The 17th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival at 草莓社区 combined serious music with casual dress, Baroque masterworks with contemporary compositions and painful reflections with hard-won inspiration.

The 2009 festival orchestra, under the direction of conductor Kenneth J. Nafziger and concertmaster/principal violinist Joan Griffing, both professors of music at EMU, rehearsed throughout the week in preparation for the week-long schedule of special concerts. See a gallery of photos from the festival week

Based on the theme “Bach and Handel,” the June 14-21 festival included a rare performance of Samson and an unusual approach to Handel’s Messiah. The festival also featured Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, many of his shorter works and a performance of his Cantata BWV 146 (“We Must Go through Much Tribulation”) as part of the Leipzig Worship Service on Sunday morning.

The Leipzig service also included a homily by the Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt of New York, who reflected on her experiences as a chaplain after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Featured artists

As featured artists for the week, soloists Kenneth Gayle, Jennifer Ellis Kampani, Heidi Kurtz and David Newman sang in the opening Messiah concert, the three-hour Samson oratorio and the Sunday morning cantata.

The featured artists gathered before one of the festival’s many concerts: (pictured l to r) soprano Jennifer Ellis Kampani, organist and assistant choral director Marvin Mills (seated), artistic director and conductor Ken J. Nafziger, mezzo-soprano Heidi Kurtz, festival executive director and principal flutist Mary Kay Adams, tenor Kenneth Gayle, and bass David Newman. See a gallery of photos from the festival week

Gayle, a tenor who has been performing at the festival for the past decade, said that artistic director and conductor Kenneth Nafziger “always does a lot of interesting programming.” The Houston-based singer particularly appreciated the chance to perform Samson – “It’s so rarely done” – and to hear Messiah performed with some of the orchestrations that Mozart composed for it.

The Messiah concert, he said, was “a fun hop, skip, and a jump” through the piece. “What I enjoyed [most] was when we would [perform] the Handel orchestration and segue into the Mozart orchestration. You could hear the whole history.”

Gayle’s fellow soloists praised the quality of the festival. Newman, a bass from Luray, Va., described Nafziger as “fabulous” to work with. “We have complete artistic freedom,” said Kampani, a soprano from Washington, D.C.

Yet when asked about the defining characteristics of the festival, Newman didn’t talk about music. Instead, he commented on footwear. The event has “a high flip-flop quotient,” he said.

“Casual shoes,” Kampani explained, as Newman pointed to his feet.

The event is “very summery” and “very relaxing,” Kampani observed. “It’s a great group of people – very friendly.”

“It’s a nice way to work,” said Kurtz, a mezzo-soprano from Philadelphia who is a 1989 EMU graduate. “For me, it always feels like coming home.”

Mills an integral part of festival

Though not listed as a featured performer, Marvin Mills was probably the busiest musician during the week. The Baltimore keyboardist played harpsichord for the orchestral performances, served as assistant choral director, was an accompanist at several of the noon concerts and played organ and piano during the Leipzig service. He also composed preludes or versets for several of the Sunday hymns.

“Marvin probably comes as close to being the Bach of this congregation as anyone,” Nafziger observed at the beginning of the service. Along with three ticketed concerts, this year’s festival included six free noon concerts held at Asbury United Methodist Church in downtown Harrisonburg.

Most moving moments of the week

The Monday noon concert featured a performance of “Air and Simple Gifts” by John Williams, composed for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. The concert also included “Night Songs for Violin and Piano,” a 2009 composition by Janet Peachey. The piece was written for violinist Mark Hartman, a Harrisonburg native who is now an assistant professor at Shippensburg (Pa.) University.

In a week filled with music, perhaps the most moving moments came via the spoken word, in McNatt’s homily on hope in the midst of death. Amid the horror of Ground Zero, there was life, she said. People loaded food and supplies in their cars and drove into the city. Others cheered the recovery workers.

In today’s world “of terror and wonder,” McNatt said, “God is our constant companion.” God welcomes our questions, doubts and fears and “still upholds [us].”

New programs in 2009

Also at the festival, 16 people took part in a new five-day workshop on performing Baroque music. Lynne Mackey was director of the first-ever Virginia Baroque Performance Academy, which featured classes taught by acclaimed harpsichordist Arthur Haas and viola da gambist/cellist Martha McGaughey.

Thirty-six people participated in an Elderhostel held in conjunction with the festival. The participants, aged 55 and older, attended rehearsals and concerts, heard lectures and met festival musicians.

According to Mary Kay Adams, executive director of the Bach festival, attendance at the Elderhostel greatly exceeded expectations. “We’re very pleased,” she said.

Next year’s festival will be held June 13-20, 2010.

By Elizabeth Rome, Daily News-Record

Conductor Kenneth Nafziger leads the Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra in last year’s Leipzig Service. This year’s Leipzig Service will be at 10 a.m. on June 15 at the Lehman Auditorium. Admission is free. (Photo by Jim Bishop)

There are two things everyone needs to know about EMU’s 16th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, says artistic director and conductor Kenneth Nafziger. “One, I don’t want everybody to say that they’ve done it all. Every year has a different focus, flavor. We don’t repeat,” he said.

“Two, [Bach’s] a musician that has inspired the work of other composers and caught the imagination of people all over the world in a way no other composer has done.”

This year’s festival will celebrate Johann Sebastian Bach’s inspiration through the theme “Bach & String Things” with a series of string instrument driven concerts from June 8-15.

Cello Sounds

Bach Festival musician Eugene Friesen

Impressed with cellist Eugene Friesen‘s work during a 2006 concert in California, Nafziger decided to make string instruments the theme of this year’s festival in order to feature Friesen. A two-time Grammy Award winner, Friesen will serve as composer-in-residence and perform several times during the Bach Festival.

Because Bach is so well known for his choral work, Friesen says it is unusual but delightful for a Bach festival to focus on string instruments.

“It’s really wonderful,” said Friesen. “Performers on almost any instrument consider Bach to be the premier composer for their instrument.”

In addition to concert performances, Friesen will present his children’s show “CelloMan” at noon on June 14. He will don multiple masks and play the cello in unique ways, including accompanying the sounds of humpback whales. Designed primarily with third-graders to college students in mind, Friesen describes the show as “an entertaining and fast-moving program for all listeners.”

The festival will also feature a variety of other string instruments in solo performances, including harp, harpsichord, violin, viola and guitar, said Nafziger.

“To get artists of that caliber and hear them for free or at the prices that we charge is quite a treat,” said Mary Kay Adams, executive director of the Bach Festival. “We’re having international professionals from all over the country [perform].”

The three afternoon and evening concerts require paid admission (see schedule). Pre-purchased tickets are $20 for adults, $17 for seniors, $15 for students and $5 for children. Prices at the door will be $2 more. Group prices are also available.

The remaining daytime performances – the five noon concerts, the “CelloMan” program and the traditional Leipzig service on June 15 that is modeled after Bach’s role as a cantor in the German town, are the festival’s “gift to the community,” said Adams.

Group Work

Bach Festival musician Michael Partington

Guitarist Michael Partington is not surprised that Nafziger chose “Bach & String Things” as this year’s theme. A longtime acquaintance of Nafziger, this is Partington’s second time participating in the festival as a featured performer. Having such a theme “gives the opportunity for more creative programming,” said Partington. “Ken’s strength is the interesting mixture of music that he brings together.”

Joan Griffing, concertmaster and violinist, agrees. She has worked with Nafziger on the festival for more than a decade. “One of the highlights of the festival is the repertoire Ken comes up with,” she said. “You never hear this music in this combination anywhere else.”

Partington called his first visit to the Bach Festival in 2001 “great quality music making,” and is “very excited to have the opportunity to come back,” he said.

The feeling is mutual for Nafziger. “He’s an awesome guitarist, incredible musician,” said Nafziger. “I use every excuse I can [to see him perform].”

Audiences will be able to see Partington perform several times, including solos at the festival’s first concert on June 8 and final concert on June 14. He will also participate in two of the free weeklong chamber music performances held at noon, Monday-Friday in Asbury United Methodist Church.

“The noon concerts are put together by all the musicians,” said Griffing. “There’s going to be a lot of variety.”

Musical Immersion

The majority of the 50 to 60 musicians who participate in the Bach Festival return each year, said Adams. “We’ve had some people stay with it the whole time. Eighty to 90 percent return over and over,” said Adams. “We hear from them that it’s like a family reunion. They give it that loyalty. They count on this every year.”

Diane Phoenix-Neal, principal violinist of the Bach Festival Orchestra, performs. (Photo by Jim Bishop)

Although musicians are given their music ahead of time and expected to know it upon arrival in Harrisonburg, “putting it all together and finding the exact tempos, that’s a different story,” said Adams.

There are morning and evening rehearsals on top of performances each day of the festival. The public is encouraged to attend rehearsals in EMU’s Lehman Auditorium from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Monday- Thursday. “I think it’s an incredible opportunity. Most people only see the finished product and it looks easy,” said Nafziger. “People just don’t have any idea what goes into shaping sound. I think people will find that entertaining.”

A music professor at EMU, Nafziger has been executive director of the Bach festival since its inception.

“It’s nice for me to be able to do nothing but what I love doing for those 10 days,” said Nafziger. “Of course, I collapse into a heap afterward.”

Click here for the schedule of concerts, information on artists, and more.

For more information on the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, visit www.emu.edu/bach or call 432-4367. To order tickets, call the box office at 432-4582.

An 草莓社区 junior will present a recital for solo cello and piano-cello duo 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU.

Nathan G. (Nate) Bontrager, a education and cello performance major from Akron, Pa., will play the “D minor suite for Unaccompanied Cello” by J.S. Bach, one of six suites the German composer wrote for the cello.

He will also perform “A Major Sonata for Cello and Piano” by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Robert Schumann’s “Three Fantasty Pieces” for cello and piano and “Seven Spanish Folksongs” by Manuel de Falla, transcribed for cello.

Bontrager will be accompanied on piano by Monica Hochstetler Carlson, an instructor in the at EMU.

Bontrager is a member of the , the EMU Orchestra, the EMU Piano Trio, the EMU Jazz Quintet and leads worship for the Sunday evening “” service on campus. He also teaches in the Preparatory Music Program.

Admission to the program is free. Donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund.