J. S. Bach News

Valley of the Moon Music Festival has announced it will move entirely online this year. The historically informed chamber music organization, now in its sixth year, has decided to livestream or broadcast all of its programming due to health and safety concerns in the wake of COVID-19.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra today announced programming for its 2020-21 season with three concerts presented by the organization in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall and two concerts presented by the 92nd Street Y, as well as touring engagements throughout the United States.

Spoleto Festival USA announces 17 days of Spoleto at Home: free digital and radio broadcast programming for audiences to enjoy in lieu of the 2020 season. a?oeWhen we initially announced the Festival's cancellation, we received an outpouring of overwhelmingly encouraging, albeit saddened, messages from our audience,a?? says General Director Nigel Redden.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs return to the majestic surrounds of Sydney Town Hall for their annual Easter concert, presenting JS Bach's powerful St John Passion, interspersed with re-imaginings from two Australian composers.

Due to personal reasons, Elissa Lee Koljonen has withdrawn from the Sunday, April 5, 2020 concert with Pacific Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Replacing Koljonen will be acclaimed violinist Stefan Milenkovich. The original program is scheduled to be performed and includes Ticheli's Rest, for String Orchestra, a piece of fragile beauty and quiet dignity, and Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61, considered to be his most lyrical work, and the only concerto he wrote for one of the most popular instruments of his day: the violin.

Ars Lyrica Houston has announced its 16th season, which introduces a new chamber series at Rienzi alongside its popular mainstage subscription series at the Hobby Center. Highlights of the 2020/21 season, entitled Turning Points, include two operas, one a contemporary work for solo voice and historic instruments and the other a full-dress Baroque opera with period dancing and poignant drama. Timeless stories and transcendent music animate Ars Lyrica's 2020/21 programming, as this Grammy-nominated ensemble continues to offer Houston audiences the finest in live period-instrument performance.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine's Great Music in a Great Space concert series continues on Wednesday, March 18th at 7:30pm, with Musica Sacra's Under the Arches: Music of Bach, Brahms, Bruckner & Rheinberger, at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street).

Less than one month into his new job as Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, Carlos Acosta announces plans for world premieres, classic revivals and brand-new partnerships in his first year as Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet. Opportunity, talent and inspiration are the key ingredients that underpin his vision and ambition for the company.

Carol Wincenc 50th Anniversary: It's Golden!, a three-concert series that celebrates the acclaimed flutist's half-century onstage, continues with its second event, 'Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight: Carol Wincenc,' part of the Merkin Hall series hosted by the WQXR evening host, on Sunday, February 23, 2020, at 5:00 pm.

The Montclair Orchestra presents its mid-winter concert on January 31st at 8:00 p.m., an exploration of the baroque style of 'concerto grosso', in which a small group of soloists plays with a larger ensemble. The exploration starts from the traditional baroque-classical music of J. S. Bach, but then jumps forward two centuries to rediscover the form as presented by Stravinsky and Schnittke in the 20th century.

Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) today announced detailed programming for the second annual OSL Bach Festival, spanning three weeks from June 9-30, 2020, with concerts and masterclasses across four venues in Manhattan-including three orchestral concerts at Carnegie Hall-and featuring guest artists cellist Pieter Wispelwey, harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, and soprano Amanda Forsythe. The OSL Bach Festival was launched last June to great success as part of the first season of esteemed Baroque and Classical Music specialist Bernard Labadie as OSL Principal Conductor.

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit's third annual Holiday Baroque celebration features Dutch Baroque cellist Jaap Ter Linden performing three of J. S. Bach's Solo Cello Suites, No. 1 in G major, No. 3 in C major, and No. 6 in D major.  The performances take place Friday, December 13, 8 PM at Schaver Music Recital Hall in Detroit (at Wayne State's Old Main Building) and a repeat on Saturday, December 14, 8 PM at Northbrook Presbyterian Church in Beverly Hills.

Pegasus: The Orchestra will make their Merkin Hall debut on Saturday, November 23rd at 8pm led by conductor Karén! Hakobyan. Glenn Dicterow, the legendary former concertmaster of New York Philharmonic, will join Pegasus concertmaster Eiko Kano for Bach's Double Violin Concerto. Opening the program will be the world premiere of Hakobyan's Contempo: Bach Recombinant and to close, Tchaikovsky's beloved Serenade for Strings. 

On Saturday November 2 at 6:30pm The Burdock Music Hall welcomes to their stage a new but already internationally-celebrated acoustic duo: Tony McManus & Julia Toaspern with their special guest John McMillan. McManus and Toaspern mark this concert as the official Canadian release of their already highly-acclaimed new CD recording 'Live In Concert: in Germany'.

Each season An die Musik (oboe, string trio, and piano), co-founded in 1976 by pianist Constance Emmerich, returns to an enthusiastic and overflowing crowd at Merkin Hall to perform with imagination, brilliance, and warmth. This year's only New York concert takes place on Sunday afternoon, November 10, 2019, 4 pm at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Music Center, 129 West 67th Street, New York, NY. The artists performing this fall with An die Musik will be Mark Peskanov, violin; Nicholas Mann, viola; Robert Ingliss, oboe; Thomas Demenga, cello; and Constance Emmerich, piano.

The Dryden Ensemble will present organist Jacob Street in an all-Bach organ recital entitled a?oeBach and the Art of Dancea?? on Friday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Miller Chapel, located on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, 64 Mercer Street, Princeton, New Jersey.

Grammy-award winning American organist Paul Jacobs will return to San Francisco Symphony's Davies Symphony Hall (201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102) to open the organization's Organ Recital Series, Sunday afternoon, October 20, 2019, at 3 pm. His program will include an array of organ showpieces, from the intricate beauty of J.S. Bach's Passacaglia, Mozart's delightful Fantasia for clockwork organ, to Vierne's grandly scaled Organ Symphony.

The Montclair Orchestra led by Music Director David Chan will open their 5 concert season on September 22, 2019 at 7pm (St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Montclair) with '1001 Nights', an escape to Persia, featuring New York-based Iranian-American composer Behzad Ranjbaran's song cycle Songs of Eternity with rising star soprano, Gabriella Reyes. The original 12th century Farsi poems from the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam will be read by Montclair's Mahtab Foroughi. The orchestra is then on full virtuosic display, featuring the enchanting music of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, conjuring up images of the sea, a storm, and a young Persian prince and princess.

On Friday, September 20 at 7 PM, Renée Anne Louprette, internationally acclaimed concert organist, will present an organ recital as part of the annual San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy.