2023 ARIZONA BACH FESTIVAL To Run February 26 - March 14, 2023

The Arizona Bach Festival announces its 14th anniversary season showcasing exquisite music from the Baroque era including the music of Bach, Vivaldi and Handel. The 2023 Festival welcomes organist Ken Cowan, who the Dallas Morning News hailed as "dazzling," a chamber concert of oboes, violas, bassoons and singers performing rare music of Bach, Michel Corrette, and oboe ensembles from the court of Louis XIV, and the Arizona Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra performing "Magnificent Magnifcats." The Festival concludes with soprano and Baroque specialist Josefien Stoppelenburg as she portrays "Heroines of the Baroque," in a riveting program where Lucrezia, Susanna and Cleopatra come to the fore as Stephen Alltop accompanies on harpsichord.

The 2023 Arizona Bach Festival will be held February 26 through March 14 2023, with concerts at All Saints' Episcopal Church (Feb. 26, Mar. 4 & Mar. 12) and Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church (Mar. 14). Pre-concert lectures will be held one hour prior to each concert.

Artists participating in the 2023 Festival will hold free masterclasses with local music students. Visit arizonabachfestival.org for a full schedule of events.

2023 ARIZONA BACH FESTIVAL

Organ Recital - Ken Cowan

Sunday, February 26, 3:00 p.m.

All Saints' Episcopal Church

6300 N. Central Ave, Phoenix

Tickets: $30 advance/$35 at the door, free for students w/ID

Praised for his dazzling artistry and impeccable technique, organist Ken Cowan will make his first Arizona Bach Festival appearance in an all-Bach organ recital on the renowned Visser organ of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Phoenix. Mr. Cowan has been a featured artist in recent years at the national conventions of the American Guild of Organists and has performed for several conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Chamber Music in Multiples

Oboes, bassoons, violas and singers

Saturday, March 4, 7:30 p.m.

All Saints' Episcopal Church

6300 N. Central Ave, Phoenix

Tickets: $30 advance/$35 at the door,

free for students w/ID

Experience sonorities never heard before in a Bach Festival program-a concerto for four bassoons by the French master, Michel Corrette, and Bach's cantata Gleichwie der Regen with four violas. Double reeds will abound in oboe ensembles from the court of Louis XIV. You will not want to miss the opportunity to take in the color of these rarely heard works.

Magnificent Magnificats

Arizona Bach Festival

Chorus and Orchestra Concert

Conducted by Scott Youngs

Sunday, March 12, 3:00 p.m.

All Saints' Episcopal Church

6300 N. Central Ave, Phoenix

Tickets: $40 advance/$45 at the door, free for students w/ID

The song of Mary in the Gospel of Luke has been the high point in the evening prayer of the Western church for millennia. Musical settings number in the thousands, but you will be treated to the most magnificent expressions from the Baroque. You will experience the operatic lyricism of Caldara, the kinetic energy of Vivaldi, and the sublime interpretation of Bach.

"Heroines of the Baroque"

Vocal Recital by Josefien Stoppelenburg

Stephen Alltop, Harpsichord

Sarah Walder Amata, Cello

Tuesday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.

Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church

6715 N Mockingbird Ln, Scottsdale

Tickets: $30 advance/$35 at the door, free for students w/ID

One of Arizona Bach's most beloved performers, Josefien Stoppelenburg, returns to do her own program combining the flamboyance of Handel's operas and the intimacy of solo cantatas from the French Baroque. Heroines will come to the fore as the abused Susanna, the vengeful Lucrezia, and the exultant and mournful Cleopatra. Stoppelenburg's husband, Stephen Alltop, will accompany and present solo harpsichord works.

To post a comment, you must register and login.