The Handel and Haydn Society in Boston has announced a $10 million gift from a donor who prefers to remain anonymous in honor of artistic director Harry Christophers, who will become the organization’s conductor laureate after his tenure ends in May 2022.

The largest gift ever to the society will create the Harry Christophers Fund for Artistic Excellence, which will enable his successor to expand on the society’s successes. Since becoming artistic director in 2009, Christophers has led the organization through its 2015 Bicentennial, hired more than 60 percent of the current roster of musicians, and led the company through fifteen commercial recordings, the most of any Handel and Haydn Society artistic director. Under his direction, the organization also expanded its touring schedule to include performances in New York City as well as at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts.

“Harry has fulfilled the mission of the Handel and Haydn Society,” the donor said in a statement. “I wish to ensure that the next artistic director propels the magic, joy, and learning Harry Christophers created to new levels. I want the new artistic director and H+H to ensure it is the best in the U.S. if not the world [at] what it does, transforming lives with unsurpassed excellence.”

“This breathtaking gift will have a profound and lasting impact on the organization,” said board chair Rob Shapiro. “This gift allows H+H and the new artistic director to take what Harry has started and build on it, bringing H+H to new and broader audiences and expanding our repertoire as we continue to explore the vast baroque and classical catalog.”

(Photo credit: Handel and Haydn Society)