Multi-day event combines academic conference with performances of major works by J.S. Bach
Elizabeth Chang, Festival organizers
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has announced plans for the 2023 Bach Festival and Symposium (April 21-23) hosted by the Department of Music and Dance. For complete information, please consult the special Bach Festival & Symposium website: www.umass.edu/bach.
In contrast to other Bach conferences and festivals, the UMass event offers a rare combination of both in-depth academic research and high-caliber performances. Organizers for this year’s Festival and Symposium, including faculty members Elizabeth Chang, Erinn E. Knyt, Evan MacCarthy, and William Hite, plus Professor Emeritus Ernest May and Amanda Stenroos MM’15, have planned an ambitious schedule that begins with a number of community-based prelude events, including “Bach in the Subways” performances in downtown Amherst (March 31-April 2), and a preview performance and talk on April 5 at Amherst's The Drake Theater (info at thedrakeamherst.org).
The Festival weekend officially opens on Friday, April 21 at 4 p.m. with a free concert by faculty pianist Steven Beck, who will perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. That evening, a free panel discussion titled “What do we talk about when we talk about ‘Bach and Timbre’?” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in room 419, Arts Bridge of the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts.
On Saturday April 22, the full-day Symposium, J.S. Bach & Timbre, takes place in Bromery Center room 419 beginning at 9:30 a.m. The keynote address, “Bach’s Tone Pleasure,” will be delivered by Isabella van Elferen, co-founder of the Kingston University’s Visconti Studio and author of Timbre: Paradox, Materialism, Vibrational Aesthetics (Bloomsbury, 2020). The Symposium will feature scholarly presentations by an international roster of music theorists and historians, led by UMass faculty members Erinn Knyt and Evan MacCarthy; a complete list of presenters and abstracts can be found here. The cost to attend the full-day Symposium is $25 ($5 for students) and free for those attending remotely.
At 7:30 p.m. that evening, the UMass Bach Festival Orchestra and Chorus (Lindsay Pope, chorus master) will present the Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, one of Bach’s most enduring masterworks, in the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall. Conducted by Andrew Megill, director of the Montreal Symphony Chorus, the concert will feature sopranos Kristen Watson and Ava D’Agostino MM’19, mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle, tenor Brian Giebler, and baritone Andrew Garland ’00. Tickets for the April 22 performance are $25 for the general public, $20 for seniors, and free for students, and can be purchased at the Fine Arts Center Box Office, by phone at 413-545-2511, or online at www.fineartscenter.com/musicanddance.
earlier Coffee Cantata performance
On Sunday, April 23, the Festival concludes with a free public performance by UMass alumni of Bach’s ever-popular Coffee Cantata at 11:30 a.m. at Amherst Coffee, and a special concert of Bach violin music and premieres of related works entitled Codemakers: Vijay Iyer, Hyeyung Sol Yoon & Texu Kim, presented in cooperation with the UMass Asian & Asian American Arts & Culture Program (3:30 p.m., Bowker Auditorium, $10-30; visit www.fineartscenter.com for tickets).
The 2023 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.