The Bach Choir of Bethlehem Sets 2015-16 Season

The Bach Choir of Bethlehem has announced its 2015/16 season, Bach At The Heart, which will culminate in the 109th Bethlehem Bach Festival in May 2016. In a milestone programming endeavor, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem will mount performances of four major choral works this season: in addition to the traditional performance of the B Minor Mass at the Bach Festival 2016, the Christmas Oratorio (Cantatas 1-3) will be performed in the Bach Choir's traditional Christmas concerts on December 12th & 13th,2015; the St. John Passion in its spring concert on March 20th,, and the Easter Oratorio at the Bach Festival on Friday evenings. The Bach Choir, Bach Festival Orchestra, and distinguished soloists perform under the direction of artistic director and conductor Greg Funfgeld, now in his 33rd season.

Maestro Funfgeld and the Bach Choir will also continue their beloved series of community concerts, Bach at Noon. The season begins with the 75th concert in the series on September 15, 2015 at Central Moravian Church, Bethlehem. This gift to the community, initiated in 2005, attracts more than 6,800 people a year to seven free concerts of choral and instrumental works by Bach and other composers introduced by Greg Funfgeld with an informal and enlightening talk. In summer of 2015, The Choir also successfully launched a summer series of Bach at Noon concerts at St. John's Lutheran Church in Allentown.

Founded in 1898, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem gave the American premiere of Bach's Mass in B Minor 1900 and the Christmas Oratorio in 1901. Since then, the Choir and Festival have attracted enthusiastic acclaim from audiences and critics alike. Acclaimed culture critic Barrymore Scherer visited the Bach Festival in 2015 for The Wall Street Journal:

"The Bach Choir of Bethlehem's 100 volunteer singers perform the music of Bach and that of his sons and contemporaries with extraordinary devotion. When they lift their voices in the 19th century sanctuary of Lehigh's Packer memorial Church, their choral sonority is so rich you can feel it in your bones." - The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2015

THE 109TH BETHLEHEM BACH FESTIVAL, MAY 13 - 14 AND MAY 20 - 22, 2016

"A glorious friendship between a great composer and the orchestra, conductor and choir at the heart of an extraordinary town." The Whole Note, Toronto, June 2015

Each year in spring, the Bethlehem Bach Festival draws thousands of people from across the United States and beyond to the picturesque town of Bethlehem located in Pennsylvania's historic Lehigh Valley. The centerpiece is the annual performance at Packer Memorial Church of Bach's Mass in B Minor, which was given its American premiere in 1900 by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Before the Bach Choir was founded in 1898, the local population, made up mostly of Moravian immigrants, had given ad hoc performances of Bach, and presented the Cantata "Eine Feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress is Our God") BWV 80 prior to the European Mendelssohn Bach revival of 1829. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem has kept up with the times, remaining true to its volunteer tradition, while perfecting the quality of its professional orchestra and engaging internationally recognized soloists.

As part of its ambitious season-long cycle of major Bach oratorios, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem will also perform Bach's Easter Oratorio at the 2016 Bach Festival (on Friday evenings, May 13 & 20). The Festival features a return of Taylor 2 of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, "one of the most exciting, innovative, and delightful dance companies in the entire world," according to The New York Times. Together with The Bach Festival Orchestra and Maestro Funfgeld, Taylor 2 will present a Dance Program to works by Handel and Bach on Saturday mornings, May 14 & 21.

The 2016 Bach Festival continues a popular 2015 initiative, Zimmermann's Coffee House, a late night informal event held café-style in the charming Peter Hall at Moravian College with its famous 19th century stained glass windows. The audience listens to Baroque chamber music performed by young musicians (chosen by audition) while enjoying German fare, wine and beer. Surprise appearances by Greg Funfgeld and friends add to the festivities.

Further highlights of the 2016 Festival include appearances by internationally renowned trumpet soloist Terry Everson in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 on Friday evenings May 13 & 20; chamber music concerts at the historic Saal of the Moravian Museum, spotlighting the Italian influence on Bach's music with his Italian Concerto BWV 971 and Italian-language cantatas BWV 203 and 209, on Friday afternoons; and, at the same time at the intimate Incarnation of our Lord Church, the festival premiere of Cantata 96 and Bach and Handel duets with Festival favorites soprano Agnes Zsigovics and countertenor Daniel Taylor, also on Friday afternoons.

The 2016 Festival also features the Young American Singer Competition, whose final round is open to the public and takes place on Sunday, May 22nd at 1pm in Peter Hall at Moravian College.

On November 7, 2015 at the Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, the traditional Gala Concert and Fundraiser this season features the internationally acclaimed Bach Collegium Japan with its artistic director Masaaki Suzuki in a program of works by Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel including Bach's Cantata 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen! with soprano Joanne Lunn.

One of Bach's grandest and most popular works, The Christmas Oratorio, received its American premiere with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem in 1901. For this year's traditional Christmas concerts - in the enchanting Old World atmosphere of Bethlehem during advent - The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Festival Orchestra, and Maestro Funfgeld are joined by vocal soloists Ellen McAteer, soprano; Daniel Taylor, countertenor; Isaiah Bell, tenor; and David Newman, bass-baritone for Parts 1, 2, & 3 of the Christmas Oratorio on December 12 and 13, 2015 at First Presbyterian Churches of Allentown (December 12, 8pm) and Bethlehem (December 13, 3pm).

Strongly committed to integrate its world-class music making into the wider fabric of its Pennsylvania community, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's varied community and outreach initiatives are an integral part of its activities. This season's Youth Choirs Festival brings several local choruses to Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University for a Family Concert on February 28, 2016 at 3pm. Bel Canto Children's Chorus, Berks Youth Chorus, Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts Touring Choir, and Nazareth Area High School Chorale join The Bach Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra in a program of favorite choruses by Bach, Handel, and Randall Thompson.

The Bach Choir of Bethlehem's 2011 recording of the Saint John Passion was critically acclaimed in Gramophone magazine: A handsome account... Funfgeld brings a sure sense of phrasing, texture and pacing to the narrative, and the Bach Festival Orchestra...are cohesive and nimble.(1/2012) As part of its season-long celebration of Bach's major choral works, Maestro Funfgeld directs the St. John Passion in the Bach Choir's Spring Concert on March 20, 2016 at 4pm at First Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem. Soloists are Thomas Cooley, tenor (Evangelist), William Sharp, baritone (Jesus), Laura Heimes, soprano, Laura Atkinson, mezzo-soprano, Isaiah Bell, tenor and Dashon Burton, bass-baritone.

The complete program and ticket information follows on pages 4 and 5 of this release.

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About The Bach Choir of Bethlehem

Following the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's founding in 1898 and its first American performance of the Mass in B-minor in 1900 and the American premiere of Bach's Christmas Oratorio in 1901, the Choir has been attracting thousands of visitors from across the United States and around the world to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival in the Moravian countryside of eastern Pennsylvania.

Under the direction of conductor Greg Funfgeld since 1983, The Choir's activities have expanded to a year-round season of 31 concerts and educational programs a year for an audience of more than 20,000; recordings for the Dorian and Analekta labels, films for PBS and Classical Kids, and touring performances including the Herkulessaal at Munich's Royal Residence and the Thomaskirche, Bach's church in Leipzig, Germany; the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London; Carnegie Hall and Trinity Church Wall St, New York City; Severance Hall, Cleveland, and the Kennedy Center and Music Center at Strathmore in the Washington D.C. area. In 2014, The Choir commissioned a one-act comic opera by Chuck Holdeman, composer, and Bill Bly, librettist, which was performed in Bethlehem and in Philadelphia for the 250th anniversary of the German Society of Pennsylvania.

The Choir has released seven recordings of Bach works, in addition to the popular four-volume Christmas in Bethlehem. Recordings for Analekta include Bach's Magnificat and Cantata 191, and Vivaldi's Gloria (2009), Songs of Hope (2011), Saint John Passion (2012), and A Child's Christmas in Bethlehem (2013). The Choir has been featured on National Public Radio's Performance Today and Prairie Home Companion, Deutsche Radio, the BBC World Service, CBS Sunday Morning, and the Emmy award-winning PBS documentary on The Choir, Make a Joyful Noise.

In addition to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival, the concert season in Bethlehem includes Christmas and Spring Concerts; a Family Concert; Bach at Noon, a series of free concerts in historic Central Moravian Church; and Bach to School, an outstanding educational outreach program that has now been presented for more than 100,000 children. Mr. Bach Comes to Call, a film based on the acclaimed Classical Kids CD, was produced by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem in collaboration with Touchstone Theatre and GreenTreks Network in 2007. It has been broadcast nationally on PBS and is distributed internationally by The Children's Group. The Bach Choir is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2013, The Bach Choir was the first American recipient of an award from the J.S. Bach Foundation in Switzerland.

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