The 57th Annual Oregon Bach Festival gets underway Saturday, June 27, and continues through Sunday, July 12.
This year’s festival theme is “Creation and Invention.”
“We explore the topic throughout the festival– works inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, the great inventor among many other things,” said OBF’s Programming Director James Boyd. “The concept of creation appearing in our first concert where we celebrate the dawn and the breaking of a new day up in Mount Angel with a program that's all about the sun rising.”
Besides that concert at Mount Angel on Saturday morning, the rest of the festival takes place at venues in Eugene and the University of Oregon campus.
America 250 is also a theme for the 17-day festival. Boyd said the approach to the nation’s semiquincentennial may be somewhat unexpected. For example, Chickasaw composer Jared Impichchaachaaha Tate's composition is part of a program called 'American Symphonies' at the Hult Center on Thursday, July 2. Boyd said tickets to both Thursday concerts in the Silva Concert Hall are on a sliding scale starting at $5.
“Those two Silva Concert Hall performances have got a little bit of everything, from Dvorak's ‘New World’ and Copeland's ‘Appalachian Spring,’ to the 3rd iteration of our Bach transcription, which is this year being written by pianist Conrad Tao, and he's also gonna play ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’” said Boyd. “So you name it, there's everything at those concerts for people to enjoy.”
"So, you'll hear music performed at the highest level, and we try to make that available to everyone in our community," said Oregon Bach Festival Programming Director James Boyd.
Grammy-winning mandolin player Chris Thile is a part of the festival. The final concert on Sunday, July 12 is Haydn’s “The Creation.”
“An epic masterwork with chorus and orchestra and soloists that everyone, I think, will enjoy,” Boyd said.
Earlier this year, Oregon Bach Festival co-founder Helmuth Rilling died at 92. Boyd said they’ll celebrate Rilling at the Opening Celebration Saturday evening at the Hult Center.
“Helmuth is a giant in the world of music, in the world of Bach, and certainly for the festival. We would not be here if not for Helmuth Rilling,” said Boyd. “So, we will do some things to commemorate him and to celebrate his legacy this season.
Boyd said the festival makes an effort to make their concerts accessible.
“If patrons see anything that's labeled ‘on the house,’ that means it's a free event for the community,” said Boyd. “Often those are in the middle of the day. So, we'll have several chamber music or other lovely concerts that we present free.”
