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Bach again: music festival marks 26 years

Pictured on the left is Clarinetist Jonathan Decker, 23, is the emerging artist to be featured in performance at this year’s Bach & Beyond Baroque Music Festival when it returns to the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center. And on the right is Under Artistic Director Grant Cooper, this year’s series of three concerts features a central theme focused on the St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche) in Leipzig, Germany, and various Baroque composers connected to it. Also featured will be an emerging artist with a performance in each concert.

The Bach & Beyond Baroque Music Festival celebrates its 26th year when it returns to the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center June Friday to Sunday. Under Artistic Director Grant Cooper, this year’s series of three concerts will feature a central theme centered on Baroque Period composers connected to Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church, as well as showcase an emerging artist with a performance in each concert.

While the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is the foundation of the Festival, performances also often feature music by other familiar Baroque composers such as, for example, Vivaldi, Handel and Telemann. The “Beyond” in the Festival’s name refers to the inclusion of works of other lesser-known (and some present-day) composers who are artistically linked to the more familiar superstars.

This year’s Festival features a central theme focused on the St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche) in Leipzig, Germany, and various composers connected to it, notes Cooper. The church is most famous as the place where Bach worked as a Kapellmeister, and as the current location of his remains. The Thomanerchor, the choir of the Thomaskirche, was founded in 1212 and is one of the oldest and most famous boys’ choirs in Germany. It is headed by the Thomaskantor, an office that has been held by many well-known composers and musicians, including Bach from 1723 until his death in 1750.

One of these connected composers, featured on two of the festival’s concert programs, is Johann Friedrich Fasch.

The composer whose works, more than any other’s, bridged the periods of Baroque and early Classical, in 1701 began attending St. Thomas’s School, where he sang in the choir, learned to play the violin and keyboard instruments, and started composing vocal works and overtures. In 1722, he famously turned down the position of Cantor at the Church – soon be Bach’s job.

Pictured on the left is Clarinetist Jonathan Decker, 23, is the emerging artist to be featured in performance at this year’s Bach & Beyond Baroque Music Festival when it returns to the 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center. And on the right is Under Artistic Director Grant Cooper, this year’s series of three concerts features a central theme focused on the St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche) in Leipzig, Germany, and various Baroque composers connected to it. Also featured will be an emerging artist with a performance in each concert.

Two others with St. Thomas connections are Georg Philipp Telemann and Christoph Graupner, both offered the Cantor position that would ultimately become Bach’s. But both turned the job down in lieu of higher pay by their existing employers. Bach, considered a “mediocre” candidate, was the third choice behind Telemann and Graupner. Works by both Telemann and Graupner also are featured in this year’s Festival.

Continuing a practice started this past year, the ensemble of Bach Musicians will be joined each concert by a featured emerging artist on the cusp of a performance career. Clarinetist Jonathan Decker, winner of the 2022 Eastern Music Festival Concerto Competition, will perform Fasch’s Chalumeau Concerto, Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet in A and Copland’s Concerto for Clarinet.

Decker, 23, is a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in clarinet performance and music education. He has participated in and been principal clarinet of the University of Massachusetts Wind Ensemble and the University of Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he has been actively involved in chamber music performance. He has participated in masterclasses with teachers such as David Shifrin, Charles Neidich, Mark Dover, and the US Army Clarinet Quartet. He will attend the Juilliard School this fall in its master’s program.

The Festival’s concerts are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. Complete concert programs are listed on the Opera House web site at www.fredopera.org. Tickets are $20 reserved seating for each concert; student tickets are $10. A subscription to all three concerts is available for $51. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Opera House Box Office or by phone at 716-679-1891, through Friday, noon to 4:30 p.m. They also may be purchased anytime online at www.fredopera.org.

The Bach & Beyond Festival is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Founding Festival Benefactors are (the late) Carol and Jim Boltz. Concert Sponsors are Evans & Evans Law Offices, Anne Patterson and Martin Shaffer, and Cindy and Barbara Yochym. Support also comes from the United Arts Appeal of Chautauqua County.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center is a member-supported not-for-profit performing arts center with a mission to “present the performing arts for the benefit of our community and region … providing access to artistic diversity … and high quality programming at an affordable price.” It is located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.

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