the perfect cup of hot chocolate.
James Williamson, viola da gamba
Described as "sensitive and virtuosic" by the Boston Musical Intelligencer, James Williamson has performed on viols, vielle, and baroque cello in many settings in the Boston area, including Long and Away Consort of Viols, Musical Offering, Canto Armonico, and the BEMF fringe. James recently completed a masters degree at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, studying baroque cello with Phoebe Carrai and viola da gamba with Jane Hershey. Recent projects have included solo recitals on viol and baroque cello, playing for Phillipe Pierlot in a public master class, and recording music of Samuel Capricornus with Long and Away. He is director of the Cavalier Consort, an emerging group for seventeenth century English Music. In April, he will be leading a workshop for the Viola da Gamba Society of New England. He is also in demand as a singer, and can be heard as a tenor in various area groups including Capella Clausura and the Choir of the Church of the Advent.
Guest Artists
Juan A. Mesa, organ
Juan Mesa began piano, organ, and composition studies in his native city of Puerto Montt, Chile. He moved to the US in 2001, and graduated from Western Connecticut State University in 2005 earning degrees in organ performance and composition. He studied choral conducting with Kevin Isaacs, instrumental conducting with Fernando Jimenez, and voice pedagogy with Margaret Astrup. He completed his Master of Music degree in organ performance and early music at Indiana University in 2008, studying organ with Christopher Young, harpsichord and continuo with Elisabeth Wright, and improvisation with Todd Wilson and Jeffrey Smith. Juan won first prize in the Region I Competition for Young Organists organized by the American Guild of Organists, and in 2017 was one of five semi-finalists to compete in the National Competition in Organ Improvisation in Montreal. Juan has performed solo recitals across the US, as well as in Chile and Argentina. He has collaborated with many groups, including the Indiana-based Exordium Baroque Ensemble, the Crescendo Period Orchestra in western Connecticut, the Choirs of Trinity Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, and in 2017 he performed as the organ soloist and accompanist of the award-winning University of Notre Dame’s Children’s Choir in their second national tour. Juan is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Music Theory department at Indiana University, and he is the Music Director at Roslindale Congregational Church.
Dylan Sauerwald, harpsichord and conductor
Dylan Sauerwald is a distinctive historical keyboardist and conductor. At the keyboard, he has been praised for his “fleet fingers” and “sophisticated playing,” (Capriccio) and as a conductor, his productions have been called “heart-wrenching and self-reflecting” (OperaWire). Mr. Sauerwald has performed in venues from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art to Taipei's National Recital Hall, and his playing is featured in the BBC historical drama Poldark. As a recording artist, Mr. Sauerwald can be heard on the New Focus, Coro, and Urtext labels, as soloist and continuo player on the harpsichord, organ, fortepiano, and lautenwerck, performing works from the 16th century to the 21st. A champion of early opera, he has led productions of rarely-performed works acclaimed as “refined and flexible,” (Boston Globe) “fearless,” (Voce di Meche) and “a remarkable musical experience” (OperaWire). He is in demand as a guest conductor, appearing with Sunshine City Opera, the Cantanti Project, Dorian Baroque, Ensemble Musica Humana, and others. Mr. Sauerwald directs Polyphemus, an early music collective and concert series in lower Manhattan, and is Director of Music at the New Dorp Moravian Church.
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MIRYAM is a Fiscally Sponsored Project of Fractured Atlas, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
To donate by check, please make your check out to: Fractured Atlas
Please include "MIRYAM" on the memo.
Mail to: Alicia DePaolo | 3737 Seminary Rd, SM 204 | Alexandria, VA 22304
WHAT IS FRACTURED ATLAS?
Fractured Atlas is a national nonprofit organization based in New York City that "empowers artists, arts organizations, and other cultural sector stakeholders by eliminating practical barriers to artistic expression, so as to foster a more agile and resilient cultural ecosystem."
Their small but dedicated staff carries out this mission through fiscal sponsorship, insurance for artists, custom-built technological solutions, arts advocacy, and continuing education in business and technology for artists and creatives. Founded in 1998, they have helped over 250,000 artists and arts organizations to raise more than $127 million dollars. You can learn more about their amazing work on their website and access their current financial reports on GuideStar.
WHAT IS FISCAL SPONSORSHIP?
"A fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit organization that provides fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services to help build the capacity of charitable projects." — Fiscal Sponsorship: a 360 Degree Perspective, Trust for Conservation Innovation.
When you make a donation to support MIRYAM, your donation will be processed through Fractured Atlas. They handle the administration and keep a small percentage as an administrative fee to support more artists like us. In exchange, you get a tax deduction and MIRYAM gets more time to focus on making music! You can learn more about Fiscal Sponsorship from the National Council of Nonprofits here, and read about how Fractured Atlas runs their program here.