Bach Birthday Bash News Today

Johann Sebastian Bach was so important to the baroque era, and so prolific as a composer, that Sunday Baroque devoted two Sundays to celebrating his March 1685 birthday. This weekend is the second of the two-part Bach Birthday Bash … and highlights include a 2022 recording of the Goldberg Variations … one of the beloved Brandenburg Concertos … and some of Bach’s intimate chamber music. It’s on Sunday Baroque this weekend.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in March of 1685 into a multigenerational musical family dynasty. Every year Sunday Baroque throws a birthday celebration for the composer. The first installment of the Bach Birthday Bash is this weekend, and includes thrilling performances by a young French guitar virtuoso, and the incomparable cellist Yo-Yo Ma. It’s the Sunday Baroque Bach Birthday Bash this week.

The event, which hasn't been held in person for the past two years, will feature municipal organist James Kennerley playing pieces by the German composer on the Kotzschmar Organ.

The event, which hasn't been held in person for the past two years, will feature municipal organist James Kennerley playing pieces by the German composer on the Kotzschmar Organ.

Performance from Portlands Merrill Auditorium Maine Public is pleased to be a media sponsor of the Bach Birthday Bash, presented by Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ, with a livestream on Saturday, March 20 at 7:00 pm. Organist James Kennerley will perform music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach from two distinct periods of his life: Bachs organ publication, at the height of his career, and then works that were originally composed for instruments other than the organ. Bach Birthday Bash is...

Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ present Bach Birthday Bash 2021, Livestream Saturday, March 20, at 7p.m., and On Demand March 21–31. Portland Municipal Organist James Kennerley performs music from two periods of Bach’s life: selections from his monumental 1739 organ publication,  Clavier-Übung, and works that were originally composed for instruments other than the organ. The program includes the  Concerto for Two Violins in A Minor after Vivaldi, and the virtuosic  Chromatic Fantasia a...