The chamber music concert will include 16th through 18th century works from northern Italy, including music by Vivaldi, Corelli, Albinoni, Gabrieli, Sammartini, Geminiani and Cima.

The Wild Geese chamber ensemble includes Susan Black, violin, Nancy Garlick, recorder, Lynanne Wilson, cello, and Content Sablinsky, harpsichord.

Wild Geese specializes in music of the Baroque era, with performances that focus on a particular historical personality, time and place, says Susan Black, adjunct instructor of violin at EMU.

Admission

Admission to the concert is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund. For more information contact the music department at 540-432-4225 or music@emu.edu.

Learn more about music at EMU:

The Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, with Kenneth J. Nafziger as artistic director and conductor, continued its tradition of artistic excellence by offering unparalleled classical music concerts with the highest caliber of musicians. This year’s theme, “Bach and Some Admirers,” featured works that reflect other composers’ admiration for Bach.

Dr. Kenneth Nafziger directs the Bach Festival orchestra, chorus and soloists Thomas Jones and Sharla Nafziger in Johannes Brahms’ “Requiem” the evening of June 16.
Photo by Jim Bishop

The ability of music to both inspire and bring healing was exemplified in the appearance on campus of internationally-acclaimed Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska. She first collaborated with the Bach Festival in 1999 and was diagosed with a cancerous tumor in her left arm in 2002.

Ms. Fialkowska returned to the Lehman Auditorium stage to play Chopin’s “Concerto No. 2 in F Minor for Piano and Orchestra” and “Concerto No. 1 in E Minor for Piano and Orchestra” during the second festival concert June 15. She received a rousing standing ovation for each concerto performance.

In addition to her concert performances, at the Thursday noon concert, June 14, at Asbury United Methodist Church in Harrisonburg.

The monumental Johannas Brahms’ “Requiem” was performed June 16 by the festival chorus and orchestra, with featured soloists Sharla Nafziger, soprano, and Thomas Jones, baritone. It was Ms. Nafziger’s fifth appearance as a guest artist and Jones’ third at the festival.

The opening concert Sunday afternoon, June 10, featured the Bach “Concerto for Two Violins” with soloists Joan Griffing and Susan Black, and music of South American composers Hietor Villa-Lobos and Astor Piazzolla and of Felix Mendelssohn.

Festival performers presented shorter works in well-attended daily noon concerts Monday through Saturday, June 11-15, at Asbury United Methodist Church in downtown Harrisonburg. On June 16, local young musicians were featured.

The festival concluded Sunday morning, June 17, with the Leipzig service, a re-creation of an 18th century worship service at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach was cantor and composed a cantata for each week’s service.

“For a brief period each year, Harrisonburg becomes Leipzig, Germany, and Lehman Auditorium is transformed into St. Thomas Lutheran Church,” Dr. Nafziger stated. Bach’s “Cantata No. 100” was the featured work, with Father James Massa, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., as homilist.

Some musicians return every year to participate in the Bach Festival; a few, like Harrisonburg native Mark Hartman, have participated every year since the festival began in 1992.

Hartman, who teaches violin, viola and music theory at Cental College in Pella, Iowa, looks forward to playing violin in the festival, noting: “The performers and the music come together and develop a personality under the direction of Ken (Nafziger).

Mark Hartman, now teaching in Iowa, and colleague Philip Stoltzfus, Northfield, Minn., rehearse the Bach “Orchestral Suite.” They return to Harrisonburg every year to play in the Bach Festival orchestra.
Photo by Jim Bishop

“The Bach Festival has become fine-tuned, with a different theme every year, but the basic purpose remains – an opportunity for musicians to perform and audiences to experience a week of great music,” Hartman said.

Suzanne K. (Sue) Cockley of Harrisonburg has sung in the festival chorus several years and read scripture at this year’s Leipzig service. She deemed it a “luxury to immerse myself in a full week of classical music – exhaustive but inspiring.”

“For 14 years I have returned to the Bach Festival for the great music, great performances and great camaraderie. It is one of the most meaningful constants in my life,” said Sandra Gerster of Baltimore, principal oboist in the festival orchestra.

“I come back every year because the trust, respect and integrity that Ken Nafziger brings to the Festival is unsurpassed. He cultivates a safe environment where we are encouraged to take artistic risks, to try to perform something in a new way, where the musical process is valued and where the performances are truly expressions of emotion, not plastic displays of static perfectionism,” she said.

“I return because my colleagues have become my family, and I am constantly inspired, awestruck, heartened and buoyed by them,” Gerster added.

Such sentiments were echoed by Mary Kay Adams, Bach Festival coordinator and principal flutist in the festival orchestra.

Ms. Adams said she relished the chance “to work closely with so many wonderful people who played a vital role in making the festival successful – the musicians, board members, community volunteers, EMU staff, donors, families who house musicians and Ken Nafziger and Joan Griffing.

“This festival continues to exceed my expectations on both musical and personal levels each year,” Adams said. “I’ve played in the orchestra since the beginning, 15 years ago, and have a deep appreciation for the outstanding musical quality. And because of the friendships established with returning musicians through the years, we look forward to working together each summer and renewing those bonds.”

Next year’s Bach festival will be held June 8-15, 2008, on the theme, “Bach and String Things.” Information is available on-line at .

The program opens Sunday, June 10 and concludes with the popular Leipzig worship service June 17.

Dr. Kenneth Nafziger directs the orchestra and choir in Bach’s “Mass in B Minor” to open the 2006 festival.
Photo by Jim Bishop

“Since Felix Mendelssohn’s revival of Bach’s ‘St. Matthew Passion’ in 1829, composers have been inspired by the monumental music of the late Baroque master,” said Kenneth J. Nafziger, artistic director and conductor of the festival. “The circle of admirers includes all who participate in Bach festivals around the world and musicians from many cultures who have made his music their own.”

The opening concert, at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 10, in Lehman Auditorium. will feature Bach’s “Concerto for 2 Violins and Strings in D Minor” with violinists Joan Griffing and Susan Black; “Bachianas brasileiras, No. 1” by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Mendelssohn’s’ “String Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major” and “Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas” (The Four Seasons) by Astor Piazzola.

Janina Fialkowska, pianist

Major festival concerts will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 15 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 16 in Lehman Auditorium. Friday’s program will feature the brilliant artistry of pianist Janina Fialkowska in two concertos for piano and orchestra by Frederic Chopin, along with Bach’s “Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major and Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach’s “Symphony in E-flat Major.”

Saturday night’s program will draw on the combined talents of the Bach festival orchestra and choir with guest soloists Sharla Nafziger, soprano, and Thomas Jones, bass, in performing Johannes Brahms’ “Requiem.”

Chamber music programs with instrumentalists and vocalists from the festival will be presented noon-1 p.m. Monday through Saturday, June 11-16, at Asbury United Methodist Church, S. Main St., in Harrisonburg. Admission is free; donations are welcomed.

The festival will conclude with the annual Leipzig service at 10 a.m. June 17 in Lehman Auditorium, often cited by many attendees as the highlight of the week. The program recreates an 18th century worship service at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach was cantor and conducted a cantata for each week’s service.

The Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival is sponsored in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Arts Council of the Valley.

Bach Festival tickets are available on-line at or by calling the EMU box office at 540-432-4582.

Adair McConnell, minister of music at St. Stephens United Church of Christ in Harrisonburg, will give a talk highlighting several works to be performed at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, June 10-17. The lecture is set for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 29, in Detwiler Auditorium of Heritage Haven at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC).

McConnell’s presentation will include background information on J.S. Bach and preview his “Orchestral Suite No. 1,” “Cantata No. 100” and “Concerto for Two Violins,” to be performed at the festival by violinists Joan Griffing and Susan Black.

This year’s festival, on the theme, “Bach and Some Admirers,” will feature music written by composers who admired and were influenced by Bach.

Internationally-acclaimed Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska will perform both Chopin piano concertos during the festival, and the Festival Chorus and Orchestra will perform the celebrated Brahms “Requiem,” along with soloists Sharla Nafziger, soprano, and Thomas Jones, bass. Artistic director, Kenneth Nafziger, will conduct all three of the festival’s main concerts and the Sunday Leipzig service.

An admirer of Bach’s music himself, McConnell specializes in early music, having previously been a lecturer-demonstrator of ancient keyboard instruments at the Smithsonian Institute. A singer, organist, pianist, and recorder player, McConnell stays active in retirement as a church musician, as a member of the Round Hill Recorder Consort, as a board member of both the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and Harrisonburg’s First Night, and by involvement with many activities in the local community, where he grew up.

McConnell earned a degree in English and spent 30 years teaching Russian and French in a high school in Fairfax County, while also serving as a computer instructor and online publications coordinator at the national headquarters of AARP, writing computer training manuals for the Department of Defense, building a harpsichord, forming and conducting the Reston Chamber Orchestra and serving as an organist and minister of music at several churches.

The lecture is open to the public free of charge.

“The community is invited to support this exceptional artistic endeavor by attending this 15th annual event at 草莓社区 and enjoying the beautiful music of the Brahms Requiem, the Chopin piano concertos, South American music and much more,” said Mary Kay Adams, Bach Festival coordinator.

For more information about the festival, see or contact Mary Kay Adams at mary.adams@emu.edu or 540-432-4652.

She thought she’d never play two-hand piano again. But she is, perhaps with greater virtuosity than before.

Internationally-acclaimed Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska will return to the Lehman Auditorium stage to perform at the 15th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival to be held June 10-17 at 草莓社区. She first collaborated with the Bach Festival in 1999.

A testimony to the power of music and healing against all odds, Ms. Fialkowska will play Chopin’s “Concerto No. 2 in F Minor for Piano and Orchestra” and “Concerto No. 1 in E Minor for Piano and Orchestra” during the second festival concert of the festival 7:30 p.m. June 15.

Her career, the subject of a documentary produced in 1992, came to a dramatic halt in 2002 with the discovery of a tumor in her left arm. She endured several surgeries in that arm to remove the cancer, resulting in paralysis. Later a rare muscle transfer was performed.

After years of performing works for right hand alone and finding the inner strength to recover from a debilitating illness, she “has resumed her two-handed career at the same level of musical artistry as before,” according to Bach Festival coordinator Mary Kay Adams.

In addition to her concert performances, Fialkowska will tell her inspiring story at the Thursday noon concert, June 14, at Asbury United Methodist Church, S. Main St., Harrisonburg, “reflecting on what it’s like for a musician to lose that which gives meaning to her life, specifically, the ability to make music,” Ms. Adams noted.

In light of recent local and world-wide tragedies, this year’s festival explores music as a means of healing for humankind, promoting the musical arts as one manner of reconciliation.

“While music cannot bring back what was lost, it can bring healing to communities,” Adams said. “Music functions as a means of comfort and identity, providing a safe haven for those hurt, displaced or lost.

“When one

Adair McConnell

The first lecture will be held 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20 in the Detwiler Auditorium of Heritage Haven at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC). The second will take place 2:30 p.m. May 29 at the same location.

The first presentation will focus on music of composers other than Bach, specifically on three Romantic era works: both Chopin piano concertos and the Brahms “Requiem.”

Internationally-acclaimed Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska will perform both concertos during the festival, and the Festival Chorus and Orchestra will perform the celebrated Requiem, with soloists Sharla Nafziger, soprano, and Thomas Jones, bass.

Artistic director, Kenneth Nafziger, will conduct all three of the festival

The , held each year at 草莓社区, is a massive undertaking, requiring considerable planning, intense rehearsals of many singers and musicians and major financial support.

And, audience expectation levels keep going up – understandably so, given the quality of the programs.

So, why has invested his time and energy as artistic director and conductor of the weeklong event for 13 years?

"The people I work with sustain this effort," Dr. Nafziger, long-time professor of music at EMU, said. "There’s always enough music to select from, but it’s this incredible group that comes together every year that makes all the difference.

"The orchestra members come prepared, they know what to expect," Nafziger said. "Rehearsal begins for the opening concert, and we pick up where we left off from last year. Participants gain strength from the musical experience. Everyone benefits and is nourished," he added.

This year’s festival, held June 12-19 on the EMU campus, combined the glorious masterworks of prolific German composer Johann Sebastian Bach with the works of other "Bs" – Brahms, Bartok, Berstein, Britten, Boccherini, Bruch and Berlioz.

The opening concert featured Bach’s "Concerto for Flute, Violin and Harpsichord in A Minor" with Pedro Aponte, flute; Joan Griffing, violin; and Bradley Lehman, harpsichord. Other "Bs" on the program were Leonard Bernstein’s "Missa Brevis," Bela Bartok’s "Romanian Folk Dances" and Benjamin Britten’s "Simple Symphony."

Viola players Christy Heatwole (l.), Lancaster, Pa., and Karen Johnson, Cincinnati, Ohio, compare notes during a festival orchestra rehearsal.
Photo by Jim Bishop

The "sense of community and family-like atmosphere" that pervades the Bach Festival was underscored by several participants.

Susan Black, a violinist in the festival orchestra, has returned to play each year since 1997. She said she comes back to experience the "excellent musicianship" and the "cameraderie in playing Bach’s music together," adding that she found playing Beethoven’s ‘Ninth Symphony’ "a challenge."

A teacher at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Black is in her 14th year of playing second violin in the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra and has participated in the Eastern Music Festival at Greensboro, N.C., for 25 years.

Sandra Gerster, principal oboist in the festival orchestra, has taken part in every Bach Festival at EMU but the first one. "The music, friends, food and cameraderie among my colleages all bring me back every year," she said. "There’s a positive aura here."

Ms. Gerster, a regular performer with the North Carolina, Richmond and Annapolis Symphony orchestras, noted that she found the ‘Four Serious Songs’ by Brahms challenging to play and was "moved to tears" by soloist Daniel Lichti’s interpretation of them.

For mezzo-soprano Heidi Kurtz of Philadelphia, Pa., performing as a soloist in the Bach Festival is like coming home. A 1989 music graduate of EMU, she sang roles in "Les Nuits d’Ete, Op. 7" by Hector Berlioz in the opening festival concert, Beethoven’s "Symphony No. 9 in D Minor" and Bach’s "Cantata No. 45" in the closing Leipzig service.

"It’s great to do this," Ms. Kurtz said of the Bach Festival. "Ken [Nafziger] is a major reason for my returning several times. He encouraged me to work toward a professional career in music when I studied under him."

Kurtz is soprano soloist at All Saint’s Episcopal Church and a member of the Philadelphia Singers.

Kurtz found it challenging to sing three different types of music from Bach to Berlioz. "Receiving energy from the audience helps my performance. It’s so important," she said.

Sandwiched between the main festival concerts were daily noon chamber music programs that filled the Asbury United Methodist Church sanctuary in downtown Harrisonburg. The programs ranged from a young artists concert to lighter works by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to Bach harpsichord numbers performed by Bradley Lehman.

In 2004, Lehman discovered Bach’s method of tuning harpsichords and organs, encoded graphically on the title page of the "Well-Tempered Clavier." His article about this finding was published in the February and May 2005 issues of "Early Music," published by Oxford University Press.

The festival concluded with the annual Leipzig Service June 19 in Lehman Auditorium. The program recreates an 18th century worship service at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach was cantor and composed a cantata for each week’s service.

"Many people cite the Leipzig service as the highlight of the week, a significant worship experience that speaks loudly to participants," said one observer.

“The Bach Festival reflects the cooperation of around 200 people directly involved as musicians, host families, ushers for concerts, board members, Asbury church staff and others,” said Beth K. Aracema, assistant professor of music at EMU and festival coordinator. “It is a comprehensive team effort, with far-reaching rewards. Add the participation of the audiences, whose numbers exceeded expectations this year, and the results are a music festival recognized for its excellence that enriches this community in so many ways,” she added.

The Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival is sponsored in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Arts Council of the Valley.

Next year’s festival, to be held June 11-18 at EMU, will employ the theme, "Mostly Bach." Jeremy Wall, pianist and arranger, will return as guest artist.