Welcome by Jonathan Sternberg, Artistic Director |
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The 2005/06 season marks the 30th anniversary of the Bach Festival of Philadelphia founded in 1976 by Michael Korn with the assistance of dedicated volunteers from the Chestnut Hill community in Philadelphia’s Northwest. It has produced and presented many landmark performances of Baroque music throughout the city (see info). Of course the 30th anniversary season will celebrate this glorious past of Philadelphia culture and excellence. And with your support, the Bach Festival will again be able to offer a very special season with the finest internationally renowned artists. |
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Our monthly concert series will showcase the complete Clavir Ubung (“Keyboard Exercise”, including the Goldberg variations, the Italian concerto, and the six partitas) as well as the six cello suites and the six trio sonatas. The festival week near Bach’s birthday on March 21 will feature the major orchestral works and a vocal competition. The 30th anniversary season is dedicated to the memory of Michael Korn. During the first 15 years of the Bach Festival’s existence, he inspired all those who were surrounded by his musical genius, even after he departed as artistic director in 1988. In October 2006 we will commemorate the 15th anniversary of his untimely death in 1991 with a replica of the first “Basically Bach Festival” weekend. If you would like to express your support, we invite you to place your advertisement or salute in our Festival program book and to make a contribution for this very special part of our 30th anniversary season festivities. What started out as a weekend long community event in the 1970’s developed into a concert series of several weekends, then months. With this 30th anniversary season, we are expanding to a larger festival format again and are heading towards offering you a 24/7 (full time) broadcast of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works on our website. To integrate the season with the endeavors of all other music organizations in Philadelphia, the Bach Festival has established the “Bach 2 Phila Net Project”. This platform pools local resources to help better position Philadelphia in the global Baroque music scene, integrate local communities, and attract non-local artists and tourists. To keep the local past alive for future generations, the Bach Festival also hopes to issue a CD set with historic recordings of the past 30 years. This will include a comprehensive booklet on its history and the one-hour television special produced by WHYY TV-12 in 1985 which commemorated the 300th birthday of both Bach and Handel. Groundbreaking performances of local ensembles such as the B Minor Mass with the Philadelphia Singers and Michael Korn shall be made public for the first time ever. Your contribution will help to realize this worthy project. We hope you will enjoy participating in these projects and seize our 30th anniversary season promotion offers. Numerology is very important to Bach’s works and therefore the Bach Festival of Philadelphia adds a bit to it: The season pass subscription for $300 saves you over 30% of the ticket costs. And finally, the phone and fax number, where you can reach us in Chestnut Hill is (215) 247 BACH: For 2 x 15 years and now 24/7 we are BACH. I wish you a wonderful season with us and hope to meet you soon at our concerts. |
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Yours Most Sincerely, Jonathan Sternberg
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© The Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Inc.
8806 Germantown Ave Philadelphia, PA 19118 phone 215.247.BACH