The Dessoff Choirs Present Refracted Bach: A Midwinter Festival

Johann Sebastian Bach and the generations of musicians influenced by him will be the focus of Refracted Bach, a five-part festival, culminating in a performance of Bach's towering masterpiece the Mass in B Minor. The Festival will be presented by The Dessoff Choirs in venues around New York City from January 31 to March 3, 2012. "In this festival, we view all music through the prism of Bach, exploring repertoire from Palestrina to the cutting edge of today's music," says Dessoff's Music Director Christopher Shepard, a leading Bach interpreter and scholar of Bach performance in America.

In addition to the full performance of the Mass by The Dessoff Choirs and the period-instrument ensemble Arcadia Players on March 3, the festival kicks-off with a lecture on January 31 by renowned Bach scholar George B. Stauffer, followed by Stile Antico on February 3, a performance featuring choral and instrumental works from the 16th to the 21st centuries; the New York premiere of contemporary English composer Robin Holloway's Gilded Goldbergs for two pianos on February 7; and a participatory reading on February 11, open to all choral singers, of movements from Bach cantatas that he refashioned for the Mass in B Minor.

TICKETS: $5-55, children under 12 free. For discounted festival packages and individual tickets, please visit dessoff.org, or call (212) 831-8224.