Music Worcester Celebrates Its 166th Season With 21 Concerts And Launches THE COMPLETE BACH

Music Worcester, which began presenting music to central New England in 1858, celebrates its 166th season with 21 concerts, including 2 weekends that are part of THE COMPLETE BACH (TBC), a bold project that will encompass 12 concerts over each of the next 11 years.  Subscription packages for 3 or more events, along with single tickets, are on sale at musicworcester.org.

“From Music Worcester debuts of The Philip Glass Ensemble and pianist Bruce Liu to welcoming back the extraordinary talents of violinist Maxim Vengerov and Time for Three, the 2024-2025 Season explores the incredible range of classical music and features artists bringing together multiple genres in their practice as performers,” declared Adrien Finlay, Music Worcester's Executive Director. “We are especially excited to host these artists operating across multiple disciplines as a compliment to the launch of our 11-year Bach project.”

THE COMPLETE BACH will be an ambitious exploration of the prolific composer, and we'll be kicking off this project with the first-ever Bachtoberfest October 25th-27th,” Finlay continued. “There will be four different all-Bach concerts that weekend at Mechanics Hall, starting with CONCORA, the professional chorus of Connecticut led by our own Chris Shepard singing Cantatas BWV 70, 119, 120 on Friday evening; organist Peter Edwin Krasinski will present Bach Organ Multimedia Saturday afternoon; Zlatomir Fung (left) plays The Complete Cello Suites Saturday evening, and the Bachtoberfest Choir completes the weekend Sunday singing the Cantatas BWV 50 62 and 122.”

Violinist Maxim Vengerov and pianist Polina Osetinskaya return to Worcester on November 17th  with a program including works by both Clara and Robert Schumann, Brahms, and Prokofiev at Mechanics Hall.

The holiday season begins December 6th at First Unitarian Church in Worcester with the Worcester Chamber Music Society performing Bach's Christmas Cantatas BWV 32, 132, 151 and the annual performance of Handel's Messiah by The Worcester Chorus on December 7th at Mechanics Hall.  The Holiday Concert with The Worcester Chorus Women's Ensemble rounds out December on Sunday the 22nd at Trinity Lutheran Church.

The Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, considered America's premier large brass ensemble, performs in Mechanics Hall on January 24th.  The group's joyous music-making takes inspiration from Mr. Marsalis' New Orleans roots and will also include several numbers with the band program of the South High Community School of Worcester Public Schools.

Imani Winds and Boston Brass have teamed up for an eclectic program at Tuckerman Hall on February 14 with music by Bach, Katchaturian, de Falla, Piazzolla and Sandoval.  The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is joined by the first prize winner of the 2021 Chopin Piano Competition Bruce Liu in concert at Mechanics Hall on March 9th.

Mechanics Hall will be the site of the inaugural Bach's Birthday Bash March 21st-23rd with 4 concerts over that weekend.  Jeremy Denk plays The Complete Keyboard Partitas on Friday evening; The Worcester Chorus performs Bach's Secular Cantatas BVW 213 & 214 on Saturday afternoon; and the Handel & Haydn Society, with Ian Watson conducting, performs Bach's Concerti for Two Harpsichords on Saturday evening.  The weekend concludes Sunday afternoon with The Worcester Bach Collective, which includes Trinity Lutheran & All Saints Churches choirs, WPI Choir, Master Singers of Worcester, and  Salisbury Singers performing Cantatas BWV 28, 36, 40, 64 and 133.

The Sphinx Virtuosi, described by the Washington Post as a “unique group of young professional musicians...immeasurable power, unwavering command and soulful beauty," will present American Form/s, a journey through classically framed infusions of soul, bluegrass, jazz, blues, and elements of rag on Sunday March 30th as a co-production between The Prior Performing Arts Center of the College of The Holy Cross and Music Worcester.  

Sunday, April 27th,  Moveable Feast: Bach Organist Recital with Mark Mummert (assistant director of The Worcester Chorus, and Cantor at Trinity Lutheran Church) & Wesley Hall (Minister of Music and the Arts at the First Baptist Church of Worcester) keep THE COMPLETE BACH on track with an afternoon of organ music split between Trinity Lutheran and First Baptist Churches in Worcester.

Grammy and Emmy Award winning Time for Three bring their genre-bending mix of classical, Americana, and singer-songwriter styles to the JMAC BrickBox Theatre on May 14th, and the season wraps up on May 18th as The Worcester Chorus performs Handel's Dixit Dominus and Charpentier's Te Deum in Mechanics Hall.  

Summer@MW 2024

“We had such success with it in 2023, Summer@MW is now going to be part of our annual cycle of performances,” said Finlay. “This summer July 26th, we'll welcome The String Queens to The BrickBox at JMAC. This is a dynamic trio whose repertoire takes listeners on a rousing musical journey through time and a multitude of musical genres.”  

The series continues at The BrickBox on July 28th as The DePue Brothers Band, known as founders of the term “grassical music”, bring their vivid blend of bluegrass, classical, and rock genres to Worcester.   Take 3, a string trio that lives at the intersection where pop, rock and classical fusion collide, will be on stage at Mechanics Hall August 2nd.

About Music Worcester

Music Worcester, Inc., originally known as the Worcester County Music Association, for years ran the Worcester Music Festival. Current programs reflect the merger in the mid-1990s of the Festival with the International Artists Series and the MA Jazz Festival. Performances regularly include visiting orchestras and guest soloists, chamber music ensembles and ballet companies, world music and jazz groups, and choral masterworks.  Multiple educational programs currently serve youth and families of greater Worcester: masterclasses by visiting artists, Tickets to Opportunity, Festival Singers, in-schools residencies, and the Artist-in-Residency program. Integral to Music Worcester's annual operations, The Worcester Chorus has been part of the organization since the very first concert season in 1858.

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