It was a great honor to perform Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Donald Teeters and Boston Cecilia last weekend. It was a sold out performance and one that I will always remember as a formative experience. Working with Maestro Teeters on this seminal work was especially poignant as this was his last performance of Baroque repertoire with Boston Cecilia. Teeters is renown for his crucial role in bringing period appropriate performance on period instruments to the Boston scene nearly 40 years ago. All the performers on stage were in some way deeply affected by his leadership and exquisite artistry in this field through the years. The Boston Classical Review wrote a particularly laudatory line regarding my work as a soloist: “Gleim’s rich, expressive voice was consistently impressive and his restraint only reinforced his vocal charisma.” You can read the full review at this link.

Here is another great YouTube link from the Prologue of Arthur Sullivan’s amazing and obscure cantata The Golden Legend recorded live with the Longfellow Chorus in February of 2011 in Portland, Maine. In this clip I am singing the role of Lucifer and summoning my minions to destroy the Strasbourg Cathedral. “Shake the casements!”

Yet another great recording has come up from the performances of Arthur Sullivan’s rarely performed masterpiece The Golden Legend. This time it is a You Tube link. I am featured in this (the first scene from the cantata) with the remarkable tenor, Brian Arreola.

Last March’s concert of Sullivan’s Golden Legend with the Longfellow Chorus was a great experience. Here is a clip of me singing the role of Lucifer in the Prologue.

Part of the concerts that I gave with the Longfellow Chorus this past February included performances of Liszt’s rarely performed and exceptionally challenging The Bells of Strasborg, in which I sang the diabolical part of Lucifer. Please have a listen to a preliminary rough version of the upcoming recording by clicking on the link above.

National Public Radio and American Public Media are broadcasting the live performances of Handel and Haydn Society’s rendition of Handel’s exultant oratorio Israel in Egypt. I am featured along with Nick Nackley in the duet The Lord is a Man of War which is found at 11:50 in hour 2 of the performance. Follow this link to the Symphony Cast Broadcast to hear the concert.

It is a rare occasion that one gets a chance to sing some of the lesser known Monteverdi compositions in great halls with amazing period bands. This was just the case last weekend when I was honored to join Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque in performances of Monteverdi’s rare gem: Il combattimmento di Tancredi e Clorinda of 1624. Aaron Sheehan stepped in at the last moment to sing the enormously challenging part of the narrator in this piece. He was brilliant and sang with ease and poise as did Mary Wilson as Clorinda, especially on the last note when her pianissimo rang clean and pure. Here’s a review from the The Boston Music Intelligencer.

This past weekend I sang the role of Lucifer with The Longfellow Chorus in performances of The Bells of Strasbourg by Liszt and The Golden Legend by Arthur Sullivan. These pieces were absolutely amazing and playing Satan is always fun! The local papers didn’t really do the concert much justice but there was a thorough review from the blog called Parts by Paul Padillo which did a good job summing up just how amazing an accomplishment this concert series really was. And, did I mention, there was a blizzard blowing through the city of Portland that whole weekend?!

The Handel and Haydn Society’s performances in Boston’s Symphony Hall of Handel’s magnificent oratorio, Israel in Egypt, met with critical acclaim and massive audience response. The Boston Globe review praised the musicians, especially the chorus, and called the duet (“The Lord is a Man of War”) that I sang with Nick Nackly “testosterone-laden”!