Bach Festival celebrates 75 years!
In February 2010, the Bach Festival Society will host its 75th Annual Bach Festival, marking the Bach Festival Society’s 75th consecutive year presenting great choral masterworks to Central Florida residents and visitors. This historic anniversary provides an opportunity to look back on the music, the conductors, and the thousands of musicians who have brought this wonderful repertoire to life.?Through scheduled performances, community partnerships, and educational programs, the Central Florida community is invited to celebrate the past, present, and future of the Bach Festival Society.
The 75th Anniversary Celebration’s ticketed performances include a compiled Anniversary Mass, with each movement representing a different time in the history of the Festival; Mendelssohn and Mozart, which includes two of Mozart’s last pieces-his Requiem and his Clarinet Concerto, performed by GRAMMY Award-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman; a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, a massive warhorse of choral music that showcases the Bach Festival Choir’s command of the unprecedented depth, musicality, and choral complexity of Bach’s greatest masterwork; and a program of traditional organ music by one of the finest living Bach organists, James David Christie.
In addition to ticketed performances, the 75th Annual Festival offers FREE partnership programs to engage the community in the celebration. The Festival Preview concert is a fun program designed to sample the upcoming performances. Big Band Bach is an outdoor concert in which well-known Bach tunes are arranged for big-band instrumentation, giving a new twist to this historic music. Bach Festival History Exhibit on display at the Winter Park Historical Association will focus on the music and the people who have been a significant part of its history. The Photography Exhibition Celebrating the Spirit of the Bach Festival Society captures the spirit of the Conductor, Choir, Orchestra, and Knowles Memorial Chapel and will be displayed at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens.
