First Parish music director Ian Watson plays the church organ in 2012.
“Live in Lincoln Center,” the musical series sponsored by the First Parish in Lincoln, is kicking off its fourth season Friday, Oct. 14 in a new temporary location with vocal ensemble Blue Heron. Because of space constraints due to the construction at the First Parish, the Blue Heron concert will take place at St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Church at 7:30 p.m.
The thrice-yearly series started shortly after Watson was hired as music director at the First Parish (see the Lincoln Squirrel, Nov. 4, 2012). He and a congregant committee organized performances by Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society as well as an annual Christmas singing of Handel’s “Messiah” and pieces by Vivaldi, Mozart and Brahms.
Blue Heron performs mainly Renaissance music, and several of its members are also members of the Boston Music Festival Opera Company. “They’re one of the few groups of this type on the East Coast, so we were really lucky to get them,” Watson said.
The tongue-in-cheek name of the concert series (closely modeled on New York’s “Live at Lincoln Center” only adds to the appeal. “It’s a very cool name… and we haven’t been sued yet,” Watson joked.
The other two performances for 2016-17 are “Messiah” on December 17, in which Watson will direct the Handel and Haydn Society chorus and orchestra, and Beethoven fortepiano and violin sonatas on March 11, 2017. The suggested donation for the events is $30. The series has also gotten a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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