Bach Choir of Bethlehem to Hold 108th Annual Bach Festival in May

This spring the lovely historic town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, will once again welcome Bach lovers from around the country to celebrate the incomparable Bach Choir of Bethlehem, one of America's oldest and most cherished musical institutions. Two weekends in May-May 1 - 2 and 8 - 9, 2015-will offer a wide range of events, including concerts, lectures and, for the first time, an imaginative re-creation in downtown Bethlehem of Leipzig's historic Zimmermann's Coffee House, the scene of many first performances of Bach's instrumental works and secular cantatas, including the celebrated Coffee Cantata.

The centerpiece of the Festival will be The Bach Choir's annual performances of Bach's mighty Mass in B Minor at Lehigh University's Packer Memorial Church, the site of The Bach Choir's historic American premiere of the Mass in 1900. Before The Bach Choir was founded in 1898, the local population, mostly made up of Moravian immigrants, had given ad hoc performances of Bach, and in fact presented the Cantata "Eine Feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress is Our God") BWV 80 prior to the European Mendelssohn Bach revival of 1829.

The Mass will be led by Artistic Director and Conductor Greg Funfgeld, now in his 32rd year at the helm of The Bach Choir and Festival Orchestra. Under Maestro Funfgeld's direction, The Choir-consisting of 95 dedicated volunteer singers-has remained true to its volunteer tradition, but is now also recognized for the outstanding quality of its professional orchestra and internationally lauded soloists.

Several new concert series in more intimate venues have been added to this year's festivities, including Bach at 4 in an historic church in South Side Bethlehem, and Zimmermann's Coffee House, a program of chamber music with food and drink in the Terrace Room of the Historic Hotel Bethlehem. There will be many opportunities for participation by young and adult singers of all levels including pre-concert youth performances and Bach Chorale Singing with Maestro Funfgeld and members of The Choir. The Festival also features a new educational initiative, The Chaconne Project, which presents original variations on the chord progressions of Bach's Chaconne in D Minor written by young instrumentalists performing with the Bach Festival Orchestra. Several Lehigh Valley churches are partnering with The Bach Festival to offer Sunday morning services featuring the music of Bach on May 3rd and 10th.

This year the Bach Festival also presents the gifted young violinist Caroline Goulding as Festival artist-in-residence. Having made her debut at 13, Ms. Goulding has already been heard as guest soloist with the orchestras of Cleveland, Toronto, Milwaukee, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Buffalo, among others, and as recitalist at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center, Beijing's Forbidden City, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

The complete program and ticket information follows.

About The Bach Choir of Bethlehem

Following the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's founding in 1898 and its first American performance of the Mass in B-minor in 1900 and the American premiere of Bach's Christmas Oratorio in 1901 the Choir has been attracting thousands of visitors from across the United States and around the world to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival in the Moravian countryside of eastern Pennsylvania.

Under the direction of conductor Greg Funfgeld since 1983, The Choir's activities have expanded to a year-round season of 31 concerts and educational programs a year for an audience of more than 20,000; recordings for the Dorian and Analekta labels, films for PBS and Classical Kids, and touring performances including the Herkulessaal at Munich's Royal Residence and the Thomaskirche, Bach's church in Leipzig, Germany; the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London; Carnegie Hall and Trinity Church Wall St, New York City; Severance Hall, Cleveland, and the Kennedy Center and Music Center at Strathmore in the Washington D.C. area. In 2014, The Choir commissioned a one-act comic opera by Chuck Holdeman, composer, and Bill Bly, librettist, which was performed in Bethlehem and in Philadelphia for the 250th anniversary of the German Society of Pennsylvania.

The Choir has released seven recordings of Bach works, in addition to the popular four-volume Christmas in Bethlehem. Recordings for Analekta include Bach's Magnificat and Cantata 191, and Vivaldi's Gloria (2009), Songs of Hope (2011), Saint John Passion (2012), and A Child's Christmas in Bethlehem (2013). The Choir has been featured on National Public Radio's Performance Today and Prairie Home Companion, Deutsche Radio, the BBC World Service, CBS Sunday Morning, and the Emmy award-winning PBS documentary on The Choir, Make a Joyful Noise. In addition to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival, the concert season in Bethlehem includes Christmas and Spring Concerts; a Family Concert; Bach at Noon, a series of free concerts in historic Central Moravian Church; and Bach to School, an outstanding educational outreach program that has now been presented for more than 100,000 children. Mr. Bach Comes to Call, a film based on the acclaimed Classical Kids CD, was produced by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem in collaboration with Touchstone Theatre and GreenTreks Network in 2007. It has been broadcast nationally on PBS and is distributed internationally by The Children's Group. The Bach Choir is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2013, The Bach Choir was the first American recipient of an award from the J.S. Bach Foundation in Switzerland.

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