The Harvard Baroque
Chamber Orchestra
The Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra is one of America’s only undergraduate early music orchestras.
The Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra (HBCO) is a small chamber orchestra dedicated to bringing back to life
the vivid rhetoric and dancing rhythms of baroque music. The orchestra rehearses each week in the sanctuary of Memorial Church,
using the church's set of baroque bows and instruments from the Early Instrument Collection of the Music Department. Each year,
HBCO performs two concerts of orchestral music, two concerts of chamber music, and collaborates with the University Choir on
larger-scale projects. HBCO also serves as the orchestra for the annual opera productions of the Harvard Early Music Society.
The group was founded by Murray Forbes Somerville (Gund University Organist and Choirmaster, 1990–2003) and baroque violinist
Robert Mealy ’85. HBCO is currently directed by noted Baroque cellist Phoebe Carrai with the assistance of violinist/violist
Sarah Darling ’02. A faculty member at the Longy School of Music and the Berlin Hochschule der Künste, Carrai performed as a
member at The Juilliard School, Musica Antiqua Köln from 1983–2002 and is the founding director of the International Baroque Institute at Longy.
Guest directors of HBCO have included Christopher Hogwood, William Christie, Joel Cohen, Andrew Parrott, and Ton Koopman;
the orchestra also improvised with Bobby McFerrin before a packed Sanders Theater in 2002. Auditions are held in the fall
during Freshmen Week; no prior experience with early instruments or period performance is necessary, only a love of chamber
music, excellent musicianship, and a willingness to play well with others.
Baroque Bows
In March 1999, The Memorial Church received a very generous
gift of a set of baroque-style violin bows from the Harvard Business
School in honor of Professor Samuel L. Hayes III, Jacob H. Schiff Professor
of Investment Banking, Emeritus.
Professor Hayes, along with his wife Barbara, are great
supporters of the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, and of other student
early music productions at Harvard, and this gift supplies the appropriate
tools for playing music of the baroque period. More...
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