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Position Specification
Handel and Haydn Society (H+H)
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (ED/CEO)
April 2015
© 2015 Korn Ferry. All Rights Reserved.
POSITION SPECIFICATION
Position
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (ED/CEO)
Company
Handel and Haydn Society (H+H)
Location
Boston, MA
Reporting
Relationship
The ED/CEO reports to the Chair of the 38-member Board of
Governors, currently chaired by Nicholas Gleysteen, Managing
Director and Portfolio Manager, Hellman, Jordan Management Co.
The Chair-elect W. Carl Kester, George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor
of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, begins his
term September 2015. In addition, there is a 35-member Board of
Overseers.
Reporting to the ED/CEO are the Chief Financial Officer/Director of
Administration; Director of Development; Director, Artistic Planning
and Education; Director of Bicentennial and Community
Engagement; Director of Marketing and Communications. In total,
H+H has 20 full-time staff, 3 part-time staff plus 15 additional parttime staff during concerts. The Artistic Director reports to the Board
of Governors but collaborates closely with the ED/CEO with respect
to artistic programming and the engagement of members of the
chorus and orchestra. The orchestra is comprised of 24 tenured/
core members and there are 32 core chorus members. Additional
orchestra and chorus members are added, as appropriate, per
performance.
Website
www.handelandhaydn.org
BACKGROUND
Founded in Boston in 1815, the Handel and Haydn Society is considered America’s oldest
continuously performing arts organization currently (2015) celebrating its Bicentennial (see
Addendum I – press coverage). Its Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus are internationally
recognized in the field of Historically Informed Performance, using the instruments and
techniques of the composer’s time. The mission of H+H is to enrich life and influence culture by
performing Baroque and Classical music at the highest levels of artistic excellence, and by
providing engaging, accessible and broadly inclusive music education and training activities.
H+H’s Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus present live and recorded historically informed
performances of this repertoire in ways that stimulate the musical and cultural development of the
Greater Boston community and audiences across the nation and beyond.
H+H’s esteemed tradition of innovation and excellence began in the 19th century with the US
premieres of Handel’s Messiah (1818), Haydn’s The Creation (1819), Verdi’s Requiem (1878),
and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1879). Artistic Director Thomas Dunn transformed the chorus
into a small, professional ensemble in 1967. In 1986, Christopher Hogwood became Artistic
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Director and added period instrument performances. Music Director Grant Llewellyn (2001–2006)
and Artistic Advisor Sir Roger Norrington (2006–2008) continued this tradition, as Harry
Christophers, appointed Artistic Director in 2009, does today.
H+H is widely known through its concert series; tours; 99.5 WCRB, NPR, and American Public
Media broadcasts; and recordings. Its nine-program concert series, held at Symphony and
Jordan Halls in Boston and Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, reaches 2,700 subscribers and
15,500 single ticket buyers from throughout New England. The orchestra comprises a core group
of professional period instrument specialists. The chorus is also a fully professional ensemble.
H+H consistently presents world-renowned guest artists.
H+H made its European debut in 1996 at the Edinburgh International Festival with a fully staged
production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Recent tours have
taken H+H to the Haydn Festival in Esterházy, Austria in 2006; to the BBC Proms Festival,
London, which the London Telegraph named one of the top musical events of 2007; and to the
west coast in April 2013, where H+H will return in the fall of 2015.
H+H won a Grammy award for its recording of Tavener’s Lamentations and Praises, cocommissioned with Chanticleer. In fall 2005, its recordings All is Bright and Peace were in the
Top Ten on the Billboard classical music chart together. Since the release of its first collaboration
with Harry Christophers on the CORO label in September 2010, it has made available three live
commercial recordings of works by Mozart – Mass in C Minor (2010), Requiem (2011), and
Coronation Mass (2012) as well as the critically acclaimed Haydn, Vol. 1 (September 2013) and
the best-selling Joy to the World: An American Christmas (October 2013).
H+H places a high priority on its role as educator, resource center, and community partner. As it
entertains and inspires audiences, its development has expanded to unique educational
experiences for people of all ages. It includes all citizens in the community through broad
outreach efforts. Established in 1985, H+H’s award-winning Karen S. and George D. Levy
Education Program reaches 10,000 students each year throughout Greater Boston, many in
underserved communities. H+H also maintains partnerships with area cultural and higher
education institutions, including the Boston Public Library; the Museum of African American
History; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; New England Conservatory; and Harvard
University.
Artistic Director
The 2014–2015 Bicentennial Season marks Harry Christophers’ sixth as Artistic Director. Since
his appointment in 2009, Maestro Christophers and H+H embarked on an ambitious artistic
journey toward the organization’s 2015 Bicentennial with a showcase of works premiered in the
U.S. by H+H since 1815, broad education programming, community outreach activities and
partnerships, and the release of a series of recordings on the CORO label. Maestro Christophers’
contract with H+H has been extended through the 2017-2018 season.
Harry Christophers is known internationally as founder and conductor of the UK-based choir and
period-instrument ensemble The Sixteen. He has directed The Sixteen throughout Europe,
America, Australia, and the Far East, gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in
Renaissance, Baroque, and 20th- and 21st-century music. In 2000, he instituted The Choral
Pilgrimage, a tour of British cathedrals from York to Canterbury.
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Maestro Christophers has recorded over 120 titles for which he has won numerous awards. He is
principal guest conductor of the Granada Symphony Orchestra and a regular guest conductor
with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. He was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of
Music from the University of Leicester and is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford
and also of the Royal Welsh Academy for Music and Drama and was awarded a CBE
(Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honors.
FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN – 2012-2017
Strategic Ambitions
In 2012 the Board of Governors approved a set of strategic ambitions supported by specific
goals, actions, outcomes, and measures of success. The strategic ambitions are:
Artistic Excellence and Reputation – Achieve a global reputation as America’s most innovative
historically informed performance ensemble with the finest Period Instrument Orchestra and
Chorus, known for vibrant and compelling programming and for excellent and engaging live and
recorded performances of Baroque and Classical music.
Education – Educate people of all ages in order to strengthen the cultural community and
develop current and future generations of Baroque and Classical music audiences and
performers. Provide engaging music training programs and stimulating educational activities for
children and adults. Promote inclusiveness and accessibility, regardless of participants’
knowledge of or background in music.
Community – Further establish H+H as an indispensable element of Boston’s cultural landscape
with a broad, dynamic, and engaged audience that reflects the diversity of the community.
Institutional Culture and Capacity – Promote a Society culture of inclusiveness, cohesion, and
excellence, making H+H among the most desirable nonprofit organizations to work for and
support. Maintain and further develop one of the most active and committed Boards. Be a model
of best practice and sustainability in the nonprofit sector and a respected leader in the Boston
arts community and beyond.
To learn more about H+H’s strategic plan, please visit: http://handelandhaydn.org/about/plansreports
FINANCES AND FUNDRAISING
H+H’s annual budget for 2014-2015 Bicentennial year is approximately $5.2 million. Its operating
budget for 2016 is expected to be approximately $4.5 million as Bicentennial year activities are
brought to a close. H+H is currently engaged in a $12 million Capital Campaign. Its endowment
has increased from $3.2 million at the start of the campaign in 2012 to $7 million currently and is
expected to reach a final goal of $12 million at the end of the campaign in July 2016. Ten million
dollars has been raised/pledged to date.
Please see following page
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THE SEARCH
After eight years at the helm, H+H’s current Executive Director and CEO, Marie-Hélène Bernard,
has chosen to lead another prominent organization in the Midwest. Ms. Bernard has been
instrumental in strengthening the organization’s financial position and expanding H+H’s
partnerships to reach a more diverse community through its artistic and educational programs.
THE ROLE
H+H requires an entrepreneurial leader who has a passion for and extensive knowledge of the
Baroque and Classical repertoire. The ED/CEO will partner closely with the Board of Governors
and Board of Overseers, Artistic Director, orchestra, chorus, and staff to further develop and
implement H+H’s overall vision and provide leadership and management of the organization as it
attains its next level of excellence. H+H seeks a leader who will preserve and grow its artistic
excellence, including continued touring, recordings and innovation as well as advance its
significant education programs in the community.
The ED/CEO is expected to be an inspiring leader within and beyond the walls of H+H to
advance the organization’s mission and enrich life for people of all ages through Baroque and
Classical music, education, and training. S/he is the face of the organization to the media,
government officials, cultural organizations, educational institutions, and the general public. The
ED/CEO will spearhead fundraising and initiate strategic collaborations to strengthen H+H,
continuing to build support and partnerships within the broader community for the organization’s
long-term well-being.
The ED/CEO will be responsible for the overall fulfillment of H+H’s mission and carrying out of
day-to-day operations of H+H. S/he will be instrumental in collaborating with the Boards to
develop H+H’s next five-year strategic plan. This will provide a powerful opportunity to shape the
future identity of an organization with a venerable history and a strong financial condition.
Key responsibilities include:
Board Liaison – The ED/CEO is a consensus builder who works collaboratively with the Board of
Governors to develop the overall strategy and policies for the organization. The ED/CEO
supports the Board by informing them comprehensively about the current status of internal and
external issues affecting H+H. S/he works with the Board to attract and develop new Board
members and other volunteers and ensure that they all are motivated, engaged, and energized
by their association with H+H. As H+H’s current five-year strategic plan draws to a close in 20162017, the ED/CEO will work closely with the Board to develop the next five-year strategic plan.
Earned Revenue – The ED/CEO has responsibility for enhancing earned income; i.e., season
subscriptions, individual ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, events, and other revenue
generating programs. The ED/CEO should have a strong track record in generating earned
income. S/he must also have a strong understanding of and appreciation for effective marketing/
branding that will expand H+H’s audience and appeal to a more diverse constituent base among
the communities served.
Philanthropic Development – The ED/CEO has responsibility for assuring that the goals of the
annual fund and endowment/capital campaigns are achieved. S/he will be tasked with completing
the organization’s current capital campaign of $12 million. Importantly, s/he actively participates
in the cultivation and solicitation of major donors, including individuals, foundations, corporations
and government. This effort is supported by H+H’s Boards and development staff.
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External Relations – As a strong and visible presence in the community, the ED/CEO builds
effective relationships with business leaders, government leaders, media, and other arts,
academic and community organizations in Boston and beyond. The ED/CEO works to create
greater awareness and visibility of the organization; its artistic excellence; its performances and
community activities; and enhance its image locally, nationally, and internationally. To this end,
among other initiatives, the ED/CEO will further develop H+H’s brand utilizing, among other
channels, social media and other technologies to reach and engage new audiences.
Advancing Artistic Excellence – H+H strives to provide a compelling, unforgettable concert
experience in which audience members and musicians develop an intimate bond through the
music. The ED/CEO advances this aim by encouraging artistic excellence, integrity and quality.
Working with the Artistic Director, s/he shares responsibility for artistic and programming
decisions. S/he also builds strong relationships and open communication with the musicians. By
these means, the ED/CEO will work to attract and retain the finest period instrument players,
singers, and soloists; develop programming in both small and large ensembles that feature welland lesser-known works for period instruments and voices; strengthen H+H’s brand awareness
among larger regional, national, and global audiences; and broaden H+H’s global music
distribution.
Education Programming – H+H aims to be the leader among regional performing arts
organizations in the education of students from elementary school through college, including
aspiring young performers. It also seeks to offer diverse adult audiences engaging educational
programs that deepen their appreciation for historically informed Baroque and Classical music
and enrich their listening experience. The ED/CEO fosters these goals by evaluating ongoing
programmatic and education initiatives and developing new programs of interest to diverse
communities locally and nationwide. S/he will expand and strengthen all components of H+H’s
participatory vocal training programs for youth from Greater Boston’s underserved communities;
provide students from grade school through college with opportunities to learn, develop skills,
and actively participate in performances of Baroque and Classical music; and use the latest
media technologies to increase program enrollment and participation.
Orchestra/Chorus Operations – The ED/CEO has responsibility for overseeing all Orchestra and
Chorus operations including – in collaboration with the Artistic Director – the contracting of guest
artists, assistant conductors, and guest conductors. All musicians in the orchestra are members
of the union whereas chorus singers are non-union; all orchestra and chorus members are
freelance. The ideal candidate will have experience in negotiating labor, recording and venue
contracts. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Orchestra musicians expires on
June 30, 2017. Historically and currently, H+H and its musicians have enjoyed a very good
relationship.
Internal Management – With the Board, the ED/CEO is responsible for ensuring the financial
soundness of H+H. The ED/CEO is responsible for the management of operations; budget
administration; short- and long-term strategic planning. S/he is also responsible for ensuring the
establishment and maintenance of appropriate policies and procedures for internal controls as
well as addressing any matters raised by the audit process. The ED/CEO has overall staff
management responsibility for H+H. S/he is responsible for hiring, motivating, developing and
retaining staff by the fostering of a collaborative, team-oriented work environment.
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE/QUALIFICATIONS/TRAITS
The successful candidate must be a creative, dynamic, and visionary leader who is collaborative,
diplomatic and inspires confidence. A passion for and extensive knowledge of the Baroque and
Classical repertoire is essential. A strong commitment to education, in particular to under-served
communities, is also key.
ED/CEO candidates must possess demonstrated leadership experience and superior business
acumen (strategic planning, sales and marketing, human resource management, operations
management, and financial management) as an Executive Director/President/CEO/other senior
executive position. The capacity to collaborate with members of the Board and senior staff to
conceive, design and execute a coherent organizational strategy that will enable H+H to achieve
its four strategic ambitions is especially important. A strong marketing orientation is also critical.
Candidates may come from orchestras, choruses, music festivals, performing arts centers or
schools of music/conservatories. Leaders from the corporate, other non-profit, or government
sectors with a passion for and extensive knowledge of Baroque and Classical music will also be
given consideration.
Wherever experience has been gained, it is essential that the successful candidate be a strong
leader – a bold risk-taker with the courage of her/his convictions, innovative, creative, strategic,
and entrepreneurial while also being a good collaborator and motivator. This innovative thinker
must continue to develop and implement new approaches and manage change.
The successful candidate must possess personal dynamism and excellent interpersonal skills.
S/he must be able to demonstrate immediate credibility in order to motivate and command the
respect of multiple constituencies, both internally and externally. The ED/CEO must be articulate
and at ease with others, be a good listener, and find enjoyment in networking, building
relationships for H+H, and establishing H+H as an indispensable element of the Greater Boston
cultural community. Strong fundraising skills and experience cultivating and soliciting high net
worth individuals, foundations, corporations, and government are an essential requirement. S/he
also must be an effective public speaker, able to communicate compellingly this 200-year old
organization’s story.
The ED/CEO will foster collegiality among staff and musicians. Respect for the capabilities of
talented, dedicated and hardworking musicians and staff will work best in this already wellfunctioning organization, where these dedicated people operate in a friendly, familial, yet
professional manner. The successful candidate will be warm and sincere with a healthy sense of
humor. Maturity of character and unwavering ethics is essential.
TRAVEL
There will be some travel associated with this role, including domestic and international touring.
EDUCATION
A bachelor’s degree is required; an advanced degree is a plus.
COMPENSATION
A competitive compensation package will be offered to the successful candidate.
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KORN FERRY CONTACTS
Ann Kern
Managing Director
Korn Ferry
200 Park Avenue, 33rd Floor
New York, NY 10166
Phone Number: (212) 984-9312
Email: [email protected]
Charles Ingersoll
Senior Client Partner
Korn Ferry
1700 K Street, NW, Suite #700
Washington, DC 20006
Phone Number: (202) 955-0947
Email: [email protected]
Stephen Milbauer
Senior Associate
Korn Ferry
200 Park Avenue, 33rd Floor
New York, NY 10166
Phone Number: (212) 984-9456
Email: [email protected]
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ADDENDUM I
THIRD EAR
Handel and Haydn Society at 200
An archival document from an 1857 Handel and Haydn Society music festival.
By Jeremy Eichler Globe Staff October 04, 2014
To set the scene, the year is 1815.
James Madison is president. In Europe: the Congress of Vienna. Bismarck is a babe. Pushkin is
just starting out. Napoleon will soon be trounced at Waterloo.
In music, Haydn has died six years earlier. Schubert is a teenager. Brahms is not yet born.
Meanwhile in Boston, a group of 16 men is laying the groundwork for, of all things, an oratorio
society. “Too long,” they boldly declare, “have those to whom heaven has given a voice to
perform and an ear to enjoy music neglected a science which has done much towards subduing
the ferocious passions of men and giving innocent pleasure to society.”
They pledge themselves to improving the performance of sacred music, and “introducing into
more general use the works of Handel and Haydn and other eminent composers.”
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Timeline: Two centuries of Handel & Haydn highlights
Selected from dozens of historical events, a list of 20 milestones in the Handel & Haydn
Society’s 200-year evolution.
At their meetings, this group of almost exclusively amateur musicians “tunes” its voices with
spirits. Then they lift them in song. By Christmas Day they are ready to perform at King’s
Chapel. One thousand people turn out and hear arias from Haydn’s “Creation” and Handel’s
“Messiah.” A local newspaper instantly declares it the best performance the city has ever heard.
And there we have it: The Handel and Haydn Society has arrived.
Incredibly enough, it has not fallen silent since that day. This fact makes H&H the longestrunning performing arts organization in America. It also means that this month, the society
finally arrives at the milestone of its 200th-anniversary season, beginning with a festive program
on Friday, to be performed in what is by comparison an upstart venue: Symphony Hall.
Admittedly, one does not always stop to think of H&H in these long historic terms. On most
days, the group dresses the part of other ensembles that count their history in mere single
digits, or maybe decades. Like them, it has brightly lighted office space, rents concert halls, and
uses e-mail marketing and brand consultants and hashtags. But it is not really like them. It has
lived many lives.
The society has performed the American premiere of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion,” and it has
jammed with Chick Corea. It has commissioned an oratorio from Beethoven. That Beethoven.
And it has sung in some of the largest concerts that the world has ever seen, with a chorus of
20,000 singers, an orchestra of 2,000, and a group of Boston firemen who beat on anvils.
It has thrived and it has stagnated. It has nearly shuttered many times. It has shifted with
changing fashions, and it has ignored fashions. It waited a shocking 142 years before granting
women the right to membership. It performed for three US presidents in the 19th century. It has
sung completely forgotten works such as Anton Rubinstein’s opera “The Tower of Babel.” And it
has sung “Messiah” many, many, many times. It has needed, and sought, professional help. It
has thrived again.
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GLOBE FILE
James T. Gearon, Thompson Stone, Courtenay Guild, and Paul F. Spain at the opening of a time
capsule in 1940.
Over the next season, the society will be placing its vast, multitudes-containing history at center
stage, with a richly narrated new coffee table book, a Boston Public Library exhibition opening in
March, and a set of programs spotlighting works that the society has introduced in this country,
among them the “St. Matthew Passion,” Haydn’s “Creation,” Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” and –
could it be otherwise? — Handel’s “Messiah.”
To flip through these pages of H&H’s past is at once to summon the history of classical music in
Boston, and in America. The society’s founders, and its later stewards, grappled with all of the
big questions: How to bring a European art to American soil, and then how to make it this
country’s own. Who should perform it, and who should listen. How it should change over time.
How it should not change.
Within the narrower field of oratorio singing, always at the heart of H&H, the society reflected
shifting tastes. In the later decades of the 19th century, its performing forces swelled to vast
numbers, indulging the period’s love of grandness. In 1865, it performed with a chorus of 700.
H&H preserved these aesthetic values, at times creakily, well into the 20th century, switching
paths only after a sharp jolt attributed to a single lacerating review by the former Globe critic
Michael Steinberg in 1965. New leadership soon arrived, and the society gradually embraced
the new norms of the early-music movement, with its emphases of leaner forces, faster tempos,
lighter articulations, and a rhythmic sensibility linked to older Baroque forms of dance.
Of course, one of the delectable ironies is that when H&H embraced so-called historically
informed performance, it was reaching back to an era that included its own history. And judging
from what we can piece together about H&H’s own earliest performances — said to have a
chorus of 90 men and 10 women, with men singing alto parts in falsetto and sometimes
doubling the sopranos, with German and Italian texts possibly delivered in English translation —
it’s clear that these musicians of 1815 never got the memo on period performance practice.
The point is not that the past recovered by today’s early-music movement never existed, but
that it was multiple, and that historically informed performance depends on whose history you
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are looking at. It also reflects contemporary tastes. Indeed, the most revealing exercise would
be for H&H to attempt to reconstruct one of its own early performances. That would be
something to hear.
JAMES DOYLE
An archival Handel and Haydn Society poster promoting a Christmas 1875 performance of Handel’s
“Messiah.”
In 1815, the H&H repertoire was not so distant from, well, the year 1815. Gottlieb Graupner, one
of the two professional musicians in the society’s founding class, had played oboe in a London
orchestra of Haydn. In 1823, the society did reach out to Beethoven himself for a work, and
there were reports of an “oratorio for Boston” on his to-do list, but he never delivered. (Let’s
imagine him muttering something about the late string quartets.)
In truth, far from a tale of a coolly visionary organization gliding augustly toward its own destiny,
the early chapters of H&H were rough-and-tumble years, when crises came early and often.
The society was saved from one near-extinction by an accidentally lucrative foray into
publishing (specifically, Lowell Mason’s book of church music). The early years also featured
splinter groups and turf wars, choruses like the Boston Oratorio Society, which had the temerity
to go toe-to-toe with H&H, performing Sigismund Neukomm’s “Hymn of the Night” on the very
same night. Talk about a provocation!
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WENDY MAEDA/GLOBE STAFF/FILE
Christopher Hogwood in 1996.
The closer you look, the more the society’s longevity seems due to a combination of foresight,
the passionate devotion of its membership, and sheer good luck. Another crisis came in the
mid-1840s, when the public’s tastes were shifting away from oratorios. The society was
desperate for an infusion of new leadership. Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, a young and
idealistic band of crack German musicians, fleeing the failed European revolutions of 1848,
washed up on Boston shores.
The Germania Musical Society, as it came to be known, was a sensation. Before long, its
conductor was also leading H&H, bringing his two groups together for the local premiere of
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in 1853. That tenure was short, but another Germanian named
Carl Zerrahn then took up the H&H tiller and held it for over four decades, a distinguished reign
that transformed what was still basically a glorified church choir into a real performance group
capable of holding its own on an increasingly crowded music scene. Zerrahn’s organist was
B. J. Lang, a locally born musician who had traveled to Europe to study with Liszt, and then
loomed large in musical Boston upon his return.
H&H leadership battles and internal politics spilled onto the pages of the city’s dailies and were
the stuff of editorial cartoons – one of them depicting the mighty Lang shelved in a box, while
Zerrahn conducts “Why do the Heathen Rage.” There were also triennial festivals that grew
ever more ambitious in size.
In 1869, H&H and Zerrahn joined the efforts of an entrepreneurial bandmaster named Patrick
Gilmore, who convened a National Peace Jubilee with a chorus of 10,000 and an orchestra of
500. A new building was erected for an audience of 30,000. Those Boston firemen were
recruited for Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus.” Gilmore got even more audacious with his 1872 “World
Peace Jubilee.” Chorus: over 17,000. This time Johann Strauss Jr. attended and led his
waltzes, with the help of 100 assistant conductors. The “Anvil Chorus” was punctuated with
cannon blasts. President Grant attended too. We are told he liked the cannons best. The new
H&H book describes Strauss as being “mobbed much like Frank Sinatra, Elvis, or the Beatles,
with hundreds of women clamoring for a lock of his hair.”
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But could classical music have its own homegrown American stars? By the early 20th century,
American musicians were more than ready to take the lead. Too often they were not given the
chance. When Zerrahn finally stepped down in 1898, the society had an opportunity to choose a
distinguished American-born leader: George Whitefield Chadwick. Instead it passed over
Chadwick not once but twice, in favor of musicians with a European pedigree.
That this kind of prejudice was widely held and persisted well into the 20th century – witness
how the BSO rebuffed Koussevitzky’s call for Leonard Bernstein as his successor – does not
make it any less regrettable. “The H&H folks were vociferous in my praise, both as conductor
and composer,” Chadwick bitterly recalled in his memoirs, “but they forgot it all a year or two
later, when they needed a new conductor and sent to New York for a German singing teacher
that nobody had ever heard of.”
The theme of history itself bobs and weaves through the pages of H&H’s history, its shifting
awareness of its own increasingly venerable past. At the organization’s 50th season, it sealed
with great fanfare an inscribed silver box, a time capsule, filled with several musical journals and
newspapers of the day containing coverage of its concerts. There were strict instructions not to
open the box until the organization’s 100th anniversary in 1915.
JAMES DOYLE
Harry Christophers conducts the orchestra, chorus, and soloists last year.
But when that centenary rolled round, no one even remembered the box, which was left
languishing in a safe and discovered only in 1940. When it was then opened, one newspaper
reported choristers in titters about the period ads proclaiming “The Great Invention of the Age –
Hoop Skirts.” The 1940 clip appears in the newly published H&H book, allowing us to marvel at
earlier generations marveling at earlier generations.
The longest directorship in the early 20th century belonged to Thompson Stone. An earnest
paternalism comes through in one 1934 letter he sent to his enthusiastic charges: “The singer
has a special task,” Stone instructs. “He must have a message to deliver, voice to convey the
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message, and a technique to express it. So-o-o-o, begin to vocalize. How’s the breadth? Does
the voice sound well? Can you ‘make it behave’? Practice – every day.”
The year 1967 marked a major turning point, with the arrival of music director Thomas Dunn,
who broadened the society’s repertoire beyond choral masterworks and, more seismically,
began integrating principles from the burgeoning early-music movement. It was Dunn who set
the society on its modern course. H&H reduced and fully professionalized its chorus around
1980, another major turning point. Five years later, Christopher Hogwood arrived, and switched
the orchestra over to period instruments.
In more recent memory, Grant Llewellyn extended H&H’s range to orchestral works of the mid
and even late 19th century. Roger Norrington, as artistic adviser, injected some refreshing
irreverence. The society’s educational work has taken on a new prominence. And 2009 marked
the arrival of Harry Christophers, a veteran of the vibrant British choral scene, who has brought
new luster to the chorus.
And yet, among all these other things, the society’s history also reminds us that behind H&H’s
present-day professional sheen lies uncountable hours of service from everyday Bostonians,
the sedulous work and proud commitment of thousands of amateur singers faithfully invested in
the rigors and joys of communal music-making. Movingly, in one H&H history compiled at the
close of the 19th century, dozens upon dozens of members’ names are listed, some followed by
an asterisk. A small, unobtrusive note explains this marking in deceptively clerical terms: The
membership of each of these individuals was ended only by their own deaths. The list of names
fills page after page. The asterisks speak for themselves.
The Handel and Haydn Society, as it now turns bracingly toward its own future, stands on the
shoulders of its first two centuries. Its history is a landmark for all of Boston. Let the celebrations
begin.
Handel and Haydn Society (H+H) | Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer
Page 15 of 17
The Economist
Prospero
Books, arts and culture
Musical societies
200 years of oratorios
Mar 23rd 2015, 16:14 BY J.T.
FOR a classical arts organisation, 200 years of continued existence is in itself worthy of a party.
But Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society (H&H), which reaches that milestone this month, will also
pay tribute to the way the group has evolved and innovated over the centuries.
Its beginnings were low-key. The 16 gentlemen who established the society on March 24th
1815 were essentially expressing an interest in singing oratorios with other congenial, middleclass amateurs. They had been inspired by a couple of recent concerts of choruses and
movements by Handel and Haydn – pieces that were well known in Europe but not in the
fledgling United States – and vowed to make these two composers’ works the basis of their
repertoire. Members had to have good singing voices, but the ability to read music was not
required.
Their ranks had more than doubled by the time the society’s constitution was drafted in April, at
which point they had a working treasury of $53 ($686 in today’s money). Their first performance
took place in front of an audience of 1,000 on Christmas Day 1815, with 90 men and 10 invited
women (no female members were allowed until 1967) presenting parts of Haydn’s “Creation”,
selections from Handel’s “Messiah” and some patriotic songs.
Handel and Haydn Society (H+H) | Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer
Page 16 of 17
In its early years the group’s enthusiasm tended to overcome a lack of widespread musical
training and a lackadaisical attitude toward practice. Members famously took breaks during
rehearsals for a little “tuning” with glasses of brandy. Funds were also spotty until the society’s
collection of church music, with arrangements supplying new words to familiar melodies,
became a bestseller in the 1820s. Most important, though, to the group's success was the list of
American premieres for which it could take credit: the complete “Messiah” (1818); the complete
“Creation” (1819); Mozart’s “Missa Longa in C Major” (1829); Handel’s “Samson” (1845),
“Solomon” (1855) and “Jephtha” (1867); Verdi’s “Requiem” (1878); and the complete “St.
Matthew Passion” by J.S. Bach (1879).
These pieces remained mainstays of the society's repertoire, but as the century turned, the
range broadened and the still-amateur chorus swelled in size, sometimes into the hundreds.
Increasingly, conductors and soloists were professionals, and when Boston’s new Symphony
Hall opened in 1900, the H&H was on stage as an integral part of the city’s musical scene. Its
popularity waxed and waned: concerts sold out during the Second World War, but after that the
group started to seem old-fashioned.
After a harsh review in the early 1960s the society decided on a radical change. In 1967 the
music director, Thomas Dunn, pared the number of singers to a well-trained few dozen and
slimmed down the orchestra to resemble the chamber ensembles of Handel’s and Haydn’s
times, while also introducing orchestration closer to the composers’ own (albeit played with
modern instruments). He mixed classical mainstays with contemporary works and premieres
and placed a new emphasis on outreach to schools, vocal-arts programmes and training for
young singers and musicians.
Dunn was succeeded in 1986 by Christopher Hogwood, a renowned conductor and early-music
advocate, who inaugurated the use of period instruments. This approach has been continued by
the current artistic director, Harry Christophers, who says, “People who come to our concerts
are constantly astounded to find that they feel they are hearing this great music for the first time.
We are quite simply taking the cobwebs off the score, stripping the music of the romanticism
which it suffered in interpretations and sound through the 20th century.”
As part of its bicentennial celebrations, the H&H has launched a commemorative book, “The
Handel and Haydn Society: Bringing Music to Life for 200 Years”, and an exhibition at the
Boston Public Library Central Branch will show a lot of material from the society’s archive. A
special concert in June will not only highlight 400 years of choral works, but also present a new
composition by Gabriela Frank, ensuring that the society’s legacy of introducing previously
unheard works to its audience continues.
(The photograph at the top was taken in 1915.)
Handel and Haydn Society (H+H) | Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer
Page 17 of 17