"It was just after Christmas 31 years ago that I heard a recording of Joel Cohen conducting the Boston Camerata performing A Medieval Christmas. As I listened, I felt as if the sky had cracked open ... Buy it and anything else directed by Cohen." —Donald Murray, Boston Globe (2006)

The Boston Camerata preserves and reawakens human memory as expressed through the art of music. It accomplishes this mission through live, historically informed, professional performances of European and American music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras; through study and research into musical sources of the past; through sound recordings and media projects; and through community outreach and musical education.

Founded in 1954, The Boston Camerata was associated until 1974 with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Since 1968, Joel Cohen has directed the ensemble's teaching, research, recording, and concert activities. Camerata began touring overseas in 1974, and has maintained an international presence ever since. In recent seasons, Camerata has been heard in Canada, England, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Israel.. In the United States, Camerata has participated in recent early music festivals at Berkeley and San Antonio, as well as in most of the biennial Boston Early Music Festivals from 1981 to 1993. The ensemble has maintained an extensive touring schedule across the entire United States. Camerata's second, third and fourth invitations to the renowned Tanglewood Festival came in 1992, 1994 and 1995, respectively. Camerata undertook its first Japanese tour in 1995; it gave its first Scandinavian performances in 1996. The group's first invitation to participate in the Kalamazoo Medieval Institute came in 1997.  A widely praised national tour of Cantigas in 2000 marked Camerata’s first collaboration with the Sharq Arabic Music Ensemble; the two groups most recently appeared together in Paris in April, 2007.  Camerata celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2005 with festive productions in Boston (Boston Early Music Festival) and Paris (Théatre de la Ville). At the latter appearance, director Joel Cohen was decorated by the French government.