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

Hailed as “powerfully expressive” (Boston Classical Review), an “effervescent” conductor of “finesse” (Boston Globe) and a “thinking man’s conductor” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Ryan Turner stands alone for his masterful interpretations of Bach, Stravinsky, and Harbison. Now in his fourteenth season as Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music in Boston, Mr. Turner has established himself as a sterling conductor and innovative programmer. Praising his performance of John Harbison The Great Gatsby, critics remarked on his “supple, even liquid shaping of phrase, impeccable technique and truly refreshing communication of the intimacy of ensemble playing.”

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Passionate and assiduously fluent in the music of Bach, Mr. Turner has conducted the complete cycle of 200 sacred Bach cantatas, as well as the complete masterworks of Bach: St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, his own reconstruction of the St. Mark Passion, Mass in B minor and Christmas Oratorio, and the complete Orchestral Suites. In addition, he has led major works by Stravinsky, Mozart, Handel, Britten and Harbison. A champion of new music, Ryan Turner has programmed and premiered the works of composers John Harbison, Matthew Aucoin, James Primosch, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Kati Agócs, Julian Grant, Damien Geter, Zanaida Robles, Yehudi Wyner, Elena Ruehr, and Omar Najmi, including 15 commissions for Emmanuel Music.

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As an opera conductor, Mr. Turner recently led acclaimed performances with the Boston Lyric Opera of Frank Martin’s Le Vin herbé and Philip Glass’s In the Penal Colony. At the helm of Emmanuel Music, he has conducted Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress, Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, Britten The Beggar’s Opera, Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Die Enthführung aus dem Serail, and Apollo et Hyacinthus, Handel’s Susanna, La Resurrezione, and Apollo e Dafne, Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins, and Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.

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In addition to his work as a conductor, Mr. Turner has appeared as tenor soloist in oratorio, recital, and opera. Some highlights include performances with the Mark Morris Dance Group in Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, six seasons with the Carmel Bach Festival, and fifteen years as tenor soloist with Emmanuel Music. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah in
2008, with a return in 2016. His discography includes Bach BWV 76 with Emmanuel Music, Praetorius Christmas Vespers with Apollo’s Fire, and Kapsberger Apotheosis with Ensemble Abendmusik.

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Ryan Turner is Director of Vocal Ensembles at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is conductor of the M.I.T. Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus. Previous posts include Musical Director of Opera and Voice and Historical Performance faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, music faculty at Boston University, Music Director of the Newburyport Choral Society. Director of Choral Activities at Phillips Exeter Academy, Music Director of the Concord Chorale and Chamber Orchestra, Assistant Director of Choral Activities at the University of Rhode Island and Music Director of the Concord Chorus.

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Raised in El Paso, Texas, Mr. Turner holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and The Boston Conservatory. He lives north of Boston with his wife, soprano Susan Consoli, and their two children, Aidan and Caroline.

Soprano Janet Ross is a core member of Emmanuel Music, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Upper Valley Baroque, and Cantata Singers. She is a 2021 alum of the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and was invited to participate in the American Bach Soloists Academy until it was canceled in both 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. 

​​Janet earned undergraduate degrees in piano and flute performance and a Master of Music in piano performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she was named Chancellor’s Scholar, an award recognizing academic achievement and service to the school. As a pianist, Janet won myriad solo and concerto competitions, including the concerto competition, Schubert/Brahms Category, and Grand Prize in the Eastman School of Music’s Young Artists International Competition. She performed in recital at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, as the recipient of the VSAarts Panasonic Young Soloists Award.

Janet also has a M.Ed. in elementary education from UMass-Amherst and works in student services at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She volunteers with the House Rabbit Network.

American mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore has been praised for her “deep, radiant clear tone” (Early Music America) and her “effortlessly warm and resonant mezzo, with exquisite control over vibrato” (Boston Classical Review). She enjoys frequent solo collaborations with Emmanuel Music, The Boston Camerata and Aston Magna and has been featured with celebrated ensembles such as The Boston Early Music Festival, Handel & Haydn Society, The Bach Sinfonia, Magnificat Baroque, Voices of Music and El Mundo. She has appeared at New York’s Lincoln Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Emerson Majestic Theatre, Jordan Hall, Hill Auditorium in MI, The Paris Philharmonie, the Finnish Opera in Helsinki, The Utrecht Early Music Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall and numerous venues throughout the US and Western Europe.

A member of Emmanuel Music’s famed weekly Bach cantata series since 1999, Ms. Rentz-Moore garnered critical acclaim in the role of Joacim in their 2014 Boston premiere of Handel’s Susanna, as well as in the title role in Mozart’s Apollo et Hyacinthus in 2016. 2018 appearances include the critically-lauded The Orphic Moment, by Matt Aucoin, for contralto and chamber orchestra at Emmanuel Music, Handel’s Samson with Voices of Stow, and performances of Leonardo da Vinci: A Musical Odyssey with the Voices of Music, which earned “Best of the Bay: chamber music” from San Francisco Classical Voice. Her 2019 season included “Music in Rubens’ time” and “The World of Henry Purcell” with Aston Magna, Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Emmanuel Music, and a recital of Purcell and Handel with the Amphion Ensemble.Current season highlights include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater; Medieval Christmas music, Christmas music of New Spain, and early American music with The Boston Camerata, as well Bach Cantatas with Emmanuel Music at BachFest 2020 in Leipzig.

Ms. Rentz-Moore’s recordings can be found on the Musica Omnia, Centaur, Meridian and Harmonia Mundi labels, spanning styles from Monteverdi opera, Bach and early music of New Spain to early American and 21st-century compositions.  She appears on YouTube with Voices of Music and is featured on the new, critically-acclaimed “Free America” recording with The Boston Camerata (Harmonia Mundi).Holding a Master of Music in Voice performance from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in Music (voice) and Environmental Science from Skidmore College, Ms. Rentz-Moore has taught on the voice faculty of the University of Rhode Island and the Seacoast Academy of Music, and is currently a Resident Artist in Voice at the University of New Hampshire.

Tenor Jonas Budris is a versatile soloist and ensemble musician, engaging new works and early music with equal passion.

He performs and tours frequently with Cut Circle, and can be heard in their new recording, Johannes Ockeghem: The Songs. He also appears with Cut Circle in the short documentary, Sounds of Renaissance Florence. He has also enjoyed performing, touring, and recording with such groups as the Handel and Haydn Society, Blue Heron, Boston Baroque, The Thirteen, and the Skylark Vocal Ensemble.

Mr. Budris is a featured soloist in multiple GRAMMY-nominated recordings, including It’s a Long Way with Skylark Vocal Ensemble and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Boston Baroque. He can also be heard in Blue Heron‘s recording Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, which received the 2018 Gramophone Award for Early Music.

On the opera stage, he has performed principal and supporting roles with Opera Boston, OperaHub, Guerilla Opera, and Odyssey Opera, originating such roles as John in Giver of Light and the title role of Chrononhotonthologos.

Mr. Budris recently made his debut at the Carmel Bach Festival, where he was the 2018 Tenor Vocal Fellow for the Virginia Best Adams Vocal Masterclass. He is a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow with Emmanuel Music, where he has performed regularly in their Bach Cantata and evening concert series.

Originally from Martha’s Vineyard, Mr. Budris holds a degree in Environmental Sciences & Engineering from Harvard College.

Possessing a “resonant, beautiful” sound and heralded for his “expressive, florid” singing, Baritone Will Prapestis performs frequently as a soloist and ensemble member in the U.S. and Europe, and is the 2019-2020 Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow. He has had the pleasure of singing as a soloist and chorister with Emmanuel Music, Renaissance Men — of which he is a founding member — Boston Baroque, the Orpheus Singers, Exsultemus, BEMF, Cappella Clausura, Labyrinth Choir, Cantata Singers, Sound Icon, Monadnock Music Festival, Augmented, Copley Singers, Oriana Consort, Boston University Chamber Chorus, and the Fredonia College Choir. He was a participant in the 2019 Carmel Bach Festival, where he was featured as a Virginia Best Adams Fellow.

 Will is also a very busy bass player, thoroughly active in the Boston and New York City Pop Music scenes, performing with as many as five bands as a bass guitarist, vocalist, writer, and arranger. He is also a highly-sought session artist. 

 Will is a native of Elmira, NY, and he earned his Bachelor of Music in Performance at SUNY Fredonia.