This concert will be half solo lute and half with tenor Aaron Sheehan, celebrating Dowland and Shakespeare in this Valentine’s Day Celebration!
“…should I come to meet Saint Peter at the pearly gates, I hope he will say, ‘Welcome, good and faithful servant! By the way, be sure to hear Paul O’Dette—he’s leading the angel band.’” Early Music America
Paul O’Dette has been described as “the clearest case of genius ever to touch his instrument.” (Toronto Globe and Mail) One of the most influential figures in his field, O’Dette has helped define the technical and stylistic standards to which twenty-first-century performers of early music aspire. In doing so, he helped infuse the performance practice movement with a perfect combination of historical awareness, idiomatic accuracy, and ambitious self-expression. Paul O’Dette has made more than 140 recordings, winning two Grammys, seven Grammy
nominations and numerous other international record awards. “The Complete Lute Music of John Dowland” (a 5-CD set for harmonia mundi usa), was awarded the prestigious Diapason D’or de l’année, while “The Royal Lewters” received the Diapason D’or, a Choc du Monde de la Musique, a 5-star rating in BBC Music Magazine, 5-star rating in Goldberg and a perfect score of 10 from ClassicsToday.com. “The Bachelar’s Delight: Lute Music of Daniel Bacheler” was nominated for a GRAMMY in 2006 as “Best Solo Instrumental Recording.”
Mr. O’Dette is also active conducting Baroque operas. His recent recording of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers with the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble won a GRAMMY for “Best Opera Recording of 2014,” as well as an Echo Klassik Award in the same
category. In 1997 he began a collaboration with Stephen Stubbs, co-directing performances of Baroque operas, beginning with Luigi Rossi’s L’Orfeo at Tanglewood, the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) and the Drottningholm Court Theatre in Sweden. Since 1999 they have co-directed performances of Cavalli’s Ercole Amante at the Boston Early Music Festival, Tanglewood, and the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Provenzale’s La Stellidaura Vendicata at the Vadstena Academy in Sweden, Monteverdi’s Orfeo and L’Incoronazione di Poppea for Festival Vancouver, Lully’s Thésée, Conradi’s Ariadne (Hamburg, 1691) Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow, Lully’s Psyché, Monteverdi’s Poppea and Ulisse, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Steffani’s Niobe and Handel’s Almira for the Boston Early Music Festival. Their recording of Ariadne was nominated for a GRAMMY as “Best Opera Recording of 2005,” Thésée in 2007 and Psyché in 2008. Their most recent opera recording, Niobe, was awarded a Diapason D’or de l’année, Echo Klassik Award, the Jahrespreis der Deutschenschallplattenkritik, and was nominated for this year’s Grammys. Paul O’Dette has guest directed numerous Baroque orchestras and opera productions on both sides of the Atlantic.
In addition to his activities as a performer, Paul O’Dette is an avid researcher, having worked extensively on the performance and sources of seventeenth-century Italian and English solo song, continuo practices and lute music. He has published numerous articles on issues of historical performance practice and co-authored the Dowland entry in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Paul O’Dette is Professor of Lute and Director of Early Music at the Eastman School of Music and Artistic Director of the Boston Early Music Festival.
Grammy Award winning tenor, Aaron Sheehan, recognized internationally as a leading interpreter of baroque repertoire, is equally at home on the concert platform and the opera stage, from medieval monody to twentieth century masterworks.
Aaron Sheehan made his professional operatic debut with the Boston Early Music Festival in the 2005 world premiere staging of Mattheson’s Boris Gudenow, winning praise from Opera News for his “sinuous and supple” voice, and went on to further roles with BEMF in Lully’s Psyché, Charpentier’s Actéon, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and L’incoronazione di Poppea, Steffani’s Orlando, Desmarest’s Circé, and Handel’s Acis and Galatea.
Sheehan appears on over 35 recordings, which include Handel’s “Acis & Galatea” with Boston Early Music Festival, Rameau’s “Le Temple de la Gloire” & Handel’s “Saul” with Philharmonia Baroque, and Monteverdi’s “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria” with Boston Baroque. He sang the title role in BEMF’s recording of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, which won Best Opera Recording at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
Aaron’s worldwide operatic and concert appearances include venues as diverse as the Royal Opera at Versailles, Tanglewood Festival, New Zealand Festival of the Arts, Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw, Kennedy Center, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú, Beethoven Festival Warsaw, Boston Symphony Hall, Musikfestspiele Postdam’s Sanssouci, Handel Halle Festival, and the early music festivals of Boston, San Francisco, and Vancouver.
Recent performances include Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony & National Symphony, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Armenian Philharmonic, Winterreise in recital at the Smithsonian Museum, Bach’s B minor Mass with American Bach Soloists. Solo performances with Handel & Haydn Society and Boston Baroque. The first Bach St. Matthew Passion in Peru with the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru. Featured performances and recordings with Pacific Music Works, Blue Heron Choir, Bach Collegium San Diego, and Paul Hillier’s Theater of Voices.
Raised in Minnesota, Aaron received his bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from Luther College and a master’s degree in historical vocal performance from Indiana University. He currently is on the voice faculty of Boston University.
