Who We Are

Our mission

Emmanuel Music engages with audiences and musicians to explore the enduring questions of our shared human experience, building on our core commitment to the music of J.S. Bach.

Through its performing, teaching, mentoring, and scholarly activities, Emmanuel Music occupies a unique niche: a living laboratory for the music of J. S. Bach. Emmanuel Music finds new and creative ways for audiences and musicians to engage with the artistic, spiritual, and humanistic aspects of the music of J. S. Bach, the cornerstone of our musical output for our first fifty years.

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Our History

50 years

The History of Emmanuel Music

Emmanuel Music, founded in 1970 by Craig Smith, has served as the ensemble-in-residence forBoston’s Emmanuel Church for fifty years. The two organizations maintain a close, symbioticrelationship that is crucial to each entity’s individual success. The primary activity of theensemble is the weekly presentation of the sacred cantatas of J.S. Bach in the liturgical context for which they were written.

Learn about our history

10 years

Celebrating Ryan Turner

Having just completed 13 years as Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music and Music Director of Emmanuel Church, Ryan Turner conducted his 200th Bach Cantata at Emmanuel on May 14th, 2023. An astounding achievement for any conductor, we are honored to celebrate Ryan in his work with our community.

Ryan Turner's first 10 years

in memoriam

Remembering Craig Smith

For 37 years Emmanuel Church and Emmanuel Music stood at the center of Craig Smith’s musical and spiritual life. Craig arrived at this church on Newbury Street as choirmaster in 1970. A visionary even then, he probably could not have imagined how the organization he created would grow in reach and in expertise; he could not have imagined some of the obstacles it would have to overcome, or the exemplary role in the community, and indeed the world, that it would eventually come to play. Like Bach, he was doing his job.