Bach Week Festival to Take Final Bow with 50th Anniversary Season April 26 to May 5, 2024

‘A half-century labor of love’ to end on jubilant note,
says Richard Webster, longtime festival music director 

 The Evanston-based Bach Week Festival, "one of the most beloved rites of spring in Chicago music" (Chicago Tribune) since 1974, has announced that its 50th anniversary season, April 26 to May 5, 2024, will be its last.

“It's truly been a half-century labor of love,” Richard Webster, the festival’s longtime music director, says. “And we’ll conclude this amazing journey with J. S. Bach’s final sacred masterpiece, the incomparable Mass in B Minor, amid joy and gratitude for all who have been part of Bach Week.

“For many years now,” he says, “festival responsibilities have been shouldered by a very small, highly dedicated group of generous and hardworking board members and other volunteers. They’ve been the backbone of the organization, some since the festival's debut in 1974.
 
“We all feel that it's the right time for Bach Week to bid adieu, and on a high note.”

He says, “The festival is in fine form for this, our 51st annual edition. Over the past couple years, we've seen attendance and donations recover to prior levels, and we’ve attracted a stellar lineup of Chicago-area artists again this year, many of whom are like family.”

Webster, a nationally prominent church musician, has been the festival’s music director and conductor since 1975.

He performed in and helped organize Evanston’s first Bach Week, May 5-12, 1974, during his senior year at Northwestern University’s School of Music, under his mentor, festival founder Karel Paukert. The latter was associate professor of organ and church music at NU and organist and choirmaster at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, the festival’s first home.

Shortly after launching Bach Week, Paukert moved to the Cleveland, Ohio, area, where he has enjoyed a long and distinguished music career that continues to this day. He is expected to attend Bach Week’s final concert May 5 at St. Luke’s featuring Bach’s B-Minor Mass.

For a detailed, up-to-date schedule of the Bach Week Festival's farewell season and ticket information, please visit https://bachweek.org/2024-festival.

Bach Week’s Richard Webster to Run His 21st Chicago Marathon Sunday October 10

How his stop-smoking strategy became a passion that helps boost the Chicago area’s beloved Baroque music festival

Richard Webster, sporting his Chicago Marathon finisher's medal, poses
with harpists Julie Spring and Marguerite Lynn Williams at Bach Week's
fall 2019 benefit. Webster had completed the marathon just hours earlier.

Acclaimed church musician and composer Richard Webster has been music director of the Chicago area’s Bach Week Festival since 1975, having performed in and helped organize the Evanston-based festival’s 1974 debut.

Another of his passions is running. He’s been completing 26.2-mile marathons since 1995, when, at age 43, he participated in his first Chicago Marathon.

“When I crossed the finish line, it was like walking through the gates of heaven,” he says.

He’ll run his 21^st Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 10.

As in years past, he’ll be running to raise money for Bach Week. Online donations are welcome here.

His efforts typically raise thousands of dollars to help fund Bach Week’s signature spring concert series.

Sunday’s event will be his 41^st marathon overall. In addition to Chicago Marathons, Webster has run 18 Boston Marathons and one each in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Webster says he originally  took up running as “a distraction” to help him quit smoking cigarettes.

 “On Ash Wednesday of 1980, I gave up smoking for Lent,” he says.

At first, he could hardly run around a city block “without collapsing in a heap.” As he built up endurance over longer distances, he found that he “really enjoyed running” and decided to train for a marathon.

“I read a book and followed the instructions,” he recalled in a recent interview for this blog. That sounds simple enough, but Webster cautions, “It is grueling, and it never gets any easier. Yesterday I ran 15 miles. I was spent. Legs hurt, feet hurt, everything hurts. But you know there’s a goal.”

His favorite runner’s mantra: “The pain is temporary; the pride is forever.”

Webster sees “mental and spiritual connections” between running and music-making. He likens the intense, focused concentration of marathon training and running to “the full mental commitment required when learning a difficult piece of music.”

A big part of what makes it worthwhile, Webster says, are the throngs of fans lining the marathon route. “Their only job is to cheer you on. I love the energy you get from fans and other runners. It’s not a cutthroat sport at all, it’s very supportive.

“What I love about the Chicago Marathon is that it takes you through so many distinctive neighborhoods, all packed with spectators,” he says. “You’ll be cheered on by a mariachi band in Pilsen and drag queens in Lakeview.”

After crossing the finish line, most marathoners devote the rest of the day — and perhaps the next —to recuperating.  Not Webster. Most years, after running the Chicago Marathon, he dons his marathon finisher’s medal and emcees a fundraising event that evening in Evanston to benefit the Bach Week Festival. “It’s a challenge,” he says, “but I’m not going to miss the opportunity to be with Bach Week’s wonderful supporters.”

This fall’s benefit, a “Bachanalia” featuring expert pairings of wine and live classical music, has been tentatively rescheduled for March 20 due to pandemic-related uncertainties and public health restrictions. Updates will be posted to Bach Week’s website.

Since 2010, Webster has been music director and organist at Boston’s historic Trinity Church on Copley Square. He moved to Boston from Chicago in 2005 to serve as Trinity’s associate music director. Before that, he was music director for three decades at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, which hosted the first Bach Week Festival.

For more about Webster, his music making , and his marathon runs, check out articles in The Diapason and Chicago Tribune.

News Release: Bach Week Festival’s October 18 Virtual 'Bachanalia' Benefit to Pair Classical Music and Wines Online

WFMT Chicago radio personality Carl Grapentine to host free-access video featuring performances by Black Oak Ensemble, cellist David Cunliffe, soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg with harpsichordist Stephen Alltop, and organist Richard Webster

Advanced Sommelier Mike Baker to recommend wines fitting the flavor of the compositions

Mike Baker

 

Evanston, Illinois-based Bach Week Festival's 2020 Bachanalia, its fourth annual fall fundraiser featuring pairings of classical music with wines selected for the occasion by an advanced sommelier, will take place this season as a free, prerecorded online video presentation premiering at 3 p.m. (CDT) on Sunday, October 18, via Facebook and YouTube. Links will be posted on the festival’s website, bachweek.org.

Performers will include festival favorites of international stature from the Chicago area, including string trio Black Oak Ensemble, cellist David Cunliffe, soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg with harpsichordist Stephen Alltop, plus Boston-based organist and choirmaster Richard Webster, Bach Week’s longtime music director.

Carl Grapentine, veteran WFMT Chicago radio personality and J. S. Bach aficionado, will host the program.

Carl Grapentine

The event title combines the last name of German Baroque composer J. S. Bach, the festival’s namesake, and “bacchanalia,” the ancient Roman festival of entertainment and revelry named for Bacchus, Roman god of wine.

 Bach Week’s wine consultant for the event, Mike Baker, an Advanced Sommelier in the Court of Master Sommeliers and lead buyer for Vin Chicago, confers with the musicians, listens to recordings, and researches the music prior to selecting wines intended to echo the flavor of the pieces to be performed.

For those who want to imbibe at home, Baker’s wine recommendations will be posted in advance on Bach Week’s website, along with a companion video in which he describes how his choices pair with the characteristics of the musical selections.

The online Bachanalia, necessitated by public health restrictions, will run approximately 45 minutes and will continue to be available for free on-demand streaming after its October 18 release.

Donations will be solicited during the virtual Bachanalia to support the spring 2021 Bach Week Festival — the 48^th edition of what the Chicago Tribune has called  “one of the most welcome rites of spring in Chicago area music.”

Preludes, Variations, and Arias

The music program will open with Webster playing three chorale preludes from J.S. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) on the Richards, Fowkes & Co. pipe organ at Boston’s First Lutheran Church. The instrument, Webster notes, is a mechanical-action tracker organ, a design that harkens back to Bach’s era.

Webster will play “Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich” (The day is so full of joy), BWV 605; “Christum, wir sollen loben schon” (We should indeed praise Christ), BWV 611; and “In dir ist Freude” (In you is joy), BWV 615.

 Each of these short pieces, Webster says, showcases different organ colors and techniques.

Richard Webster

Internationally renowned Black Oak Ensemble, hailed for its “insightful, committed, masterful performances” (Classics Today), will play three movements from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, using Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s string trio arrangements of the solo harpsichord work. They’ll play the Aria (the set’s opening theme) and Variations 1 and 2.

Ensemble members are violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli, and cellist Cunliffe. Ruhstrat and Cunliffe are also members of the Grammy-nominated Lincoln Trio.

Black Oak Ensemble

  

In addition, Cunliffe will perform, as soloist, the Sarabande and Gigue movements from Bach’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009.

Stoppelenburg, a Dutch soprano praised for “her creamy tone, dead-on accuracy and dramatic interpretation” (Chicago Classical Review), will sing two selections from Bach’s 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, a collection of works Bach assembled for his second wife. She’ll sing the well-known aria “Bist du bei mir” (If you are with me), BWV 508, and Recitative and Aria from the church cantata “Ich habe genug” (I have enough), BWV 82.

Josefien Stoppelenburg

She’ll be accompanied by Alltop, who made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concert debut as a harpsichord soloist in 2009 playing Bach with conductor Pinchas Zukerman.

 

Stephen Alltop

The vocal selections are a nod to future Bach Week Festival programming, which will include concerts highlighting music written by or for women associated with J.S. Bach and his legacy.

In that vein, Webster will close the program with German Romantic composer and pianist Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Prelude in G Major for organ, from 1829, a recessional she composed for her own wedding. Webster will perform it on the Romantic-style Skinner organ at Boston’s historic Trinity Church on Copley Square, where he serves as music director.

Fanny was the gifted sister of composer Felix Mendelssohn, who is widely credited with launching the early 19^th-century Bach revival.  A child prodigy, she learned piano in the Berlin Bach tradition from her mother and could play all 24 preludes from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier from memory by age 14.

Bach Week’s 2021 Festival

Plans for the 2021 Bach Week Festival currently include concerts Tuesday, May 18, and Friday, May 21, at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston.

 Among featured performers will be international concert pianist Sergei Babayan, a Bach Week favorite and exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist heard on critically acclaimed albums with pianists Martha Argerich and Daniil Trifonov, and most recently, a recording of Rachmaninov works for solo piano. Gramophone magazine calls Babayan “an imaginative artist” with “a reputation among connoisseurs.”

Festival details will be available at bachweek.org.

The festival is a collaboration between Bach Week and North Park University’s School of Music, Art, and Theatre.

Covid-19 restrictions during spring 2020 forced the cancellation of the Bach Week Festival for the first time since its founding in Evanston in 1974. Bachanalia 2020 is Bach Week Festival’s first online concert, making its programming available to Bach lovers globally.

Bach Week Festival is one of the Midwest’s premiere Baroque music festivals. The event enlists musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and other top-tier ensembles, while featuring some of the Chicago area’s finest instrumental and vocal soloists and distinguished guest artists from out of town.

Press Release: Bach Week Festival Announces 2019 Season

Concerts April 26 & 28 in Evanston, May 3 in Chicago

 46th annual Baroque music series will feature pianist Sergei Babayan in a concerto, three Bach works never-before heard at the festival, artists’ Bach Week debuts, and a first-time collaboration with the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago

EVANSTON, Ill., Feb. 8, 2019 — The Chicago area’s Bach Week Festival has announced its 46th annual concert programs, with performances in Evanston and Chicago April 26 to May 3, 2019, featuring several Johann Sebastian Bach works never before heard at the festival; the return of pianist Sergei Babayan, praised by The New York Times for his “consummate technique and insight”; and a first-time collaboration with gifted pre-college musicians of the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago.

J. S. Bach works to be performed for the first time at Bach Week include the Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544; celebratory wedding cantata “O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit,” BWV 210; and church cantata “Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens,” BWV 148, according to Richard Webster, Bach Week’s long-time music director and conductor. Webster performed in and helped organize Evanston’s inaugural Bach Week in 1974 and has been music director since 1975.

Other new programming twists, Webster says, include opening the festival with Spanish Baroque composer Antonio Soler’s fiery Fandango for harpsichord and including in the festival lineup, for variety and contrast, a concerto for woodwinds, brass, and strings by Italian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi and a well-known instrumental suite for recorder and strings by Bach’s German contemporary and rival, Georg Phillip Telemann.

Pianist Babayan will be soloist in Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1054, accompanied by an ensemble of professional musicians of the Bach Week Festival Orchestra and string students from the Music Institute Academy.

Webster notes a historical precedent for the participation of pre-professional musicians. Many of Bach’s secular instrumental and vocal works received their premieres in concerts given by his Collegium Musicum, an ensemble of talented local university students, at Zimmermann’s coffee house in Leipzig, Germany.

Babayan is a Bach Week mainstay who is working his way through Bach’s complete solo keyboard concertos during return visits to the festival. Recently signed to the Deutsche Grammophon record label, Babayan received critics’ applause for recent concerts with his superstar pupil, pianist Daniil Trifonov, and his 2018 album “Prokofiev for Two” with pianist Martha Argerich. He teaches at The Juilliard School in New York and is artist-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Soloists making their Bach Week Festival debuts this season include violinists Laura Park and Rebecca Benjamin, both alumni of the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. They’ll play Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043, accompanied by Academy students and festival orchestra members. Newcomer Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor, will sing the tenor aria and recitative in Bach’s Cantata BWV 148.

Also new to the festival is baroque violinist Kiyoe Matsuura, who, with lutenist Joel Spears, will present an intimate Candlelight Concert focused on J. S. Bach’s Suite for Violin and Continuo, BWV 1025, and its origins in a work for solo lute by German virtuoso lutenist and composer Silvius Leopold Weiss, who visited the Bach household. 

Among the festival’s returning soloists are Chicago Symphony Orchestra flutist and piccolo player Jennifer Gunn, who will play Bach’s Ouverture (Orchestral Suite) No. 2, BWV 1067; Judith Kulb, principal oboist with the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, and Lyric Opera Orchestra violinist John Macfarlane, who will be heard in Bach’s Concerto in C minor for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060R. Recorder virtuoso Lisette Kielson, an early music specialist and past president of the American Recorder Society, will solo in the Telemann suite. Two internationally acclaimed singers, Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg and British-born Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan Platts, both of whom live on Chicago’s North Shore, have solo roles in Bach cantatas.

The festival is a partnership between the Bach Week Festival and North Park University’s School of Music, Art, and Theatre.

The 2019 Bach Week Festival is supported by grants from the MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, and Howard and Ursula Dubin Foundation.

A musical rite of spring on the North Shore since 1974, Bach Week is one of the Midwest’s premiere Baroque music festivals. The event enlists musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and other top-tier ensembles, while featuring some of the Chicago area’s finest instrumental and vocal soloists and distinguished guest artists from out of town.

2019 Bach Week Festival Schedule

Friday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.
Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston
Opening Night: "Baroque Bouquet: Bach, Vivaldi, and Soler"

Antonio Soler: Fandango for harpsichord
J. S. Bach: Sonata in G Major for Harpsichord and Viola da Gamba, BWV 1027
J. S. Bach:  Concerto in C minor for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060R
J. S. Bach:  Cantata “O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit,” BWV 210
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in F Major, RV 569

Jason Moy, harpsichord
Anna Steinhoff, viola da gamba
Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano
John Macfarlane, violin
Judith Kulb, oboe
Bach Week Festival Chamber Orchestra
Richard Webster, conductor

Friday, April 26, 10 p.m.
Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston
Candlelight Concert: “Bach or Not Bach”

J.S. Bach’s Suite for Violin and Continuo, BWV 1025, plus Franz Joseph Haydn's Cassation in C Major, Hob. III:6

Joel Spears, lute
Kiyoe Matsuura, violin

Sunday, April 28, 3 p.m.
Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston
“Virtuoso Soloists”

J. S. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043
J. S. Bach: Ouverture No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067
J. S. Bach: Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1054

Sergei Babayan, piano
Jennifer Gunn, flute
Laura Park and Rebecca Benjamin, violins
Music Institute of Chicago Academy Orchestra
James Setapen, conductor
Bach Week Festival Orchestra
Richard Webster, conductor
Presented in collaboration with the Music Institute of Chicago

Friday, May 3, 7:30 p.m.
Anderson Chapel, North Park University
5149 N. Spaulding Ave., Chicago
Festival Finale: "Sensational Singers"

J. S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544
J. S. Bach: Motet “Fürchte dich nicht,” BWV 228
J. S. Bach: Motet “Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden,” BWV 230
Georg Philipp Telemann: Suite in A minor for recorder and strings 
J. S. Bach: Cantata “Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens,” BWV 148

Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano
Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor
Lisette Kielson, recorder
Richard Webster, organ
Bach Week Festival Chorus
North Park University Chamber Singers
Members of Bella Voce
Bach Week Festival Orchestra
Richard Webster, conductor

Tickets and Information
Single-admission tickets to each of the three main concerts $50 for VIP seating, $40 adult general admission; $25 seniors, $15 students. Subscriptions to the main concerts are $100 for VIP seating; $80 adult general admission, $60 for seniors, and $25 for students.

All tickets for the April 26 Candlelight Concert are $25 and include a glass of champagne and a selection of gourmet chocolates.

Tickets can be purchased online at bachweek.org or by phone, (800) 838-3006. For general festival information, phone 847-269-9050 or email info@bachweek.org.

For press tickets and media inquires, contact Nat Silverman, Nathan J. Silverman Co. PR.

On the Net:
Bach Week Festival: http://bachweek.org
Sergei Babayan, piano: http://www.opus3artists.com/artists/sergei-babayan
Rebecca Benjamin, violin: https://starsintheclassics.org/performers/biography-rebecca-benjamin
Jennifer Gunn, flute: https://cso.org/about/performers/chicago-symphony-orchestra/flute/jennifer-gunn/
Lisette Kielson, recorder: http://www.lensembleportique.com/about_lisette.php
Judith Kulb, oboe: https://www.chicagolyricoperaorchestra.com/judith-kulb
John Macfarlane, violin: https://www.chicagolyricoperaorchestra.com/john-macfarlane
Kiyoe Matsuura, violin: https://music.depaul.edu/cmd/faculty-and-staff/faculty-a-z/Pages/Kiyoe-Matsuura.aspx
Jason Moy, harpsichord: http://www.jjmoy.com/
Laura Park, violin: https://laurapark.net/
Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano: https://www.susanplatts.com/
Joel Spears, lute: https://www.musicinst.org/joel-spears
Anna Steinhoff, viola da gamba: https://annasteinhoff.com/
Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano: http://www.josefienstoppelenburg.com/
Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor; https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-townsend-strand-73757458
Richard Webster, music director, conductor, organ: http://www.advent-press.com/

Press Release: Bach Week’s ‘Bachanalia’ Benefit October 7 in Evanston Will Support Spring Music Festival

Fundraiser to Feature Expert Pairings
of Classical Music and Wines

Black Oak Ensemble to Perform

Black Oak Ensemble

EVANSTON, Ill., Sept. 26, 2018 — Evanston-based Bach Week Festival's ‘Bachanalia’ fall fundraiser will feature expert pairings of classical music, performed by the Black Oak Ensemble, with specially selected international wines at 6 p.m. on Sunday, October 7, 2018, at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Proceeds from the Bachanalia, hosted by the festival board, will support the spring 2019 Bach Week Festival, its 46th annual edition.

The event’s title combines the last name of German Baroque composer J. S. Bach and “bacchanalia,” the ancient Roman festival of entertainment and revelry named for Bacchus, Roman god of wine.

“Spirits will be high,” says Richard Webster, Bach Week’s longtime music director and emcee for the Bachanalia.

Black Oak Ensemble members are violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, violist Aurelien Pederzoli, and cellist David Cunliffe. Ruhstrat and Cunliffe are Grammy-nominated artists. The North Shore-based ensemble has performed throughout the U.S., including appearances at the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Latino Music Festival, Mayne Stage, WFMT Radio, and the Grand Rapids Museum of Art.

Mike Baker, an Advanced Sommelier in the Court of Master Sommeliers and lead buyer for Vin Chicago, consults with the musicians and selects wines that echo the personalities of the musical works to be performed. Baker also listens to recordings and researches the music before making his wine choices.

Baker will discuss each wine before it's poured for guests, followed by a performance of the musical work the wine was selected to complement.

Hearty hors d'oeuvres will be available throughout the event.

A silent auction will feature items of interest to music, art, theater, ballet, and restaurant aficionados, as well as offering boutique children’s clothing and toys, among other attractions. All are donated by local businesses, performing arts organizations, and individual artists.

Benefit planning committee members include Evanston residents Michael Coleman, Cynthia Kirk, Melissa Trier Kirk, Judith Kulb, Laura Kulb, Naida Lodgaard, Mary Mumbrue, and Dorothy Scott.

Tickets and Information

Tickets for Bach Week’s Bachanalia benefit are $60 per person and are available online at bachweek.org and by phone, (800) 838-3006. For additional information, phone the festival’s office at 847-269-9050.

Marathon Run for Funds

On the morning of the benefit, Bach Week’s Webster will run in the Chicago Marathon to raise funds for the annual spring music festival. Webster has led Bach Week since 1975 and performed in and helped organize the 1974 inaugural festival in Evanston. He is currently director of music and organist at Boston's historic Trinity Church on Copley Square. Donations for Webster’s run can be made online at crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/richard-runs-for-bachweek.

2019 Festival

Bach Week Festival’s 2019 concerts will take place April 26 and 28 at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston and May 3 at Anderson Chapel at North Park University, Chicago. The festival is a collaboration between Bach Week and North Park’s School of Music, Art, and Theatre.

Among the featured performers will be international concert pianist Sergei Babayan, recently signed to an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon following his critically acclaimed recordings on the label with celebrated pianists Martha Argerich and Daniil Trifonov, Babayan’s superstar pupil. Gramophone magazine calls Babayan “an imaginative artist” with “a reputation among connoisseurs.”

Complete festival details will be posted at bachweek.org.

A musical rite of spring on the North Shore, Bach Week is one of the Midwest’s premiere Baroque music festivals. The event enlists musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and other top-tier ensembles, while featuring some of the Chicago area’s finest instrumental and vocal soloists and distinguished guest artists from out of town.

Press Release: Bach Week Festival to Make Music in Chicago’s Rookery Building March 23

Free pop-up concert in the Loop

is part of 2018's international

Bach in the Subways project
to promote classical music 

Musicians from the Chicago area’s Bach Week Festival will give a free public performance of music by German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach from 12:30 to 12:45 p.m. on Friday, March 23, 2018, in the skylit lobby of Chicago’s historic Rookery Building, 209 S. LaSalle Street.

Conducted by Bach Week’s music director Richard Webster, an ensemble of about 20 choristers plus cellist Mark Brandfonbrener and double bassist Collins Trier — both members of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra — and keyboard artist Jason Moy will perform Bach’s motet "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" (Sing to the Lord a new song), BWV 225, composed around 1727.

The pop-up concert, organized by Webster, is part of the 2018 international Bach in the Subways project, March 21–25, a grassroots movement to promote classical music through free concerts in public spaces on or around Bach’s March 21 birthday. About 100 cities will be hosting performances this season, which marks the 333rd anniversary of Bach’s birth.

All Bach in the Subway performances worldwide are free to the public, and performing artists donate their services.

According to the organization’s website, bachinthesubways.org, "The primary purpose of Bach in the Subways is to bring live Bach to as many people around the world as possible – especially to those who would not normally hear it.” Bach in the Subways dates to 2010, when cellist Dale Henderson began performing Bach’s solo Cello Suites in the subways of New York City.

The Rookery was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1972 after being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Designed by architects Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root, the Rookery was originally completed in 1888. Frank Lloyd Wright redesigned the two-story lobby in 1905.

The Bach Week Festival, founded in Evanston, Ill., in 1974, is one of the Midwest’s premiere Baroque music events.  The festival enlists musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and other top-tier ensembles, while featuring some of the Chicago area’s finest instrumental and vocal soloists and distinguished guest artists from out of town.

The 45th annual Bach Week Festival will run from April 27 to May 4, 2018, at locations in Evanston and Chicago. More information at bachweek.org.

UPDATED March 2, 2018 - Press Release: Bach Week Festival Announces Plans for 2018 Edition April 27–May 4

45th annual concert series will feature world premiere
of Marcos Balter’s new Bach-inspired work for solo cello,
pianist Sergei Babayan in a Bach concerto and solo works,
and festival’s first performance of Bach’s Cantata 191

The Bach Week Festival has announced its 45th annual program of concerts in Evanston April 27 and 29 and Chicago May 4, featuring new twists on presenting music by the event’s namesake, German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

“Each season, we go ‘Bach’ to the drawing board to keep the festival fresh while remaining true to our mission,” says Richard Webster, Bach Week’s long-time music director and conductor. Webster performed in and helped organize Evanston’s inaugural Bach Week in 1974 and has been music director since 1975.

Katinka Kleijn. Photo: Todd Rosenberg

The festival will host its first world premiere of a new work when Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Katinka Kleijn performs Marcos Balter’s “Ensuite,” a multi-movement work based on J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites. Kleijn, whom the New York Times calls “a player of formidable expressive gifts,” commissioned the piece for her Bach Week Candlelight Concert solo recital, scheduled for 10 p.m. on April 27. The work will include movements from various Bach Cello Suites and new movements composed by Balter in response to Bach’s music.
 

Sergei Babayan. Photo: Marco Borggreve

Fresh off an international duo-recital tour with his superstar student Daniil Trifonov and solo appearances with orchestras in Germany and Italy, pianist Sergei Babayan of the Cleveland Institute of Music will return for another installment in his traversal of Bach’s complete single keyboard concertos. He’ll give an opening-night performance of the Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052.

Robert Sullivan

Evanston’s Robert Sullivan, professor of trumpet at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, will make his Bach Week Festival debut April 27 in Bach’s cantata “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen,” BWV 51, which demands virtuosic trumpet playing in its opening and closing movements.  Soprano soloist will be Dutch-born singer Josefien Stoppelenburg of Wilmette.

Sullivan has served as principal trumpet of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras, assistant principal trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra, and associate principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic. Since moving to the Chicago area, Sullivan frequently performs with the Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, and the Chicago Philharmonic.

Josefien Stoppelenburg
Photo: Basvan Oort

Stoppelenburg, who made her Bach Week debut in 2017, performs with the Rembrandt Chamber Players, Boulder Bach Festival, Cincinnati Bach Ensemble, Peoria Bach Festival, and Camerata Amsterdam, among many other collaborations.

Bookending the opening-night program will be a pair of distinctly different Brandenburg Concertos. The Third Concerto is scored for strings with harpsichord accompaniment, while the Fifth Concerto features major roles for flute, violin, and harpsichord.

Pianist Babayan will perform a solo recital April 29 with a selection of Preludes and Fugues from Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” Book I, BWV 846-869, and Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A Minor, K. 310, and Piano Sonata in F Major, K. 332.

Desirée Ruhstrat

Bach’s festive church cantata “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” BWV 191, which contains echoes of the Gloria from his monumental Mass in B Minor, will receive its first-ever Bach Week performance at the festival finale May 4 — in an unusual staging. Between the first and second movements, where Bach’s score indicates a break for a sermon, concert-goers will hear violinist Desirée Ruhstrat of Highland Park, a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Lincoln Trio, play Bach’s Partita in D Minor, BWV 1004.

Music of Bach’s contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann will be heard in the same program. Telemann’s Concerto in D Major for Three Trumpets, Two Oboes, Timpani, Strings and Basso Continuo, TWV 54:D3, employs instrumentation similar to that of Bach’s cantata. “Listeners will experience strikingly different approaches to the same musical forces,” Webster says. “Bach loved complex counterpoint, while Telemann favored simple melodies.”

The concert will open with what Webster describes as a "double-header" featuring the hymn tune "St. Anne." First, the choir will sing the hymn "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," by English Baroque composer William Croft, with text by Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 90. Then, Webster will perform J.S. Bach's organ Fugue in E-flat Major ("St. Anne"), BWV 552, which uses a remarkably similar melody.

The finale concert also offers a richly textured, choral tour-de-force: Bach’s motet “Singet dem Herren,” BWV 225, for double choir accompanied by cello, bass violin, and harpsichord.

The 2018 festival is a partnership between the Bach Week Festival and North Park University’s School of Music, Art, and Theatre.

2018 Bach Week Festival Schedule

Friday, April 27, 7:30 p.m.
Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston
45th Annual Opening Night

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G Major, BWV 1048
J.S. Bach: Cantata “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen,” BWV 51
J.S. Bach: Keyboard Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052
J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050

Sergei Babayan, piano
John Macfarlane, violin
Jason Moy, harpsichord
Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano
Robert Sullivan, trumpet
Marie Tachouet, flute
Bach Week Festival Chamber Orchestra
Richard Webster, conductor

Friday, April 27, 10 p.m.
Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston
Candlelight Concert with Katinka Kleijn
World Premiere of Marcos Balter’s “Ensuite”

Katinka Kleijn, cello

Sunday, April 29, 3 p.m.
Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston
Sergei Babayan Piano Recital: Bach and Mozart

J. S. Bach: Selections from “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” Book 1, BWV 846–869
W. A. Mozart: Piano Sonata in A Minor, K. 310; Piano Sonata in F Major, K. 332

Sergei Babayan, piano

Friday, May 4, 7:30 p.m.
Anderson Chapel, North Park University
5149 N. Spaulding Ave., Chicago
Bach’s Glorious Cantata 191

William Croft (music, “St. Anne”)/Isaac Watts (words, Psalm 90): “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
J.S. Bach: Fugue in E-flat Major for organ ("St. Anne"), BWV 552
Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerto in D Major for Three Trumpets, Two Oboes, Timpani, Strings, and Basso Continuo, TWV 54:D3
J.S. Bach: Cantata “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” BWV 191, with Bach’s Partita in D Minor, BWV 1004, for unaccompanied violin.
J.S. Bach: Motet “Singet dem Herren,” BWV 225

Klaus Georg, tenor
Rosalind Lee, soprano 
Jason Moy, keyboard
Desirée Ruhstrat, violin
Richard Webster, organ
North Park University Chamber Singers
Members of Bella Voce
Bach Week Festival Chorus and Orchestra
Richard Webster, conductor

Tickets and information

Single-admission tickets to each of the three main concerts are $30 for adults, $20 seniors, $10 students. Subscriptions to the main concerts are $80 for adults, $50 for seniors, and $20 for students. All tickets for the April 27 Candlelight Concert are $20. Tickets can be purchased online at bachweek.org or by phone, (800) 838-3006. For general festival information, phone 847-269-9050 or email info@bachweek.org.

The 2018 Bach Week Festival is supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.

On the Net:
Bach Week Festival: http://bachweek.org
Sergei Babayan, piano: https://www.cim.edu/faculty/sergei-babayan
Marcos Balter, composer: http://www.marcosbalter.com/
Klaus Georg, tenor: http://www.klausgeorg.com/
Katinka Kleijn, cello: http://www.katinkakleijn.com/
Rosalind Lee, soprano: http://classicalsinger.net/rosalind_lee/
John Macfarlane, violin: http://www.chicagolyricoperaorchestra.com/john-macfarlane
Jason Moy, harpsichord: http://www.jjmoy.com/
Desirée Ruhstrat, violin:  http://www.desireeruhstrat.com
Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano: http://www.josefienstoppelenburg.com/
Robert Sullivan, trumpet: http://www.music.northwestern.edu/faculty/profiles/robert-sullivan.html
Marie Tachouet, flute: https://www.lyricopera.org/about/artists/orchestra/marietachouet