Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Announces 2014-15 Season

The board of Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity is pleased to announce the inaugural season of its new artistic director Donald Meineke. Only the fourth director in Bach Vesper's 47-year history, Meineke has planned the largest and most ambitious season to date, placing newly discovered works and North American premiers alongside longstanding favorites. Repertoire for the season has been meticulously chosen to showcase the tremendous talent of the Bach Choir and Players and follows a theme of lineage and new beginnings. Already a standout in New York City's thriving early music scene, this new leadership and exciting season promises to take the Bach Choir and Players of Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity to new heights.

Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity was the first organization in the Western Hemisphere to present the cantatas and other works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries within their intended sacred context. Bach Vespers offers performances open to all through a free-will offering every Sunday evening at 5:00 PM from October to May and features the renown Bach Choir and Players on period instruments within the most authentic setting to hear the music of Bach outside of Leipzig, Germany.

Some program highlights include:

The season officially opens on Sunday, October 19th at 5:00 PM when Maestro Meineke takes to the podium for the first time in a performance of two of Johann Sebastian Bach's double choir motets: Singet dem Herrn BWV 225 and Jauchzet dem Herrn BWV 160. The performance will also feature a new collection of Preces and Responses written for the occasion by Maestro Meineke. In this final number, the combined choirs of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church will join the Bach Choir and players in this festive opening night performance.

In celebration of All Saints Sunday, the Bach Choir and Players will present Heinrich Schütz's Musikalische Exequien SWV 279-281 on Sunday, November 2nd at 5:00 PM. In recent years, the music of Heinrich Schütz has enjoyed renewed interest and enthusiasm from audiences worldwide. Though 100 years his senior, the music of this North German master exerted considerable influence on Bach's compositional style. Composed in 1636 for the funeral of Heinrich Posthumus Reuss, Musikalische Exequien is the musical embodiment of Reuss' elaborate engraved copper coffin. Life and death, dying and rising, mourning and comfort are given powerful expression both musically and theologically in this work as those who have died in the preceding year are commemorated, all saints known and unknown.

On Sunday, November 23rd at 5:00 PM, the Bach Choir and Players join forces with three of this season's guest ensembles: The Diderot String Quartet, House of Time and Dark Horse Consort. All three ensembles occupy unique places in New York City's thriving early music scene and will be featured individually throughout the season. For this collaboration, Maestro Meineke has chosen a program of works new to the ears of most audiences. First on the program will be Dietrich Buxtehude's Ihr lieben Christen, freut euch nun BuxWV 51. Buxtehude was a virtuosic organist and, like Schütz, had a great impact on the compositional work of Bach. The evening will close with music of Hieronymus Praetorius, a 16th century compositional career helped to bridge the gap between the Renaissance and Baroque. His Ecce Dominus veniet á 8 show elements of both compositional eras and is a revealing demonstration of how the North German Baroque came to be.

In the Advent season, Bach Vespers will present several favorites by their namesake composer. These performances include the Sunday, December 14th presentation of Bach's enduring and masterful Magnificat in D Major BWV 243 alongside Schütz's Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren.

Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity are free, open the public, and made possible through freewill offering and the generous support of individual and corporate sponsors. Holy Trinity is located at the corner of Central Park West and 65th street in the Lincoln Center neighborhood.

For a complete listing of the season, visit www.bachvespersnyc.org.