PERFORMANCE
PAST PERFORMANCES
Bach’s St. John Passion
Sacrifice and Redemption
Sunday, October 1, 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johannes-Passion (1749 version), BWV 245
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
Gene Stenger, Evangelist; Jonathon Adams, Christus; Enrico Lagasca, Pilate; Elijah McCormack, soprano; Reginald Mobley, countertenor; Jacob Perry Jr., tenor
Running time: approximately 180 minutes including intermission
Bach and Antisemitism: A Panel Discussion: The panel comprised both Jewish and Lutheran faith leaders familiar with Bach as well as leading historians, antisemitism scholars, musicologists, and performers. Watch on YouTube
Join us for Talking Bach at 3 p.m. The series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholar, Michael Marissen, are presented one hour before Director’s Series performances. Learn More»
Tamera Luzzatto and The Honorable & Mrs. John D. Rockefeller IV, underwriters
Mass in B Minor
The Foundation
Sunday, April 30, 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
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We close the season with our signature work, Bach’s great Mass in B Minor. Among the greatest musical compositions in any tradition, Bach’s masterwork has been for countless audiences a limitless reservoir of comfort and a balm for the soul.
Paulina Francisco, soprano; Elijah McCormack, soprano; Roger O. Isaacs, countertenor; Kyle Stegall, tenor; Mischa Bouvier, bass
Running time: 150 minutes, including intermission
Join us for Talking Bach at 3 p.m. The series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholar, Michael Marissen, are presented one hour before Director’s Series performances. Learn More»
The Honorable & Mrs. John D. Rockefeller IV, underwriters

Music Center at Strathmore
Messiah
The Greatest of Oratorios
Sunday, March 19, 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
George Frideric Handel
Messiah, HWV 56
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Vocalists:
Sonya Headlam, soprano; Patrick Dailey, countertenor; Dann Coakwell, tenor; Jonathan Woody, bass
Running time: 180 minutes, including intermission
Join us for Talking Bach at 2:45 p.m. The series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholar, Michael Marissen, are presented one hour before Director’s Series performances. Learn More»
Shannon & Jim Davis, Tamera Luzzatto, and Charles Reifel & Janie Kinney, underwriters

Music Center at Strathmore
The Christmas Story
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio: Parts 1, 2, 5 and 6
Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 7:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
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Vocalists:
Elijah McCormack, soprano; Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto; Jacob Perry, Jr., tenor; Enrico Lagasca, bass
Running time: 140 minutes, including intermission
Join us for Talking Bach at 6 p.m. The series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholar, Michael Marissen, are presented one hour before Director’s Series performances. Learn More»
Mary Ann Gardner, Hope P. McGowan, and National Endowment for the Arts, underwriters

Orpheus Britannicus
Music of Henry Purcell
Sunday, October 30, 2022 at 4 p.m.
Henry Purcell
Hail! Bright Cecilia (Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day 1692), Z. 328
My heart is inditing, Z. 30
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, Z. 46
O sing unto the Lord, Z. 44
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Amy Broadbent, soprano; Clifton Massey, countertenor; Matthew Loyal Smith, tenor; Jonathon Adams, bass; Jason Widney, bass
Running time: 120 minutes, including intermission
Sally Wells and Dorothy B. Wexler, underwriters

Trevor Weston
composer
World Premiere of A New Song
Mythologies Past and Present
Sunday, September 18, 2022 at 4:00 P.M.
National Presbyterian Church
Trevor Weston
A New Song (World Premiere)
Johann Sebastian Bach
Geschwinde, Ihr wirbelnden Winde, BWV 201
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To begin our 45th season, we unveil a world premiere from critically acclaimed composer, Trevor Weston. A New Song, finds our period instruments and voices on a fresh canvas of creation, bringing together and transforming perspectives of musical past, present, and future. Winner of the Arts and Letters Award in Music, and a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Trevor Weston is among the most highly sought-after composers today. Completing the program will be J.S. Bach’s dramatic secular cantata, Geschwinde, geschwinde, ihr wilbenden Winde, BWV 201.
Momus: Sherezade Panthaki, soprano
Mercury: Sarah Davis Issaelkhoury, alto
Tmolus: Jacob Perry, Jr., tenor
Midas: Patrick Kilbride, tenor
Phoebus: Paul Max Tipton, bass
Pan: Ian Pomerantz, bass
This performance is supported by generous gifts from the J. Reilly Lewis Legacy Fund, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
MORE ABOUT TREVOR WESTON
Trevor Weston’s music has been called a “gently syncopated marriage of intellect and feeling” (Detroit Free Press). Weston’s honors include the George Ladd Prix de Paris from the University of California, Berkeley; the Arts and Letters Award in Music; a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; and residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and Castle of our Skins at the Longy School of Music. Weston co-authored with Olly Wilson, the fifth chapter in the Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington, Duke Ellington as a Cultural Icon, published by Cambridge University Press. His work Juba for Strings won the Sonori/New Orleans Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition. In 2021, he won the first Emerging Black Composers Project sponsored by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony.
Weston’s Flying Fish, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its 125 Commission Project and the American Composers Orchestra, was described as having, “episodes of hurtling energy, the music certainly suggested wondrous aquatic feats. I was especially affected, though, by an extended slower, quizzical episode with pensive strings and plaintive chords” (New York Times). The Boston Landmarks Orchestra commissioned Griot Legacies for choir and orchestra, a work created with four innovative arrangements of African American Spirituals. Griot Legacies demonstrates Weston’s “knack for piquant harmonies, evocative textures, and effective vocal writing” (Boston Globe). The Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street recorded an album of Weston’s choral works. The Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered Weston’s composition Dig It, commissioned by the group for the Ecstatic Music Festival in NYC.
Dr. Weston is currently Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and an instructor for the MAP and Pre-College programs at the Julliard School.

Rufus Müller
Evangelist

Jonathon Adams
Christus
St. Matthew Passion
The Pinnacle of Passion
Saturday, May 21, 2022 at 7 p.m.
St. Mark’s Capitol Hill
Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 4 p.m.
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Johann Sebastian Bach
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
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Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is thought by many to be his most profoundly crafted work—perhaps his magnum opus. Some even see it as one of the greatest musical compositions of all time. Its musical architecture alone has been praised for centuries. Above all, our Consort musicians live to perform it! Falling into obscurity after Bach’s lifetime, it was reintroduced by Felix Mendelssohn in 1829 at the head of the modern Bach revival. With its deeply expressive rhetorical gifts, it is an experience that will remain in your memory long after the performance has ended.
Rufus Müller, Evangelist
Jonathon Adams, Christus
Elijah McCormack, soprano
Katelyn Aungst, soprano
Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto
Matthew Hill, tenor
Jacob Perry, Jr., tenor
Mischa Bouvier, bass
David Rugger, bass
Running time: 190 minutes, including intermission
The Honorable & Mrs. John D. Rockefeller IV, underwriters

Daniel S. Lee
Guest Director & violin
Concerti Virtuosi
Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti
Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 4 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050
Concerto for Violin and Oboe in D Minor, BWV 1060R
Concerto for 3 Violins in D Major, BWV 1064R
Concerto for Oboe d’amore in A Major, BWV 1055R
Georg Philipp Telemann
Concerto for Violin, Cello, Trumpet and Strings, TWV 53:D5
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Daniel S. Lee, Guest Director & violin; Tatiana Chulochnikova* & Carmen Johnson-Pájaro*, violins; Risa Browder & Isaiah Chapman, violas; John Moran, violoncello; Jessica Powell Eig, violone; Colin St-Martin, flute; Daphna Mor, recorder; Geoffrey Burgess*, oboe & oboe d’amore; Margaret Owens*, oboe; Josh Cohen*, trumpet; Leon Schelhase*, harpsichord
soloists*
Running time: 120 minutes, including intermission
Glen S. Fukushima, underwriter

Music for the Soul
Polychoral splendors of Venice & Northern Europe
Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 4 p.m.
Selections from:
Michael Praetorius
Polyhymnia Caduceatrix et Panegyrica (1619)
Heinrich Schütz
Psalms of David (1619)
Claudio Monteverdi
Selva morale e spirituale (1640/1641)
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The leading center of 17th-century sacred music—the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice—could boast chief musicians such as Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi. Gabrieli inspired the German-born Heinrich Schütz and other composers north of the Alps to adapt the Venetian style to the liturgies of German-speaking churches. We’ll hear examples of this impressive, grand tradition as it developed both north and south of the Alps, with multiple ensembles of singers, early brass, winds, and strings. This magnificent music creates a spectacular sound world of its own—a feast for the ears!
Vocalists:
Crossley Danielle Hawn, Sara MacKimmie & Elijah McCormack, sopranos; Sarah Davis Issaelkhoury & Kristen Dubenion-Smith, altos; Andrew Bearden Brown & Matthew Loyal Smith, tenors; Mark Duer & Edmund Milly, basses
Instrumentalists:
Julie Andrijeski & Allison Monroe, violins; John Moran, Leslie Nero & Niccolo Seligmann, violas da gamba; Jessica Powell Eig, violone; Nigel North & Dušan Balarin, theorbos; Kelsey Schilling, dulcian; Bruce Dickey & Alexandra Opsahl, cornettos; Greg Ingles, Liza Malamut, Mack Ramsey & Erik Schmalz, trombones; Paula Maust, organ
Running time: 120 minutes, including intermission
Tamera Luzzatto, underwriter

Music Center at Strathmore
The Christmas Story
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
Saturday, December 11, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
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The Washington Bach Consort brings an enduring European Christmas tradition to America every year—Bach’s Christmas Oratorio—the ultimate musical experience of the holiday season. Add to this the splendor of the Music Center at Strathmore and you’ve found yourself in the perfect occasion! The Washington Post raved about 2019’s “splendid,” “joyful” performance. Our chorus sang with a “bright, forthright sound, its phrasing as word-responsive as its blend was polished and supple.” Chorus and orchestra were together praised as “a tight and responsive group”—one that “could go head-to-head with period ensembles anywhere.” Join us for our return to Strathmore!
Vocalists:
Laura Choi Stuart*, Katelyn G. Aungst, Susan Lewis Kavinski, Sara MacKimmie, Margot Rood & Kate Vetter Cain, sopranos; Robin Bier*, Sarah Davis Issaelkhoury, Derek Greten-Harrison, Barbara Hollinshead, Sylvia Leith & Meghen Miles Tuttle, altos/countertenors; James Reese* Evangelist, Andrew Bearden Brown, David Evans, Patrick Kilbride, Matthew Loyal Smith, Robert Petillo & Jason Rylander, tenors; Enrico Lagasca*, Joshua Brown, Mark Duer, Karl Hempel, Edmund Milly & Jason Widney, basses
Instrumentalists:
Andrew Fouts†, Marlisa del Cid Woods, Gail Hernández Rosa, Natalie Rose Kress, Leslie Nero, violins I; Tatiana Chulochnikova, Chiara Fasani Stauffer, Caroline Levy, Annie Loud & David McCormick, violins II; Risa Browder, Marika Holmqvist, Scott McCormick & Marta Howard, violas; John Moran & Wade Davis, violoncellos; Jessica Powell Eig & Patricia Ann Neely, violones; Colin St-Martin & Kathryn Roth, flutes; Geoffrey Burgess, Margaret Owens, Fatma Daglar & Sarah Schilling, oboes, oboes d’amore, oboes da caccia; Anna Marsh, bassoon; Brad Tatum & Kenneth Bell, horns; Josh Cohen, Jason Dovel & Dennis Anthony Ferry, trumpets; Michelle Humphreys, timpani; Leon Schelhase, harpsichord; Adam Pearl, organ
soloists*
concertmaster†
Running Time: approximately 165 minutes including intermission
Mary Ann Gardner, Stephen C. Wright & Thomas Woodruff, Hope McGowan, and National Endowment for the Arts, underwriters

Amy Nicole Broadbent
All that is Rite
Bach and Handel: Music for the Mass and Vespers
Sunday, November 7, 2021 at 4 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Mass in A Major, BWV 234
George Frideric Handel
Nisi Dominus, HWV 238
Dixit Dominus, HWV 232
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Vocalists:
Katelyn G. Aungst, Amy Nicole Broadbent*, Crossley Danielle Hawn*, Susan Lewis Kavinski, Margot Rood & Laura Choi Stuart, sopranos; Kristen Dubenion-Smith, Roger O. Isaacs & Clare McNamara*, altos; Brian Giebler,* Matthew Hill & Patrick Kilbride, tenors; Mark Duer, Paul Max Tipton* & Jason Widney, basses
Instrumentalists:
Andrew Fouts†, Tatiana Chulochnikova, Gail Hernández Rosa & Leslie Nero, violins; Risa Browder & Scott McCormick, violas; John Moran & Wade Davis, violoncellos; Jessica Powell Eig, violone; Colin St-Martin & Kathryn Roth, flutes; Paula Maust, organ
soloists*
concertmaster †
Running Time: approximately 120 minutes including intermission
Shannon & Jim Davis and Anonymous Donor, underwriters

Elijah McCormack
The Christmas Story
Bach’s epic Christmas Oratorio
Sunday, December 22, 2019 at 4:00 p.m.
Johann Ludwig Bach
Uns ist ein Kind geboren
Johann Sebastian Bach
Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248
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Bach’s musical account of the Christmas story remains a cherished tradition every year not only in Germany, but throughout Europe. We invite you to join us as the Consort inaugurates its annual observance of the same tradition in DC this season! You’ll hear five of the six cantatas that comprise the composer’s epic Weihnachts-Oratorium, thrillingly delivered by the Consort musicians and soloists.
Elijah McCormack, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto
Rufus Müller, tenor and evangelist
Steven Combs, bass
Running time: 155 minutes including intermission
Mary Ann Gardner, underwriter

Margot Rood
A Royal Occasion
Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Bach’s Trauerode
Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 4:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (Actus Tragicus), BWV 106
Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl (Trauerode), BWV 198
George Frideric Handel
Coronation Anthems, HWV 258-261
Zadok the priest
Let thy hand be strengthened
The King shall rejoice
My heart is inditing
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You’ll feel like royalty when the Consort’s vocalists and instrumentalists serenade you with exquisite music composed for Kings and Queens. 1727 was a banner year for such outpourings. Bach’s now rarely performed Trauerode (BWV 198) was first heard at a memorial service for the Electress of Saxony and nominal Queen of Poland, Christiane Eberhardine. Further afield in England, George Frideric Handel composed a set of enthralling anthems for the coronation of King George II, introduced by his celebrated work loved by today’s audiences, “Zadok the Priest.”
Margot Rood, soprano
Sarah Davis Issaelkhoury, alto
Aaron Sheehan, tenor
Jonathan Woody, bass
Claire & Pierre Wagner, underwriters

Katelyn G. Aungst
Easter & Ascension Oratorios
Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 4:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Easter Oratorio, BWV 249
Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11
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The feasts of Easter and Ascension are significant events in the Christian calendar, celebrating the day when Jesus rose from the dead and the day that he entered heaven. J.S. Bach’s magnificent oratorios demonstrate his versatility, juxtaposing the full force of the orchestra and chorus in expressions of unbridled joy with more intimate music conveying Jesus’s sacrifice for humankind.
Katelyn G. Aungst, soprano
Sarah Davis Issaelkhoury, mezzo-soprano
Matthew Hill, tenor
Richard Giarusso, baritone
Running Time: approximately 90 minutes including intermission
The Honorable & Mrs. John D. Rockefeller IV, underwriters

Laura Choi Stuart
Bach, Vivaldi & the Italian Influence
Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 3:00 p.m.
Music of Bach and the Italian masters including:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Non sa che sia dolore, BWV 209
Antonio Vivaldi
Vengo a voi, luci adorate, RV 682
Johann Sebastian Bach
Orchestral Suite No. 1, BWV 1066
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During Bach’s lifetime, opera was flourishing in Italy. Composers including Antonio Vivaldi were exploring new musical techniques, producing vocal and instrumental works full of energy and drama. Discover why Bach was so inspired by the music of his Italian contemporaries in a concert featuring soprano Laura Choi Stuart and the Consort orchestra.
Laura Choi Stuart, soprano
Running Time: approximately 110 minutes including intermission
Rosemary Monagan, underwriter, in memory of her sister Molly Patricia Pierce

Christmas with the Consort
Sunday, December 16, 2018 at 3:00 p.m.
Motets for the Advent and Christmas season including:
Johann Ludwig Bach
Uns ist ein Kind geboren
Johann Sebastian Bach
Komm, Jesu, Komm! BWV 229
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
This holiday season, join the Consort for a performance of seasonal motets, including J.S. Bach’s masterful work for double choir Komm, Jesu, Komm! This concert will display the virtuosity of the Consort’s acclaimed chorus as they perform motets by Bach and other Baroque masters of the form.
Deutsche Telekom, underwriter

Amy Broadbent
Handel & Bach: Sing a New Song
Sunday, September 16, 2018 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190
George Frideric Handel
Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, HWV 76
Johann Sebastian Bach
Magnificat, BWV 243
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Join the Consort as we celebrate the opening of our 41st season and welcome our new Artistic Director. Bach’s cantata for the New Year, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, is a joyous outpouring of gratitude. Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day is Handel’s magnificent tribute to the patron saint of music set to text by John Dryden. Dryden’s unique vision of the creation story, centered on music, is one in which nature springs to life and is brought to order after hearing “the tuneful voice on high.” Bach’s joyful Magnificat is the concert finale. This iconic masterpiece features some of Bach’s most thrilling and tuneful music.
Amy Broadbent, soprano
Rebecca Kellerman, soprano
Roger O. Isaacs, countertenor
Kyle Tomlin, tenor
Steven Combs, baritone
Tamera Luzzatto & David Leiter and Shannon & James Davis, underwriters

Gwendolyn Toth, Conductor
Culmination: Mass in B Minor
Sunday, April 29, 2018 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
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One of the crowning glories of Bach’s career and considered by many the Consort’s trademark piece, the Mass in B Minor is a work that is truly in a class by itself. Completed during the last years of the composer’ s life, the Mass brings together a range of techniques and musical forms that offer both a compendium of Baroque style and of Bach’s own lifework. Ending the celebration of the Consort’s 40th anniversary, it stands among that rarified category of masterpieces that are truly inexhaustible and forever new.
Gwendolyn Toth is the director of ARTEK, an early music ensemble acclaimed for its recording of Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo. She is a harpsichordist and organist who performs and records regularly on historic organs of the Netherlands.
Laura Choi Stuart, soprano
Rebecca Kellerman, soprano
Roger O. Isaacs, countertenor
Matthew Hill, tenor
Mark Duer, baritone
Anonymous Donor, underwriter

Matthew Dirst, Conductor
Commemoration: St. John Passion
Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
St. John Passion, BWV 245
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Bach never wrote an opera, but as with many “what-ifs” in the history of art, it is tantalizing to speculate on what an opera by Bach might look and sound like. His St. John Passion offers perhaps the best insight into Bach’s “operatic” style. This action-packed treatment of the Passion story stands in marked contrast to the more contemplative St. Matthew Passion. Most notably, the rapid-fire dialogue that punctuates the piece reveals an instinct for dramatic pacing that would have been the envy of Mozart or Verdi. Paired with some of the composer’s most poignant arias, the St. John Passion is a musical and dramatic experience unlike anything else.
Matthew Dirst is the founder and artistic director of Ars Lyrica Houston, a Grammy-nominated period-instrument ensemble that specializes in Baroque chamber and dramatic works. An award-winning harpsichordist, organist, and conductor, he is also professor of music at the University of Houston, where he is a member of the musicology faculty in the Moores School of Music.
Robert Petillo, Evangelist
Jason Widney, Christus
Katelyn G. Aungst, soprano
Barbara Hollinshead, alto
Matthew Loyal Smith, tenor
Steven Combs, baritone
The Honorable & Mrs. John D. Rockefeller IV, underwriters

Dana Marsh, Conductor
Celebration: Christmas Oratorio
Saturday, December 9, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248
I. Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage
II. Und es waren Hirten in derselben Gegend
V. Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen
VI. Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
None of Bach’s holiday music is better known or more beloved than the Christmas Oratorio. Compiled by Bach for Christmas celebrations in Leipzig in 1734-5, his narrative account of the Christmas story is placed within some of his most lavish and varied writing for chorus, soloists, and orchestra. With its thrilling passages for trumpets and timpani, gentle lullabies, dramatic arias, ornate instrumental solos, and rousing choruses, the Christmas Oratorio captures the full range of emotions associated with this joyous season.
Praised by the Los Angeles Times as “an energetic and persuasive conductor,” and by the New York Times as “a powerful and expressive countertenor” Dana Marsh has performed and recorded extensively worldwide. With a doctorate in historical musicology from the University of Oxford (UK), he has held tutorial positions and a fellowship at Oxford and Cambridge Universities respectively. In 2016, Marsh was appointed director of the Historical Performance Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Kate Vetter Cain, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, mezzo-soprano
Robert Petillo, tenor
Steven Combs, bass
Mary Ann Gardner, underwriter

Richard Giarusso, Conductor
Foundation: Bach and the Reformation
Sunday, September 17, 2017 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D, BWV 1069
Cantata: Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76, Part 1
Cantata: Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79
Cantata: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
The Consort opens its 40th season with a program celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation—a movement that ushered in a seismic shift in Western thought and shaped the culture in which Bach’s genius would flourish. The program features three of Bach’s “Reformation” cantatas, each one a gem in its own right. Taken together, they offer a fascinating glimpse into the range of Bach’s achievement as a composer of Lutheran sacred music. The grandest of Bach’s four orchestral suites, including some of the composer’s liveliest instrumental music, rounds out this celebratory program.
Conductor, singer, and musicologist Richard Giarusso is artistic director of the Voce Chamber Singers in northern Virginia and the Georgetown Chorale in DC. He also serves as chair of the Department of Musicology at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.
Amy Nicole Broadbent, soprano
Chris Dudley, countertenor
Patrick Kilbride, tenor
Mark Duer, bass
Tamera Luzzatto & David Leiter and Shannon & James Davis, underwriters

Todd Fickley, Conductor
Messiah
Sunday, April 30, 2017 at 3:00 p.m.
George Frideric Handel
Messiah, HWV 56
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This performance begins the five concert audition process to select the next Bach Consort Artistic Director with Todd Fickley conducting Handel’s immortal oratorio. Arguably the most famous choral piece by any composer, Messiah has been a staple in this country at Christmastime but is equally appropriate for Easter. The Consort closes its season with this rare opportunity to hear the orchestra and chorus perform Handel’s most beloved and enduring masterpiece.
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.”
Suzanne Karpov, soprano
Sarah Davis Issaelkhoury, alto
Kyle Tomlin, tenor
Steven Combs, bass

Rob Petillo, Evangelist
St. Matthew Passion
Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
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Kenneth Slowik, Guest Conductor
The Consort returns to Bach’s towering masterpiece, one of the greatest pieces of sacred music ever created. Originally composed to frame a Good Friday sermon, the narrative relates the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus and features some of Bach’s most inspired and spiritual music. The guest conductor for this performance is Kenneth Slowik, artistic director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society. Like his friend Dr. J. Reilly Lewis, Slowik has had a life-long involvement with the music of Bach, as cellist, harpsichordist and conductor.
Robert Petillo, Evangelist
Christòpheren Nomura, Christus
Jolle Greenleaf, soprano
Luthien Brackett, mezzo-soprano
Aaron Sheehan, tenor
Paul Max Tipton, bass-baritone

Washington Cornett & Sackbutt Ensemble
Christmas with the Consort
Sunday, December 4, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
Celebrate the season with choral and instrumental music by some of the most renowned German and Italian composers of the early Baroque era.
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
The Venetian antiphonal style of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli was the inspiration behind several German masters, including Heinrich Schütz, Samuel Scheidt, and Michael Praetorius. The Consort Chorus collaborates with our friends, the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble, led by Michael Holmes, in a program offering a unique and festive exploration of a wide variety of seasonal music for choirs of voices and instruments.
Consort Chorus and Instrumentalists
Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble

Iconic Bach
Sunday, September, 25, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, BWV 1046
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140
Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543
Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten, BWV 207a
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
We open the season with the first and most lavishly scored of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos. Complementing this instrumental tour-de-force is one of Bach’s most famous and beloved sacred cantatas, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140. The second half opens with the majestic organ Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543, followed by one of the most festive of all secular cantatas, BWV 207a, written for the name-day of the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.
Laura Choi Stuart, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto
Patrick Kilbride, tenor
Richard Giarusso, bass
Bradley Tatum, horn
Paul Hopkins, horn

Matthew Loyal Smith, Tenor
Simply Magnificat
Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
Dietrich Buxtehude
Magnificat in D, BuxWV Anh. 1
Johann Friedrich Fasch
Magnificat in G
Georg Philipp Telemann
Magnificat in C, TVW 9:17
Johann Sebastian Bach
Magnificat in D, BWV 243
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
One of the most ancient hymns of the church, the Magnificat or Canticle of Mary has captured the imagination of great composers since medieval times. In our final concert we present Bach’s festive setting of this text, composed during his first season in Leipzig, alongside three other superb settings by his contemporaries.
Robin Beckman, soprano
Laura Choi Stuart, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, mezzo-soprano
Matthew Loyal Smith, tenor
Richard Giarusso, bass
Steven Combs, bass

J. Reilly Lewis, Organ
The Little Organ Book, Part 2
Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Little Organ Book (Das Orgelbüchlein)
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
Following last season’s performance of the first half of the Orgelbüchlein, we present the second half of this remarkable collection of chorale preludes performed by Dr. Lewis. Each prelude is preceded by Bach’s arrangement of the respective chorale sung by members of the Consort chorus, a unique opportunity to appreciate these miraculous musical miniatures.
J. Reilly Lewis, organ

Todd Fickley, Organist
Christmas with the Consort
Sunday, December 20, 2015 at 3:00 p.m.
Experience the Consort in a diverse program of magnificent repertoire, both old and new, written for this special time of year by Bach, Willcocks, Howells, Warlock, Mathias, Halley and many more!
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Join the Consort Chorus for a dynamic program of choral and organ music, featuring the stupendous virtuosity of Todd Fickley on the world-renowned Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ at National Presbyterian Church.
Consort Chorus
Todd Fickley, organ

Katelyn Aungst, Soprano
Mass Appeal
Sunday, September 20, 2015 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Sanctus in D Major, BWV 238
Mass in G Major, BWV 236
Kyrie in F Major, BWV 233a
Mass in A Major, BWV 234
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
The season begins with a program devoted to J. S. Bach’s Latin church music, composed during his time in Leipzig. Featuring two of Bach’s “short masses” and two brief independent movements also designed to enhance the Lutheran Liturgy – sublime music by a man often referred to as the “Fifth Evangelist.”
Katelyn Aungst, soprano
Sarah Davis Issaelkhoury, mezzo-soprano
Robert Petillo, tenor
Steven Combs, bass

Mass in B Minor
Sunday, April 26, 2015 at 3:00 p.m.
Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor represents an exploration of musical and spiritual possibilities that he worked on throughout his life. The B Minor Mass transcends boundaries of faith and remains one of the world’s great artistic achievements.
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Emily Noël, soprano
Laura Choi Stuart, soprano
Chris Dudley, countertenor
Matthew Loyal Smith, tenor
Steven Combs, bass
Richard Giarusso, bass

Todd Fickley, Organist
Christmas For Our Time
Sunday, December 7, 2014 at 3:00 p.m.
The program includes new and familiar seasonal works of various nationalities, all of which will combine to offer a magnificent overview of some of the great musical treasures of our time. Come share the joy!
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This year we return to a popular format featuring the exquisite voices of the Consort Chorus as well as the brilliant keyboard artistry of organist Todd Fickley.
Todd Fickley, organist

J. Reilly Lewis, Organ
The Little Organ Book – Part 1
Sunday, November 2, 2014 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Little Organ Book (Das Orgelbüchlein)
MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
For the first time J. Reilly Lewis and the Washington Bach Consort Chorus present, in two annual cycles, all forty-five chorale preludes from the Little Organ Book (Das Orgelbüchlein), the first of three major organ collections Bach assembled over the course of his lifetime. This concert covers the Advent through Lent portion of the church year, with members of the Chorus singing the chorales on which the organ pieces were based.
Robert Beizer, concert underwriter

The Mozart Requiem
Sunday, September 28, 2014 at 3:00 p.m.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Regina coeli, K. 276
Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165
Ave verum corpus, K. 618
Requiem, K. 626
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Sherezade Panthaki, soprano
Laura Choi Stuart, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Fichter, tenor
Jon Bruno, bass

Roger Issacs
Revolution & Evolution: The Music of C.P.E. Bach
Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 3:00 p.m.
Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach
Heilig, Wq 218
Sinfonia in D Major, Wq 183/1
Anbetung dem Erbarmer, Wq 243
Magnificat in D Major, Wq 215
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Emily Noel, soprano
Roger Isaacs, countertenor
Matthew Loyal Smith, tenor
Steven Combs, bass

The St. John Passion, BWV 245
Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
The St. John Passion, BWV 245
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Rufus Muller, tenor (Evangelist)
Richard Giarusso, bass (Christus)
Laura Choi Stuart, soprano
Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano
Robert Petillo, tenor
Steven Combs, baritone

Ceremony & Celebration: Christmas with the Consort
Sunday, December 22, 2013 at 3:00 p.m.
Benjamin Britten
A Ceremony of Carols
John La Montaine
The Nine Lessons of Christmas, Op. 44
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Katelyn Aungst, soprano
Kate Vetter Cain, soprano
Yeonjung Ellie Kim, soprano
Rebecca Kellerman Petretta, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, mezzo-soprano
John Wiggins, tenor
Scott Auby, bass
Eric Sabatino, harp

J. Reilly Lewis, Organist
The Concord of Heaven
Sunday, November 3, 2013 at 3:00 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Ouverture III in D Major, BWV 1068:1
Solo Cantata: Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170
Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins and Strings, BWV 1043
Organ Partita in G Minor on Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig, BWV 768
Solo Cantata: Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54
Concerto in C Minor for Violin, Oboe, and Strings, BWV 1060
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Jennifer Lane, mezzo-soprano
Annie Loud, violin
Claire Jolivet, violin
Geoffrey Burgess, oboe
J. Reilly Lewis, organist

Bach, Vivaldi & the Italian Influence
Sunday, September 22, 2013 at 3:00 p.m.
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for Trumpet, Oboe, and Strings in D Major, RV 563
Johann Sebastian Bach
Fugue in B Minor after Corelli, BWV 579
Francesco Bartolomeo
Conti Solo Motet, Languet anima mea
Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto in A Minor after Vivaldi, BWV 593:1
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Magnificat in B-Flat Major
Tomaso Albinoni
Concerto in E Minor, Op. 2, No. 2
Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantata: Amore traditore, BWV 203
Antonio Vivaldi
Gloria, RV 589
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Elizabeth Futral, soprano
Jennifer Ellis Kampani, soprano
Robin Smith, soprano
Chris Dudley, countertenor
Jason Rylander, tenor
Mark Duer, baritone