Schedule of Events
and Artist Information
"Led by longtime music director Dwight Oltman, the faculty, students and guest artists achieved a bold synthesis of modern and historic performance practices even as they made a living, breathing thing of Bach’s masterpiece."
~ The Plain Dealer
"...rousing, committed and touching..."
~ The New York Times
The 2011 Festival is made possible by:
The Adrianne and Robert Andrews Bach Festival Fund
in honor of Amelia & Elias Fadil
Featured Work ~
Mass in B Minor (BWV 232)
The First Collegiate Bach Festival in the Nation
For 79 years, the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival has inspired the imagination, passion and intellect of scholars and music lovers the world over. The oldest collegiate Bach festival in America was founded in 1932 by music educator Albert Riemenschneider and his wife Selma. The couple had a noble mission: to enrich the lives of Northeast Ohio residents by bringing the world's greatest Bach soloists to the stage of Baldwin-Wallace College, while offering the school's Conservatory students in voice and instruments an unparalleled opportunity to experience the highest performance standards of their day.
Albert and Selma succeeded. To this day, the annual Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival has come to symbolize artistic and academic excellence.
As Albert conceived it, the festival would rotate Bach's four major works ~ the B-minor Mass, the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion and the Christmas Oratorio ~ every four years in sequence. Much to the joy of audiences, this year's Bach Festival showcases the Mass in B Minor, parts of which were first introduced in 1733, though the complete mass was not assembled until the very end of Bach's Life. Since the inception of the Festival, Baldwin-Wallace's vocal and instrumental students perform the major choral and orchestral works with a cast of internationally renowned vocal soloists, faculty and local professionals.
At the helm is Dwight Oltman, festival music director and conductor, who will lead his 36th Bach celebration this year. Other noted Bach Festival participants are Baldwin-Wallace's Dirk Garner, director of choral activities and conductor of the Motet and College choirs; and Melvin Unger, Bach Service director, conductor of the B-W Singers and director of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute. The Festival will feature members of the Opera Cleveland Orchestra, the Baldwin-Wallace Festival Brass Choir, College Choir and Motet Choir, and the Festival Chamber Orchestra.
275 Eastland Rd.