Conductor Martin Pearlman is among America’s leading interpreters of Baroque and Classical music on both period and modern instruments. Hailed for his "fresh, buoyant interpretations," his "vivid realizations teeming with life," Pearlman has been acclaimed for the last thirty years leading the orchestral, choral and operatic repertoire from Monteverdi to Beethoven.
Martin Pearlman is the founder, music director, and conductor of both the orchestra and professional chamber chorus which make up the Boston Baroque ensemble. Highlights of his work in opera include Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d’Ulisse (for which he created new performing editions), Rameau’s Zoroastre, and a series of Mozart operas including Abduction from the Seraglio, The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, The Impresario, Il rè pastore, and Don Giovanni, the last of which was broadcast throughout the U.S. on public radio. His many Telarc recordings with Boston Baroque have brought Mr. Pearlman an international audience. The recordings of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, Mozart’s circle’s Der Stein der Weisen, the Mozart Requiem, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and, of course, Handel’s Messiah have won particular acclaim from the American and international music press. Mr. Pearlman’s latest recording is a fresh, exciting new reading of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Music, with Boston Baroque, on Telarc. 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, his new orchestration of Cimarosa’s Il Maestro di Capella,and his editions of two of the three surviving Monteverdi operas were all premiered in recent seasons by Boston Baroque.
Martin Pearlman made his debut at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts leading The Washington Opera in Handel's Semele. Other recent guest conducting highlights include the Monteverdi Vespers with the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa; and performances with the Utah Opera, Opera/Columbus, Boston Lyric Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Springfield (MA) Symphony, and the New World Symphony. Mr. Pearlman was the first conductor from the period-instrument field to perform live on the internationally televised Grammy Awards show.
Martin Pearlman is Professor of Music and Director of Historical Performance Activities at Boston University.