Ensemble Boulanger offers an ever-widening variety of concert programs. We are also happy to work with you to craft a program around a theme of your choosing.
Concerts & Programs
The Circle of Pauline Viardot
Music, Literature, and Art by Pauline Viardot and Friends
This program is a salon event exploring the artistic circle of mezzo soprano, composer, and salonnière Pauline Viardot-Garcìa. It features music by Pauline Viardot, Maria Malibran, Frédéric Chopin, César Franck, Adolph Henselt, and Gabriel Fauré. The program can also feature readings from George Sand and Ivan Turgenev. If the host can provide printed programs or space for a powerpoint presentation, there is a selection of art and photographs from Viardot’s life and circle to accompany the program.
For hosts: This performance requires a piano; it can include a powerpoint slideshow.
Sérénade d’Automne
Music for Autumn and the Season of Thanksgiving
A concert of music celebrating the wistfulness of autumn and the changing of the seasons. The program includes Cécile Chaminade’s piano duet Sérénade d’Automne, Op. 55, No. 4, and songs by Amy Beach, including “Autumn Song,” Op. 56 No. 1, and “A Thanksgiving Fable” from her Songs for Children, Op. 75. The program also includes music by Lili Boulanger, Nadia Boulanger, and other rarely-heard seasonal works.
For hosts: This performance requires a piano.
Clearings in the Sky
Music by 19th & 20th Century Women
This concert features music for voice and piano, piano solo, and piano duet by Fanny Hensel, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, Nadia Boulanger, and Lili Boulanger. The commentary places the music in the context of the lives of these remarkable composers, who often overcame great hardships to bring their music to the public.
Highlights include lieder by Hensel and Schumann, piano duets by Amy Beach, and excerpts from Lili Boulanger’s revelatory song cycle, Clarières dans le ciel (Clearings in the Sky).
For hosts: This concert requires a piano.
Harmonia Sacra
Music for Private Devotion
This program explores spirituality through sacred music written not for services of worship, but for private contemplation and domestic music-making.
The program ranges from selections from the English Harmonia sacra collection, by Henry Purcell and Pelham Humfrey, to works by Fanny Hensel, Nadia Boulanger, Gabriel Fauré and Franz Schubert.
For hosts: This program requires a piano, organ, or harpsichord.
Chansons de Printemps
French Music for Voice and Piano
This program of French music celebrates springtime, flowers, and gardens. Highlights includes music for piano duet by Eduard Lalo and Gabriel Fauré, Darius Milhaud’s tongue-in-cheek song cycle Catalogue de Fleurs, and Debussy’s Jardins sous la pluie for piano.
Other selections include music by Cécile Chaminade and Lili Boulanger.
For hosts: This program requires a piano.
Jane Austen’s Parlor
Music from Austen’s Life & Times
Music plays a pivotal role in Jane Austen’s novels, and it played a pivotal role in her own life: Austen was an accomplished pianist. In this program, we explore songs and piano music from Jane Austen’s personal music collection, as well as works from her era composed by women. The performance is interspersed with readings about music from Austen’s literary works.
This program includes works by composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, Juliane Benda, Georgiana Cavendish, Sophie Gail, Christoph Willibald von Gluck, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Maria Szymanowska.
For hosts: This performance requires a piano.
German Romantic Lieder
Ensemble Boulanger presents a recital of music from the early German Romantics. You'll hear beloved favorites like Mendelssohn's "On Wings of Song," as well as lesser-known gems.
The program includes Lieder, piano solos, and piano duets by Franz Schubert, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Clara Wieck Schumann, Josephine Lang, and others. The program is a moving exploration of the German Lied (Song) - both Lieder for voice and “Lieder ohne Worte” (Songs without Words).
For hosts: This performance requires a piano.