The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park will present its 83rd Annual Bach Festival February 16 through March 4, 2018. The 2018 festival features seven concert programs; as well as eight community events, including free events and masterclasses. All events will take place on the campus of Rollins College, 1000 Holt Avenue, Winter Park. Tickets and packages are available at BachFestivalFlorida.org or 407-646-2182. The full schedule of events is included in the attached release.
In addition to the 240 performers in the Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra, this year’s festival will bring to Winter Park Grammy Award-winning violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Akira Eguchi, who will make their festival debut in a February 20 recital. Organist Stephen Tharp will give a free recital on February 16. Concertos by Candlelight (February 24 & 25) will feature several guest artists: Chilean-American cellist Andrés Díaz, Venezuelan violist Jesus Alfonzo, Bach Festival Society principal trumpet Teresa Rata Linn, Boston Symphony Orchestra principal clarinetist William Hudgins and his wife, clarinetist Catherine Hudgins. Featured vocalists for the March 3 & 4 choral programs include soprano Sherezade Panthaki, mezzo-soprano Laura Pudwell, tenor Robert Bracey, and bass Michael Dean.
The 2018 Annual Bach Festival includes music by more than 25 composers, including the festival’s namesake, Johann Sebastian Bach. Audiences will also hear new works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec (February 17), and the world premiere of Daniel Crozier’s Concerto for Two Clarinets and Orchestra (February 24 & 25).
The festival schedule includes double performances of two programs that gained popularity last year. Spiritual Spaces: Musical Meditations (5 p.m. & 7 p.m. on February 18) will consist of shorter musical selections performed in a relaxed and inviting atmosphere, including works by John Williams, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and other composers . Approximately 60 minutes in length, these concerts appeal to festival newcomers as well as classical music aficionados. Another audience favorite, Concertos by Candlelight (February 23 & 24), will feature four concertos performed by the Bach Festival Orchestra among the light of hundreds of candles at Knowles Memorial Chapel.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Winter Park Bach Festival has been a Central Florida music tradition since it was founded in 1935. Each spring, the Bach Festival Choir, Orchestra, and guest artists fill Winter Park with choral, orchestral, and chamber music for three weeks. Patrons travel from across the country and around the world to enjoy beautiful music in a remarkably beautiful setting on the campus of Rollins College. More information about the festival can be found at BachFestivalFlorida.com/ Festival.
SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION
The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park is supported in part by numerous individual donors, United Arts of Central Florida, host of OrlandoAtPlay.com and UAArtsEd.com; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and by Orange County Government through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program.
ABOUT BACH FESTIVAL SOCIETY
Located in Winter Park, Florida, the Bach Festival Society is one of the longest continuously operating Bach Festivals in the country and among America’s great oratorio societies. The Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra bring the highest caliber of classical music to Central Florida in the intimate settings of Tiedtke Concert Hall and Knowles Memorial Chapel on the Rollins College campus for its annual Bach Festival, Choral Masterworks, and Visiting Artists performances, and it presents a variety of educational and community outreach programs year round. More information at BachFestivalFlorida.org
