Bach Festival

Schedule as of January 19, 2023. Subject to change.
* = Rain Location: Lindsay-Crossman Chapel
$ = Tickets Required (See TICKETS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS section below.)

FRIDAY, APRIL 21

Bach Festival Kick Off
11 a.m.
Front Steps (weather permitting), Boesel Musical Arts Center
The official start to Bach Festival, complete with fanfare & musical treats.

Open House
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Boesel Musical Arts Center
Featuring a display of rare items from the vault and the presentation of the Bach Festival feature art piece, High Mass in B minor by J. S. Bach, circa 2015 by Ukrainian artist Olha Kizub (b. 1968).

RBI Student Scholar Presentation
2-3 p.m.
Fynette Kulas Music Hall, Boesel Musical Arts Center
2022-23 RBI Scholar Justin McMullen presents on the topic of marriage in Steven Sondheim's Company. Featuring items from the Jack Lee Collection.

Interlude
3:10-3:25 p.m.
Lobby, Boesel Musical Arts Center
Bach on marimba, featuring Prof. Josh Ryan.

Master Class
3:30-5 p.m.
Fynette Kulas Music Hall, Boesel Musical Arts Center
Dr. Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello. Founder and director of ACRONYM. His recordings of the complete cello suites of J. S. Bach were praised for their "eloquent performances … fresh thinking … and energy and zeal" (The Strad).

Festival Brass
6:15 p.m.
Marting Hall Lawn & Tower*

Bach and the Brandenburgs ($)

7 p.m.
Gamble Auditorium, Kulas Musical Arts Building
Baroque band ACRONYM performs an all-Bach concert, featuring two of J. S. Bach's six Brandenburg Concertos, along with one of his cantatas, and more. Special guest Catharina Meints, viola da gamba, joins the ensemble for this special performance.

WATCH IT LIVE

A few minutes before the concert is scheduled to begin, simply click on the link below and be sure to adjust your speakers. Finally, sit back and enjoy the outstanding performance.

LIVE STREAM >>

Post-Concert Reception
8:30 p.m.
Lobby, Gamble Auditorium, Kulas Musical Arts Building
Hosted by Friends of the Conservatory.

SATURDAY, APRIL 22

Alumni Brunch
10:30 a.m.-Noon
Fynette Kulas Music Hall, Boesel Musical Arts Center
Get your favorite Bach Festival stories ready! BW alumni are invited to gather and reconnect. Ticket required.

Master Class
12:30-2 p.m.
Fynes Hall, Kulas Musical Arts Building
Kate Maroney, mezzo-soprano. Recognized by The New York Times for her "vibrant and colorful" singing, mezzo-soprano Kate Maroney is in demand on concert, oratorio and opera stages in works that span from the Renaissance to the 21st century.

Interlude
2:10-2:25 p.m.
Lobby, Gamble Auditorium, Kulas Musical Arts Building
Bach on saxophone, featuring Conservatory students.

Lecture on the Mass in B Minor
2:30-3:30 p.m.
Fynes Hall, Kulas Musical Arts Building
Presented by Dr. Michael Marissen, Professor Emeritus of Music, Swarthmore College, Visiting Professor, Graduate Faculties, Princeton University and University of Pennsylvania.

Baroque Dance Workshop
4-5:15 p.m.
Fynette Kulas Music Hall, Boesel Musical Arts Center
Join us as we learn the noble dances of the 18th century courts! We will explore the physical rhetoric of these dances through learning of basic steps with Baroque dancer and harpsichordist Dr. Qin Ying Tan. Participants should wear comfortable clothing and soft dance shoes or socks for ease of movement. Free, but ticket required to participant. Observers welcome.

Festival Brass
6:15 p.m.
Marting Hall Lawn & Tower*

Appear & Inspire ($)

7 p.m.
Gamble Auditorium, Kulas Musical Arts Building
BWV: Cleveland's Bach Choir performs with Baroque band ACRONYM in an evening of inspiring music spanning centuries. Following tradition, we present two of Bach's monumental motets, Komm, Jesu, komm (BWV 229) and Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden (BWV 230). Nestled comfortably between these masterpieces is Benjamin Britten's Hymn to St. Cecilia in a profound and moving celebration of music. Weaving it all together are solo works performed by members of BWV and ACRONYM showcasing their myriad talents and interests.

WATCH IT LIVE

A few minutes before the concert is scheduled to begin, simply click on the link below and be sure to adjust your speakers. Finally, sit back and enjoy the outstanding performance.

LIVE STREAM >>

SUNDAY, APRIL 23

All Conservatory Brunch ($)
10:30 a.m.
Ballroom, Strosacker Hall
Current students and parents, faculty and staff are invited to gather for a family meal in celebration of all things Bach. Ticket required.

Festival Brass
1:15 p.m.
Marting Hall Lawn & Tower*

Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 ($)

2 p.m.
Gamble Auditorium, Kulas Musical Arts Building
We close the 91st Bach Festival with J. S. Bach's signature Mass in B Minor. This sublime, uplifting masterwork is among Bach's most celebrated compositions. Join us as we perform the concerted version of this magnificent work.

Featuring:
BWV: Cleveland's Bach Choir as soloists
BW Motet Choir
BW Festival Orchestra with ACRONYM
Dirk Garner, conductor
Paulina Francisco, soprano
Madeline Apple Healey '11, soprano
MaryRuth Miller, soprano
Andrew Leslie Cooper '15, alto
Dianna Grabowski, alto
Kate Maroney, alto
John Russell, tenor
Gene Stenger '10, tenor
Matthew Tresler, tenor
Dominic Aragon '16, bass
Jonathan Cooper '12, bass
Christopher Jackson, bass
Aine Hakamatsuka, soprano
Joseph Schlesinger, alto
Harrison Gilberti '24, bass

WATCH IT LIVE

A few minutes before the concert is scheduled to begin, simply click on the link below and be sure to adjust your speakers. Finally, sit back and enjoy the outstanding performance.

LIVE STREAM >>

3-Concert Subscription

Section A $120
Section B $105
Section C $90

Single Tickets

Section A $45
Section B $40
Section C $35

Student tickets are free.

BACH AND THE BRANDENBURGS
Friday, April 21, 7 p.m.

APPEAR & INSPIRE
Saturday, April 22, 7 p.m.

MASS IN B MINOR, BWV 232
Sunday, April 23, 2 p.m.

Additional Events

BW ALUMNI BRUNCH 
Saturday, April 22, 10:30 a.m.

BAROQUE DANCE WORKSHOP 
Saturday, April 22, 4 p.m.

ALL CONSERVATORY BRUNCH
Sunday, April 23, 10:30 a.m.

Gamble Auditorium

You can request to be added to the Bach Festival mailing list by contacting the Conservatory events office at (440) 826-8070, emailing bachfest@bw.edu or filling out our online form.

The Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival – the oldest collegiate Bach festival in the nation – was founded in 1932 by Professor Albert Riemenschneider (longtime director of the BW Conservatory) and his wife, Selma. The Baldwin Wallace Festival Choir and Orchestra presented the first Bach Festival in June 1933, and we've been performing annual Bach festivals ever since. In the current era, the festival is evolving to include year-round events, like Bach Haus, that explore Bach's influence on a broad spectrum of music.

Baldwin Wallace performing groups are joined by faculty members and professional musicians in the three-day, multi-event program. Soloists are internationally known artists; the lecturers, distinguished Bach and Baroque scholars. Our students consider the unusual opportunity of participating, as colleagues, with world-class professionals a high point in their performing experience.

Beginning with the 43rd festival in 1975, the festival performing groups have been reduced to sizes now known to be more in line with those employed in Bach's time. Likewise, from 1975 on, all vocal works have been sung in the language of their origins. These changes have made possible the cultivation of a truly Baroque sound with inherent clarity, drive and intensity.

With a repertoire list that includes more than 300 compositions by J.S. Bach, as well as selected works from 52 other composers, the Festival rotates Bach's four major choral works on a four-year cycle. In this way, BW students are exposed to all four of the major Bach choral works during their college years; the B-minor Mass, the St. Matthew and St. John Passions, and the Christmas Oratorio.

Bach Festival Reviews

Various clevelandclassical.com reviews
BW Bach Festival highlighting saxophone, returning to roots on 86th annual event (preview) - Cleveland.com
MUSIC REVIEW: Baldwin Wallace Bach Fest - Cool Cleveland
MUSIC REVIEW: Kenari Quartet at Baldwin Wallace - Cool Cleveland
MUSIC REVIEW: Bach Festival @BaldwinWallace - Cool Cleveland
Bach Festival at Baldwin Wallace concludes with hair-raising 'St. Matthew Passion' - The Plain Dealer
Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival Concert One (April 15) - clevelandclassical.com

By Dr. Melvin Unger

Many would say it is the lucidity of Bach's music – the consummate integration of its structural elements – that makes it so great. Bach was unsurpassed in his ability to grasp (intuitively it seems) the possibilities of a melodic or harmonic idea, and to work these out in coherent, yet expressive ways. His music functions equally well on both horizontal and vertical planes – as a series of simultaneous melodic strands and as a progression of chords. It brings competing impulses into equilibrium: the logical and the mystical, the sonic and the symbolic. It constantly surprises the listener with its inventiveness.

While using as its starting point the harmonic language, compositional techniques and rhetorical figures of its day, it moves far beyond them. Bach's style is characterized by a richness of chromatic language, a logic of thematic unfolding and an overlay of hermeneutical (interpretive) allusions. It is no wonder that succeeding composers held him in such awe. Robert Schumann put it well: "Wir sind alle Stumper gegen ihn" (Next to him we are all plodders).

Presenting a comprehensive picture of Bach's creative genius is one of the chief objectives of the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival. View a list of works performed on Festival programs since its inception in 1933.