About Martin Pearlman
Martin Pearlman is among this country's leading interpreters of Baroque and Classical music on both period and modern instruments. Hailed for his “fresh, buoyant interpretations,” and his “vivid realizations teeming with life,” Pearlman has been acclaimed for more than thirty years in the orchestral, choral, and operatic repertoire from Monteverdi to Beethoven.
Martin Pearlman is the founder, music director, and conductor of Boston Baroque, now widely regarded as “Perhaps the outstanding period-instrument ensemble in this country” (Stereo Review). He leads Boston Baroque in an annual subscription concert series in Greater Boston; tours in the U.S. and Europe; and has produced 16 major recordings with Telarc. The recordings are heard by millions in thirty countries worldwide, and have received three Grammy nominations.
Highlights of his work include the complete Monteverdi opera cycle, with his own new performing editions of The Coronation of Poppea and The Return of Ulysses; the American premiere of Rameau's Zoroastre; the New England premieres of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and Alceste; a Handel series including Alcina, Giulio Cesare, and Agrippina, and a series of Mozart operas including Abduction from the Seraglio, The Magic Flute, Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, The Impresario, and Don Giovanni, the last of which was broadcast nationally on public radio. Mr. Pearlman's completion and orchestration of music from Mozart's Lo Sposo Deluso, his performing version of Purcell's Comical History of Don Quixote, and his new orchestration of Cimarosa's Il Maestro di Cappella were all premiered by Boston Baroque.
Martin Pearlman's Kennedy Center debut with The Washington Opera in Handel's Semele, was hailed by The Washington Times as “wonderfully expressive...crisp and clearly stamped with his personal vision.” Other guest conducting highlights include the Monteverdi Vespers with the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa, and performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, Utah Opera, Opera Columbus, Boston Lyric Opera, San Antonio Symphony, Springfield (MA) Symphony, and the New World Symphony. Mr. Pearlman is also a composer. His The Creation according to Orpheus was given its world premiere by the New England String Ensemble in 2003–2004. His latest project — new music for three late plays of Samuel Beckett — was commissioned and premiered by the 92nd Street “Y” in the spring of 2006.
Mr. Pearlman is the only conductor from the period-instrument field to have performed live on the internationally televised Grammy Awards show. He serves as Professor of Music and Artist in Residence at the Boston University School of Music.