Recipient of a prestigious 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant—the only Baroque artist in the respected program’s history—and Grand Prize winner of the inaugural Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, violinist Rachell Ellen Wong, is a rising star on both the historical performance and modern violin stages. This concert offers Bach works for unaccompanied solo violin, featuring the renowned Partita No. 2 in D Minor, with its famous Ciaccona.

Rachell Ellen Wong, violin

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Running time: approximately 70 minutes, no intermission

The renowned Goldberg Variations have been admired for generations and comprise Bach’s most popular work for the keyboard. Plumbing the depths of musical possibility offered by the opening Aria, Bach takes us on an extended musical odyssey. Winner of the American Bach Soloists’ Goldberg Prize, harpsichordist Leon Schelhase brings this work to life with virtuosity.

Leon Schelhase, harpsichord

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Running time: Approximately 90 minutes, no intermission

Richard & Beth Ayres, underwriters

An instrument that is all too rarely heard today, but well-recognized by J.S. Bach, is the viola da gamba. It comes from a lineage of stringed instruments that precedes the violin/violoncello family. American violist da gamba, Joanna Blendulf, plays a program drawing from Bach’s sonatas written expressly for the instrument, with further examples from his Baroque contemporaries. Most Bach enthusiasts will recognize the instrument from the most poignant moments of the St. John and St. Matthew Passions. This concert offers an opportunity to become more intimately acquainted with the instrument’s range of expression, presented by one of today’s finest performers. Joanna Blendulf is joined by harpsichordist, Adam Pearl.

Joanna Blendulf, viola da gamba; Adam Pearl, harpsichord

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Running time: Approximately 75 minutes, no intermission

Stephen C. Wright & Thomas Woodruff, underwriters

For those who haven’t experienced music of the Latin American Baroque, it’s nothing short of a revelation! Exuberance and energy spring from a dynamic fusion of Italian and Iberian style with brilliant native inflections of language, harmony, and rhythm.

Vocalists:

Crossley Danielle Hawn & Sara MacKimmie, sopranos; Kristen Dubenion-Smith & Sylvia Leith, altos; Matthew Hill & Jacob Perry, Jr., tenors; Mark Duer & Ian Pomerantz, basses

Instrumentalists:

William Simms, guitar & theorbo; Jessica Powell Eig, violone; Michelle Humphreys, percussion; Paula Maust, organ

Ruben Valenzuela is the Founder and Artistic Director of Bach Collegium San Diego (BCSD). As a conductor and keyboardist, he has led BCSD in notable performances of music of the Renaissance, early and high Baroque, early Classical period, as well as music of the twentieth century. Valenzuela’s performances have been described as “dramatic,” “vibrant,” and “able to unlock the true power of Baroque music” (San Diego Story). Under Valenzuela’s leadership, BCSD has achieved international acclaim through virtuosic performances of iconic repertoire, as well as lesser-known works.

In addition to his work with BCSD, Valenzuela is regularly called upon as a guest director. Notable guest engagements include Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, New York City; Marsh Chapel Choir and Collegium at Boston University; Bach at Emmanuel Church, Boston; and most recently Juilliard415 at Lincoln Center, New York City.

Valenzuela holds a PhD in Musicology from Claremont Graduate University and is the Director of Music & Organist of All Souls’ Episcopal Church, San Diego.

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Running time approximately 65 minutes, no intermission

Jill Kent and Mark Solomons, underwriters

Few have heard of the violoncello da spalla; fewer still have heard the instrument in a live performance or commercial recording. It looks like a smaller version of the cello and is strapped to the body over the shoulder (spalla), resting across the upper chest. The instrument existed during Bach’s lifetime, and there is speculation that several of his cantatas dating from the 1720s (with instrumental parts labelled “violoncello piccolo”) may have been composed with such an instrument in mind. The same has been conjectured about Bach’s Sixth Cello Suite, which will be presented in this performance. Andrew Gonzalez, praised by The Strad magazine for his “warm-hearted playing and mellow tone,” performs a rich program on this fascinating instrument, opening a revelatory view of two of Bach’s iconic cello suites.

Andrew Gonzalez, violoncello da spalla

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Running time: 60 minutes, no intermission

Musicians

Susan Kavinski & Sara MacKimmie, sopranos; P. Lucy McVeigh & Kristen Dubenion-Smith, altos; Jacob Perry Jr. & Gregório Taniguchi, tenors; Jason Widney & Edmund Milly, basses; Michael Holmes, sackbut

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Running Time: approximately 70 minutes including intermission

Marc Antoine Charpentier’s final mass setting, Missa Assumpta est Maria, was written at the end of his life when he was Master of Music at the Sainte-Chapelle, King Louis XIV’s royal chapel in Paris. We hear Charpentier at his best and most refined in this work, with tonal language and expressive rhetoric that deliver everything performers admire most about the French Baroque style. It’s the most superb music you’ve never heard!

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Vocalists:
Margaret Carpenter Haigh & Amy Nicole Broadbent, sopranos; Sylvia Leith & Andrew Rader, altos; Jacob Perry, Jr. & Matthew Loyal Smith, tenors; Aaron Cain & Ian Pomerantz, baritones; Mark Duer & Edmund Milly, basses

Instrumentalists:
Colin St-Martin & Kathryn Roth, flutes; William Simms, theorbo; Joanna Blendulf, Leslie Nero, Niccolo Seligmann & Amy Domingues, violas da gamba; Jessica Powell Eig, violone; John Walthausen, organ

Anonymous Donor, underwriters

Nigel North has for years been acknowledged by critics in the US and abroad to be the foremost interpreter of Bach on the lute. Having recorded such works to completion, North presents an especially rare program not to be missed. One of the most respected classical guitarists of the 20th century, Julian Bream, said of North’s Bach playing, “…I was bowled over by how masterful and musical it was!” This promises to be a magical evening.

Nigel North, lute

Running time: 65 minutes, no intermission

Barbara Piquet Villafranco, In Memory of Ronald V. Villafranco, Saturday underwriter

In a new series of programs devoted to vocal polyphony, the Washington Bach Consort will transport you to 16th-century England. Revel in a bespoke selection of sacred motets written by the finest composers to serve at the pleasure of four Tudor monarchs, from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I. This music is truly of another world, and as a Venetian ambassador of the period was known to have said of the English Chapel Royal choristers performing this music, it sounded “more divine than human.”

Running time: 70 minutes, no intermission

Tamera Luzzatto & David Leiter, Friday underwriters

Al Regnery, Saturday underwriter

Bach’s apartment in Leipzig was a beehive of activity with the entire family busy with the preparation of musical scores and parts and frequent musical visitors passing through. When the day’s work was done, they would have had incredible opportunities for music making. This program, featuring the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 alongside other works by Bach, Telemann, and Stölzel, imagines one such ephemeral evening of friends and family happily playing together. The Consort’s principal cellist, John Moran, directs.

John Moran, Guest Director, violoncello and viola da gamba
Risa Browder, violin and viola
Andrew Fouts, violin and viola
Leslie Nero, violin and viola
Marlisa del Cid Woods, violin
Amy Domingues, viola da gamba
Rebecca Humphrey, violoncello and viola da gamba
Jessica Powell Eig, viola da gamba and violone
Dongsok Shin, harpsichord

Running time: 70 minutes, no intermission

Jill Kent & Mark Solomons, Friday underwriters

Steve Wright & Tom Woodruff, Saturday underwriters

The pairing of the two instruments in these compositions, sometimes graceful and sometimes dazzling, charm and delight to this day.

Colin St-Martin, flute
Leon Schelhase, harpsichord

Running Time: approximately 60 minutes, no intermission

Charles Reifel & Janie Kinney, underwriters

Admission includes a free post-concert reception with a sampling of spring inspired doughnuts by our favorite neighbor Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken immediately following the performance.

Highly popular among music-lovers of the period, madrigals drew first from classicist texts as subjects for musical experimentation, helping to establish new aesthetic relationships between words and music by the 17th century. Composers wrote these animated and often daring compositions for two to eight voices, emphasizing secular subjects. Thanks to traveling musicians, madrigals spread throughout Europe, stimulating composers in countries including England and Germany to apply their own unique styles to the form, experimenting with new ways of using the human voice to tell stories and express emotions.

The Consort Chorus

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a lively interest in J.S. Bach’s compositions, and arranged for his father to send him copies of Bach’s collection of keyboard pieces, The Well-Tempered Clavier. Mozart then transcribed some of the fugues from that iconic keyboard work for string trios and quartets, some with newly composed adagios preceding them.

The Franklin Quartet
Kenneth Slowik, fortepiano

Jill Kent & Mark Solomons, underwriters

In the spring of 1747, Bach traveled to Potsdam, where his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, was employed at the court of Frederick the Great. During the visit, Frederick presented the elder Bach with a theme for a fugue, and invited him to improvise upon it. After returning to Leipzig, Bach turned to the king’s theme as the inspiration for The Musical Offering. One of the most ambitious projects of his final years, Bach’s expanded treatment of the “Royal Theme” displays the full extent of his unparalleled contrapuntal mastery.

David Ross, flute
Tatiana Chulochnikova, violin
John Moran, cello
Dongsok Shin, harpischord

Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin opened up new possibilities of technique and expression for the instrument. The second partita is renowned for its last movement—the famous D minor Ciaccona—a piece of extraordinary scope and complexity often ranked among the composer’s greatest achievements. The 48 preludes and fugues that comprise the two volumes of The Well-Tempered Clavier bring together virtuosity and technical precision in a fashion rarely seen before or since. The elegant Sonata in G Major for violin and harpsichord rounds out this instrumental showcase.

Andrew Fouts, violin
Leon Schelhase, harpsichord

The first chamber concert of the anniversary season opens with a program of repertoire performed during the Consort’s debut season, including works featured on the first-ever program 40 years ago. Join us as we celebrate the history of the Consort in this richly varied program of instrumental works.

Native Washingtonian, conductor, pianist, harpsichordist, and organist Todd Fickley is the acting artistic director of the Consort. He holds an MA in organ performance from the University of Wales and is a fellow of the AGO. He has performed at the Kennedy Center and across the US, Europe and Israel, and has been featured with the NSO and Washington Ballet. His recordings have been critically praised as “some of the most enthralling Bach organ playing you are likely to hear anywhere by anyone.”

Colin St-Martin, flute
Marlisa del Cid Woods, violin
Paul Miller, viola
Scott McCormick, viola
Todd Fickley, harpsichord
Scott Dettra, harpsichord

Reverend Elizabeth Carl & Victoria Hill, underwriters

Little is known about the French organist and composer Michel Corrette, but he left behind a wealth of music ranging in scope from the slight to the serious. Selections of his chamber music feature the flute, bassoon and organ as solo instruments. This colorful program offers divertissements for the delight of the music-lover.

Gwyn Roberts, flute
Tatiana Chulochnikova, violin
Anna Marsh, bassoon
Todd Fickley, organ

Although best known for his sacred cantatas, Bach’s secular music demonstrates the same inspiration and mastery as his church music, with a gleam of wit. The Peasant Cantata is paired with Bach’s sublime Wedding Cantata for solo soprano, along with the Capriccio for solo keyboard.

Kate Vetter Cain, soprano
Mark Duer, bass
Colin St-Martin, flute
Stephen Bard, oboe
Bradley Tatum, horn
Todd Fickley, harpsichord

Our season of chamber concerts begins with an exploration of Bach’s sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and flute. This program provides the opportunity to admire the virtuosity of Bach’s instrumental writing in a uniquely intimate setting.

Colin St-Martin, flute
Tatiana Chulochnikova, violin
John Moran, viola da gamba
Todd Fickley, harpsichord

This delightful program brings us into a very different world from that usually associated with the mainstream Bach repertoire. Here we get a glimpse of the more personal side of the composer, music that is no less lofty or inspired but that brings us much closer to Bach the man.

Amy Nicole Broadbent, soprano
Nicholas Fichter, tenor
Richard Giarusso, bass

From its origination in the 14th century as a collection of dances, the musical suite reached its zenith in the Baroque period. In this wonderful collage featuring music for solo lute, cello and harpsichord, discover how Bach’s colossal inventiveness created music that far surpasses established models and showcases the unique expressive capabilities of each individual instrument.

John Moran, cello
Richard Stone, lute
Reilly Lewis, harpsichord

After exploring the choral music of J. S. Bach and his immediate ancestors in last season’s “All in the Family,” we turn our attention to some of the instrumental treasures produced by father and sons. This concert celebrates not only the brilliance of the works themselves but also the exceptional skills of our talented instrumental soloists.

Tatiana Chulochnikova, violin
Colin St. Martin, flute & recorder
Gwyn Roberts, recorder
Reilly Lewis, harpsichord

The keyboard is the star of this program. J. Reilly Lewis performs the brilliantly inventive Goldberg Variations, while Associate Conductor and Keyboard Artist Todd Fickley takes charge in a performance of the 5th Brandenburg Concerto-the original prototype for all piano concertos to follow-with its famous solo harpsichord cadenza.

Imagine an evening at home with several generations of the Bach family. Drawing from the collection known as the Altbachisches Archiv, this concert will feature exquisite motets by Johann Sebastian Bach and his illustrious relatives. The program also features organ works by Bach’s teachers and colleagues, Dietrich Buxtehude, Georg Böhm, Johann Pachelbel and Johann Gottfried Walther.

In addition to a sampling of many of the composer’s most popular arias and choruses, the ensemble will also showcase some of the timeless treasures in the purely instrumental genre including music for solo harpsichord, solo cello and solo violin. It’s a fun evening where the Joy of Bach really resonates.

Laura Choi Stuart, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, mezzo-soprano
Robert Petillo, tenor
Steven Combs, baritone
Marlisa del Cid Woods, violin
Meg Owens, oboe
John Moran, cello
J. Reilly Lewis, harpsichord