The Bach Music Festival of Canada or Festival Bach [1] is an international music festival in honor of Johann Sebastian Bach that takes place in the heart of Southern Ontario and is held on a biennial basis. The festival features regional, national and international musicians interpreting the works of Bach.
The inaugural event took place in 2011. [2] The festival was initially referred to as the Bach Festival of South Huron but was changed in 2013. Choral conductor Gerald Fagan OOnt has been the artistic director of the festival from its inception. Canadian producer Louise Fagan served as the festival's executive director through 2015.
The festival changed its name to Huron Waves Music Festival in 2020. [3]
The festival includes a diverse slate of concerts and guest artists. While the music of Bach is the main focus, the festival also includes artist covering different genres of music as well. A master class for local musicians is also included as part of the week long celebration. The Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series are daily concerts offered free of charge, with audience members encouraged to bring their lunches to the venues and enjoy an entertaining hour of music from a variety of artists. [1]
The festival has included by performances by a wide variety of musicians from solo violinist Lara St. John, [4] to the Harvestehuder Kammerchor (chamber choir) from Hamburg, Germany, [5] to the Angel Voice Choir from Beijing, to the Juno Award-nominated Jazz singer Fern Lindzon. [6] The final concert of the festival is traditionally a performance of one of Bach's large choral-orchestral works conducted by festival artistic director Gerald Fagan. [7]
The festival takes place in various locations throughout South Huron. Past venues included:
A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the director of music of a film, the director of music at a radio station, the person in charge of musical activities or the head of the music department in a school, the coordinator of the musical ensembles in a university, college, or institution, the head bandmaster of a military band, the head organist and choirmaster of a church, or an organist and master of the choristers.
Sir David Valentine Willcocks, was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London.
Exeter is a community in the municipality of South Huron, in the southern portion of Huron County, Ontario, Canada, located approximately 40 kilometres north of London. The community proclaims itself the "Home of the White Squirrel", owing to the presence of the unusually-coloured mammals. Exeter's mascot, "Willis The White Wonder", can be seen at many community events throughout the year, including Canada Day celebrations, the Exeter Rodeo, and the Santa Claus Parade.
The Musique Cordiale International Festival & Academy is an annual festival of classical music, song, oratorio and opera, founded in 2005. It takes place in hill towns of the Pays de Fayence between Nice and Aix-en-Provence in the South of France during the first two weeks of August. The festival features over 18 concerts including major choral and orchestral works, chamber ensembles, free lunchtime concerts and late night recitals in churches, chapels and in the open air.
Donald M. Kendrick is the Calgary, Alberta-born director of choral activities at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) and the director of music at Sacred Heart Church where he conducts Schola Cantorum and Vox Nova, and the founder and artistic director of the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra. He is also the founder and past artistic director of the Sacramento Children's Chorus.
Based in San Jose, California, The Choral Project is a mixed-voice choir founded in 1996 by artistic director and conductor Daniel D. Hughes. The group's vision is "to heal our world through music and words," while their mission is "to connect to one another through choral theater, education and musical excellence."
The Canadian Chamber Choir 's mission is to build community through choral singing. The CCC is a national ensemble that provides a professional choral environment for Canadian singers, conductors and composers, and travels across Canada promoting Canadian choral music. Under the artistic direction of Julia Davids, the CCC convenes in different regions of Canada twice a year, offering concerts and mentoring choral practitioners of all ages and stages.
Eugene Concert Choir is a choral masterworks organization in Eugene, Oregon, that consists of three performing ensembles: the 100-voice Eugene Concert Choir (ECC), the 36-voice chamber choir Eugene Vocal Arts (EVA), and the associated professional chamber orchestra Eugene Concert Orchestra.
Stratford Summer Music is a nonprofit organization hosting an annual festival which spans several weeks, set in both indoor and outdoor venues throughout the downtown core of Canada’s Shakespearean capital, Stratford, Ontario. Local, provincial, national and international artists across a wide range of genres perform. Their official website states that their mission is to celebrate quality music and “enhance the reputation of the Stratford region as an exceptional home for all the arts”.
St Matthew's Church, Northampton is a Church of England parish church in Northampton, within the Diocese of Peterborough.
Saint Peter's Singers (SPS) is a chamber choir associated with Leeds Minster, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England that celebrated during the Season 2017/2018 the fortieth anniversary of the choir's formation by Harry Fearnley in 1977. An anniversary concert took place at Leeds Minster on Sunday 25 June 2017 with the National Festival Orchestra and soloists Kristina James, Joanna Gamble, Paul Dutton and Quentin Brown. Further anniversary year events included Bach Cantatas and Music for Christmas at Fulneck Church in August and December respectively, Handel Coronation Anthems at Holy Trinity, Boar Lane as part of the Leeds Handel Festival in September and a tour of East Anglia in October. In November at Leeds Town Hall, the Singers participated in Herbert Howells's masterpiece Hymnus Paradisi with Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and Leeds College of Music Chorale under the direction of Dr David Hill with the Orchestra of Opera North. 2018 began with a concert of Sacred Choral Masterworks at Leeds Town Hall in February and Bach's Mass in B minor at Leeds Minster on Good Friday 2018 in memory of long-serving member Jan Holdstock. The final concert of the current season takes place at Leeds Minster on Sunday 24 June at Leeds Minster at 5.30. At this event will be presented the first performance of a new work from composer Philip Moore commissioned for the Singers' 40th anniversary – the motet Tu es Petrus – along with music by E W Naylor, Arvo Part, Sir Hubert Parry, Judith Bingham and Maurice Durufle. Simon Lindley conducts and the organist is David Houlder.
The Bach-Elgar Choir is a community chorus of long standing in Hamilton, Ontario, currently directed by Alexander Cann. The Choir is composed of accomplished amateur singers from Hamilton and neighbouring cities of Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga and Simcoe. Notable performances by the ensemble include the North American première of Verdi's Requiem and the Canadian premières of Górecki's Miserere and Mahler's Symphony No. 2. The choir has had several directors throughout its history and has performed at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, the Brantford's Sanderson Centre, with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and at the Boris Brott Summer Festival. The choir makes frequent guest appearances with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Gerald Richard Fagan is considered one of Canada's premier choral conductors. He is the former Conductor and Artistic Director of Fanshawe Chorus London, The Gerald Fagan Singers, and the Concert Players Orchestra. He has been married to Marlene Fagan since 1961. They have five children; Leslie, Louise, Judy, Jennifer and Jonathon.
Patricia Louise Fagan is a producer and director specializing in creative development of artists, productions and arts organizations. She is the founder of Louise Fagan Productions, located in Canada and the United States.
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Bath Bach Choir, formerly The City of Bath Bach Choir (CBBC), is based in Bath, Somerset, England, and is a registered charity. Founded in 1946 by Cuthbert Bates, who also became a founding father of the Bath Bach Festival in 1950, the choir's original aim was to promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach via periodic music festivals. Bates – an amateur musician with a great love and understanding of this composer's works – was also the CBBC's principal conductor and continued in this role until his sudden death, in April 1980. This untimely exit pre-empted his planned retirement concert performance of J. S Bach's Mass in B minor, scheduled for July of the same year, and effectively ended the first period of the choir's history.
The Toronto Choral Society was founded in 1845. Music was a popular form of entertainment for a rapidly growing and prosperous population, so a group of citizens formed a choral society in order to give concerts and foster the development of the local musical community. F.W. Barron, the headmaster of Upper Canada College, became the choir's first president, and James P. Clarke, organist at St. James Cathedral, was its first conductor.
Scott Dettra is an American concert organist and church musician. He tours in North America and Europe, and is Director of Music and Organist at the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas. He is also Organist of The Crossing, a professional chamber choir based in Philadelphia. From 2007 to 2012, he was Organist of Washington National Cathedral.
Julian Wachner is an American composer, conductor and keyboardist. Since 2011, he has served as the Director of Music and the Arts at Trinity Wall Street, conducting the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Trinity Baroque Orchestra and NOVUS NY. Wachner has recorded five albums with these ensembles, primarily for the Musica Omnia label. Since 2008, he has also served as the Director of The Washington Chorus. In March 2018, Wachner was named Artistic Director of the Grand Rapids Bach Festival, an affiliate of the Grand Rapids Symphony, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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