The Bach Choir Of Bethlehem Celebrates Newly Granted UNESCO World Heritage Status

America's oldest Bach Choir, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, has announced that the Moravian Church Settlements of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, together with Herrnhut, Germany, and Gracehill, UK have just been granted UNESCO World Heritage status. The Bach Choir has for 125 years prided itself as being part of the rich Moravian cultural history, a foundation that gives special cachet to the city of Bethlehem.

This site marks the 26th UNESCO World Heritage Site in the United States, and Pennsylvania's third World Heritage Site. Described as the first and best-preserved Moravian settlement in North America, the site in Bethlehem includes ten acres in downtown Bethlehem - nine structures, four ruins, and a cemetery. The Bach Choir offices are housed in the John Heckewelder House in Bethlehem's historic district, but it is the more than 125-year-old Bach Choir tradition of presenting live concerts in Bethlehem that magnifies the living spirit of the ongoing Moravian culture, filling the historic spaces with music.

"The Bach Choir of Bethlehem would not exist without Herrnhut and the Moravian Church," said Bach Choir's Artistic Director and Conductor Christopher Jackson. "Moravian settlers were responsible for bringing Bach's music to the United States, but that is only part of the story. The profound role that music played in the lives of our Moravian ancestors lives on today as a fundamental building block of who we are in the Bach Choir. We are inextricably bound together by history and by our shared cultural heritage."

Ending its 125th season on a high note, the Bach Choir concluded its European Tour in early June. This year, the Bach Choir was re-invited to participate in the prestigious Leipzig Bachfest; the Bach Choir also toured Potsdam, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Salzburg, Austria, and Herrnhut. During the Bach Choir's visit to Herrnhut, Maestro Jackson led the Bach Choir and the Moravian congregation in a "Singstunde," a unique event celebrating friendship, community, and cultural connections at the Herrnhut Moravian Church, the mother church of the Moravian diaspora.

Commenting on the Bach Choir's European trip for Seen and Heard, veteran music critic Laurence Vittes described his experience at the Bach Choir's Herrnhut concert: "When they sang with the congregation, the sound resonated with the rolling hills and village greens: the completion of a circle from the Moravian Church in Bethlehem." Mr. Vittes said the choir is "one the country's finest choirs for Bach and persuasive ambassadors for American music." (July 4, 2024)

This past season the Bach Choir of Bethlehem released a new version of Mendelssohn's Bach's Saint Matthew Passion [Matthäus-Passion] on the Analekta (Outhere Music) label, March 2024. On May 22, 2024, the Times of London included this recording in its "Best Classical Albums of 2024 so far" list. Reviewing it in March in the Times London, Geoff Brown wrote: "fascinating and endearing...This new recording from Christopher Jackson and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem (that's Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) gives us an uncommon chance to travel back to Victorian times and taste Mendelssohn's version for ourselves...There's something equally homely and straightforward about the whole performance. Jackson's forces give us commitment and heart, not affectation." (March 20, 2024)

Founded in 1898, the Bach Choir gave not only the first complete American performances of Bach's Mass in B Minor in 1900 but also the Bach Christmas Oratorio in 1901. The internationally renowned ensemble has been attracting thousands of visitors from across the United States and beyond to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival in Pennsylvania. The 95 dedicated volunteer singers of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Bach Festival Orchestra, and well-known soloists perform 40 concerts and educational programs annually for an audience of more than 22,000. Important international concert venues the Bach Choir has visited include: Herkulessaal at Munich's Royal Residence and Bach's church in Leipzig, the Thomaskirche; The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall as part of The Choir's Centennial Celebration in 1998-2000; the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall for an eight-concert tour of the United Kingdom in 2003; and Severance Hall, Cleveland, for the 75th anniversary of the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival in 2007. In September 2011, the Bach Choir represented the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a 10th anniversary musical observance of 9/11 in New York City, giving concerts in Saint Paul's Chapel and Trinity Church, Wall Street. In 2013, The Choir performed Mendelssohn's Elijah at Strathmore in the Washington D.C. area, and in 2014, the new opera Young Meister Bach for the 250th anniversary of the German Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The Choir has released twelve recordings to date on the Dorian and Analekta labels. Besides the most recent album of Saint Matthew Passion, edited by Malcolm Bruno, the Choir has recorded Bach's Cantata 21 (2018), Handel's Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day (2018), A Child's Christmas in Bethlehem (2013), and Saint John Passion (2012). 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 "Make a Joyful Noise." It has been recognized for its outstanding educational outreach programs (Bach at Noon, Bach to School, and Interdisciplinary Family Concerts) by annual awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (2011-2019). The J.S. Bach Foundation in Switzerland named the Bach Choir of Bethlehem as the first American recipient of its annual award to a single Bach organization, recognizing the Bach Choir's outstanding work in Bach performance and education for young people (2012). "Mr. Bach Comes to Call," a film based on the acclaimed Classical Kids CD, was co-produced by the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and is distributed internationally by the Children's Group. The Bel Canto Youth Chorus is the Bach Choir'syouth choir educational program under the direction of Director Kelly Rocchi. Through Bel Canto and other educational programs, the Bach Choir is training the next generation of choral singers and cultivating a life-long passion for the choral arts.

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