AMHERST – The University of Massachusetts Amherst has announced plans for the 2025 Bach Festival and Symposium, which will take place on campus and in the town of Amherst from April 25-27. This marks the sixth edition of the biennial event hosted by the Department of Music & Dance.
The UMass Bach Festival and Symposium is perhaps the only collegiate event of its kind in the country. An undertaking that blends performances of Bach’s music alongside a scholarly symposium on the same weekend, it is a rare combination of both in-depth academic research and high-caliber musical concerts.
Launched in 2015, the scale of the festival and symposium has grown in both stature and size over the years. As it enters its second decade, organizers including faculty members Elizabeth Chang, Erinn E. Knyt, Evan A. MacCarthy, and William Hite, plus Professor Emeritus Ernest May and department alum Amanda Stenroos MM ‘15 are excited to present a more extensive lineup of events than ever, with ten concerts alongside the scholarly symposium.
The traditional set of prelude concerts, which precede the main festival and symposium weekend, have been reimagined as the “Bach Before Bach” concerts. This series will include: an April 8th concert at The Drake in Amherst titled “Regal to Rustic: A Musical Offering & The Peasant Cantata” featuring current UMass students, guest artists, conductor Noah Horn, and host Evan MacCarthy; an April 11 performance of Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis (considered a 20th-century response to Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier); an April 13, 3pm Alumni Concert at Grace Church featuring Bach's Mass in G Minor conducted by Lindsay Pope, Director of Choral Studies at UMass; and two concerts featuring solo Bach works for string instruments on March 27 and April 5 in Bezanson Recital Hall.
The Festival Weekend features its signature line-up of events: The “Goldberg Variations” with Steven Beck, piano, on Friday at 4pm, two performances of Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the Christmas Oratorio parts 1 - 3 with maestro Richard Sparks conducting on Saturday, 7:30pm and Sunday, 3pm, and a rollicking, period instrument performance of the Coffee Cantata in English on Sunday at noon.
The Christmas Oratorio concert will be presented at Grace Church in Amherst on April 26th (7:30) and 27th (3:00). Tickets can be purchased through the UMass Fine Arts Center box office. The Coffee Cantata will be held at Amherst Coffee (28 Amity Street), and is free to attend, though space is limited.
This year marks the first time that the Festival has undertaken a performance of the Christmas Oratorio, completing its survey of J.S. Bach’s four major sacred vocal works. The Festival began with the St. John Passion in 2015, the Mass in B Minor in 2017 and 2023, and the St. Matthew Passion in 2019.
The 2025 Scholarly Symposium, with a panel discussion on Friday 4/25 at 7:30 and presentations all day Saturday 4/26, considers the question “Why Bach? Navigating 21st Century Scholarship, Performance, and Pedagogy.” Bach scholars from around the world will gather to offer a robust series of presentations meant to help us re-assess the functions, meanings, and value of Bach's life and works in the twenty-first century.
Daniel R. Melamed, professor emeritus of musicology at the Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University), will deliver the keynote address: “Historical Bach Performance in the 21st Century.” Melamed will also join a panel discussion (Friday 7:30pm) alongside scholars from Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and UMass, moderated by UMass’s own Ernest May, addressing why we perform, study, teach, and listen to Bach’s music amid contemporary critiques of the musical canon.
The 2025 UMass Amherst Bach Festival and Symposium is sponsored by the UMass Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the UMass Office of Research and Engagement, the Fine Arts Center, and the UMass Arts Council. The media sponsor is New England Public Media.
For complete information, please consult the special Bach Festival & Symposium website: www.umass.edu/bach.