Tickets are available for all concerts and can be purchased at the door.

Premier Sponsors:
Air Products
County of Northampton
Beneficia Foundation

General Sponsors:
St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network
PGB Trust and Investments: A Division of Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation
County of Lehigh
The Century Fund
The Historic Hotel Bethlehem

The 2012 Bach Festival is the culmination of our season-long Roots of Renewal Celebration marking the 100th anniversary of The Choir’s Guarantor System and the first Bach Festival held in Lehigh University’s Packer Memorial Church. We hope you will participate in our festivities including the Picnic Lunch and Guarantors’ “Meet the Artists” reception. A special thank you to Guarantors who responded to Greg Funfgeld’s invitation to let him know what works you would most like to hear at the 2012 Festival. Quite a few of your suggestions are included!

Soloists
Agnes Zsigovics, soprano
Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano
Daniel Taylor, countertenor
Benjamin Butterfield, tenor
William Sharp, baritone
Daniel Lichti, bass

NOTE: Tickets are available for all concerts
and can be purchased at the door.

Fridays May 4 & 11
2pm –Distinguished Scholar Lecture
Nicholas Kenyon : Bach in the 21st Century
Black Box Theatre, Zoellner Arts Center
Free Admission – no tickets required
Nicholas Kenyon was Controller of BBC Radio 3 from 1992–1998 and Director of the BBC Proms from 1996 to 2007. He is now ManagingDirector of the Barbican Centre, one of Europe’s largest multi-arts venues. He continues to write about music and the arts, and has published books on Simon Rattle, edited the influential Authenticity and Early Music, and wrote The Faber Pocket Guide to Mozart. In 2011 he published The Faber Pocket Guide to Bach.

4:30pm – Bach Cantatas
Packer Memorial Church
The great Reformation Cantata 79, Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild will open this celebratory Festival – a rousing opening chorus with horns and timpani and Bach’s beloved setting of the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God” are highlights of this masterpiece. Countertenor Daniel Taylor will be featured in Bach’s extraordinary solo Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust; and the concert will conclude with the great Easter Cantata 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden with the rich sound of trombones in Bach’s orchestra.
Adults $28, $22 or $20; Students $10

6:00pm Dinner and Discussion – Larry Lipkis, Moravian College composer in residence
Lehigh University Center – Asa Packer Dining Room $35
Dinner/Discussion: $35

8:30pm – Bach Cantatas
Packer Memorial Church
This evening’s concert opens with Bach’s other great Reformation Cantata 80, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. Hand- transcribed parts for this cantata, dated 1823, are in the Moravian Archives. Scholars agree that this indicates that Bethlehem was the earliest known site of Bach’s music (“Bach reception”) in the United States, six years before Mendelssohn’s “revival” of Bach’s music in Europe. The program concludes with the beloved Cantata 21, Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, again with trombones added to the rich orchestration of strings, oboes, trumpets and timpani.
Adults $28, $22 or $20; Students $10

Saturdays May 5 & 12
10:30am – Bach Festival Orchestra & Eliot Fisk, guitar
The Ifor Jones Memorial Chamber Music Concert
Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center
Our brilliant guest soloist, Eliot Fisk, will join The Bach Festival Orchestra for a performance of the rarely heard and thoroughly delightful Concerto in A major by Italian composer Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) and his own transcription of the Chaconne from J.S. Bach’s D Minor Violin Partita. The program is bookended with two of Bach’s Orchestral Suites--the Second Suite in B Minor, BWV 1067, featuring principal flautist Robin Kani, and the Third Suite in D Major, BWV 1068 with its immortal Air. 
Adults $27; Students $10

10:30 am – Bach and the Art of the Dance: 
The Partitas for Harpsichord, Charlotte Mattax Moersch
Peter Hall, Moravian College
Charlotte Mattax, virtuoso harpsichordist and favorite of Bach Festival audiences, plays a program of Bach Partitas in the intimate space of the delightful Peter Hall.
Adults $27; Students $10

12:15pm Festival Picnic Lunch
In the tradition of ‘lunching on the lawn,’ the Heritage Luncheon will be replaced by an up-scale picnic lunch under a tent adjacent to the Zoellner Arts Center.  As always, members of the Heritage Society and Guarantors in the top 3 giving circles ($750+) are our guests; all other Guarantors enjoy the discounted price of $20 per person.  Regular Price: $25 per person.

2:30pm Mass in B Minor (Part 1) and 4:30pm (Part 2)
Packer Memorial Church
The Mass in B Minor has been the heart of the Festival since 1900. Bring a friend, family member or young student who has never before experienced the emotional and spiritual power and beauty of Bach’s monumental masterpiece
adults $57, $45 or $40; Students $20

6:00pm Reception for our Guarantors and Artists
Celebrating the rich legacy of the Guarantor’s support of The Choir and our century-old relationship with Lehigh University, the Guarantor reception (typically held on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Memorial Hall) will be replaced by a festive reception for Guarantors and artists (Choir, orchestra and soloists) immediately following The Mass in B Minor in the tent adjacent to Zoellner Arts Center. Thanks to the Lehigh University President’s Office for hosting this reception.

Sunday May 6
Young American Singer Competition
12:30pm Peter Hall, Moravian College
Free Admission
The ten young finalists of this national Bach vocal competition sponsored by the American Bach Society and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem each perform two Bach arias for a distinguished panel of judges.

May 6, 12:30 pm Peter Hall, Moravian College, Free Admission
The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and the American Bach Society announce the sixth biennial competition for American singers with special interest in the music of J. S. Bach. On May 6, 2012, ten finalists will appear before a panel of distinguished judges and a live audience in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The First Prize winner chosen by the judges on that day will receive a career development grant of $3,000 and a solo performing opportunity with The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and Greg Funfgeld, Artistic Director & Conductor, in a future season. For eligibility, audition procedures and how to apply, click here.

Remember to Love
9/11 Commemorative Concert
You can still listen to The Bach Choir participating in the Remember To Love concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001.

Trinity Wall Street's site has videos of all the performances. You can view the main page here, or view the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's performance here.

You can listen to an audio recording of the entire performance on NPR's site here.

The oldest American Bach Choir, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem gave the first complete American performances of Bach’s Mass in B Minor in 1900 and Christmas Oratorio in 1901. Since its founding in 1898, the now-famous Choir has been attracting thousands of visitors from across the United States and beyond to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival in Pennsylvania.

Since 1983, under Greg Funfgeld’s direction, the 100 dedicated volunteer singers of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, performing with the Bach Festival Orchestra and distinguished soloists, have received international acclaim. Venues have included the Herkulessaal at Munich’s Royal Residence and the Thomaskirche, Bach’s church in Leipzig, as part of the 1995 Germany tour; 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 as part of 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. Learn more about the choir.

NEW! The Archives of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, with documents dating from 1911, are now available online. Click here to explore this fascinating resource.