History of the Festival

The Bach Festival began in 1976 as a small community project in Chestnut Hill. It was originally a producing organization, with The Philadelphia Singers and Concerto Soloists in residence. Led by Artistic Director Michael Korn, these ensembles presented several concer1s during one weekend in the fall. When the Festival expanded its season, it began to invite notable guest artists to perform.

In 1984 the Bach Festival formed an in-school music outreach program in response to limited arts education opportunities in the public schools. Designed to serve over 1,000 low-income children. The program sought to instill in young listeners a genuine and lasting excitement for fine music. Developing and maintaining educational outreach programs remains an important priority for the Festival.

Public Television audiences nationwide were able to enjoy the Each Festival in 1985 with the one-hour special “Handel and Bach: The Timeliness Of Genius.” Produced in partnership with WHYY television in Philadelphia, the program celebrated the tercentenary of the births of Bach and Handel, Tony Randall narrated the presentation and Michael Korn directed the Philadelphia Singers and Concerto Soloists.

In conjunction with the tercentenary celebration, the Bach Festival sponsored a series of lectures on Bach’s life and work. The collected lectures were published as “The Universal Bach” by the American Philosophical Society. Lawrence Dreyfus, Christoph Wolff, Robert Marshall and Richard L. Jeske participated.

In 1987, the Bach Festival held a Young Artists Competition for children up to the age of 14. Because few competitions exist for this age group, the Festival Board felt that young musicians should be encouraged. Eminent Philadelphia musicians judged the competition. The winners received cash prizes. The first prize winner was the featured soloist in the Festival’s Young People’s Concert.

By 1987, the Bach Festival expanded its season to six weeks. To open the season the Festival orchestrated a major event called “Bach Around the Clock” in cooperation with WFLN-FM and Mellon Bank. The day-long schedule of performances by area music groups was broadcast live by WFLN and reached an audience of over 30,000 listeners. The performances and interviews with the musicians offered a taste of the Festival’s upcoming season. This annual event continued through 1992.

The following lists outstanding events of recent seasons:

• Men’s choir from St. John’s College, Cambridge, England

• The complete Bach Brandenburg Concertos played by the New York Chamber Soloists

• The complete Bach Goldberg Variations played by pianist Clive Swansbourne

• The complete Bach cello suites played by Pieter Wispelwey and Scott Kluksdahl

• Several performances by The Tallis Scholars, the “superstars of Renaissance choral music”

• Collaboration with The Philadelphia Singers and Concerto Soloists to produce Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, and Mass in B Minor

• Concerts by organists from churches in Arnstadt and Leipzig, Germany where Bach himself played Concert by Chanticleer. the world’s only fully professional chorus

• Paul Galbraith, guitarist from Scotland, played the world premier of a transcription of Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas originally written for violin

• Concert by Musica Antiqua Köln, the world’s foremost chamber ensemble

• Paul Jordan played Bach’s Art of the Fugue on the organ

• Concert by the St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig, Germany (Bach’s own church) in their first American tour, for an audience of over 1100 (the largest in our history)

The current season continues our strong emphasis on excellent programming.

1997 was the beginning of a project entitled JS BACH - the Partnership. Joining Shipley, Bach and Central High, the Bach Festival acted as the umbrella organization for this partnership which produced four full days of courses about Bach as well as preparations for a joint concert with the chorus from the Shipley School and the Central High orchestra. 100 free tickets to the Bach Festival concert at the conclusion of one of these days were provided to students. The Festival’s support allowed these local students to sing with the choir from St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany. Additionally, the 80 boys of the choir stayed in the homes of Shipley and Central High students. Philadelphia was the only American city in which home stays were offered to the choir. We hope that the interaction of German and American young people will promote a model of the season’s motto of the Bach Festival: “When he was asked, ‘What can we do for world peace?’, renowned cellist Pablo Casals said, ‘PLAY BACH!’” The Bach Festival of Philadelphia feels it is part of our mission to take the music of Bach into neighborhoods where it is unknown.

In 1988 the Board of Directors decided to broaden the scope of The Festival by becoming a presenting organization rather than a producing one. This enabled the Bach Festival to present concerts by eminent artists such as Joshua Rifkin and his Bach Chamber Ensemble, soprano Julianne Baird, harpsichordist John Gibbons and the Italian chamber orchestral Soloist Veneti. These Concerts offered many Delaware Valley audiences their first opportunity hear world-class artists.

In subsequent seasons, the Festival continued a commitment to present the extraordinary treasures of the Baroque era performed by professional specialists. For its 1990 season, the Festival expanded its offerings to include numerous educational events which included lecture/recitals, master classes and “Living Program Notes” - short pre-concert talks by experts on the music to be performed or by the performers themselves. We offered these events because we believe better-informed audiences receive far more enjoyment and enrichment from the music. Also they are more likely to remain involved with the Festival in future years.

During the 1991 season the Bach Festival Chamber Orchestra under the direction of internationally renowned Baroque violinist Stanley Ritchie was formed. The ensemble consisted of Baroque instrumental specialists largely from the Delaware Va1ley. The debut was a great success, achieving a standard of excellence found in only a handful of Baroque Orchestras world\vide The caliber of its performance was such that an immediate recording offer was received from Dorian Records.

In 1992 the season expanded from six weeks to seven months. This new schedule proved to be more convenient to audiences. It also gave the Festival access to a greater selection of touring artists. In addition, the change allowed for more effective promotion of each event and kept the Festival in the public eye throughout the year.

In 1997, The Bach Festival began a unique educational program in conjunction with Temple University. Whereas the educational outreach of most arts organizations consists of one 45-minute presentation to a school group, The Bach Festival actually became a partner with the Temple curriculum The music faculty at Temple selected its best instrumental and choral students to par1icipate in a term-long project that featured two cantatas and an orchestral suite of Bach The Bach Festival then brought in noted German Bach scholar and conductor Helmuth Rilling from Germany, who rehearsed the students for three days and subsequently present these works at a Center City church. This important project provided the students with an opportunity to learn and perform the music of Bach. Furthermore, the Temple music faculty expressed an interest in continuing our collaboration.