2024 Festival
The 15th annual Arizona Bach Festival was a success, presenting an incredible variety of Baroque music to happy audiences. Whether or not you attended the concerts in person, a Video Package of YouTube recordings of all four Festival concerts is being prepared, so order yours now!
Here’s a copy of our 2024 Festival program booklet, with full concert programs, notes, and more!
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Organist Scott Dettra in Recital
An all-Bach program
Sunday, February 25, 3:00 p.m.
All Saints’ Episcopal Church
6300 N Central Ave, Phoenix
Returning favorite Scott Dettra presents an all-Bach program that opens with the fancy footwork of the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major, and closes with the famous Passacaglia in C minor. Between those two towering works we hear the Schubler Chorales and the stunning Prelude and Fugue in E minor. Join us and see why he is an audience favorite as well as an artistic powerhouse.
Continuo Power
Leon Schelhase, harpsichord; Daniel Swenberg, theorbo; Sarah Walder Amata, cello; Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano
Friday, March 8, 7:30 p.m.
Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church, Scottsdale
6715 N Mockingbird Ln, Scottsdale
This unusual name comes from the fact that the continuo group (harpsichord, cello, lute) provide the foundation for all of Baroque music. This is an art form shown in highest degree by the three artists: Leon Schelhase, harpsichord faculty at Curtis Institute, Daniel Swenberg, lute faculty at The Juilliard School, and Arizona’s own new transplant from the Netherlands, Sarah Walder Amata, cellist. This program shows the complexity, the artistry, and the creativity of the players in this continuo group. It will be both an education and a delight to hear them together. They will be joined for part of the program by soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg, another transplant from the Netherlands. Josefien is in town as part of her vocal pedagogy initiative with the Arizona Bach Festival. Once you’ve heard Josefien, you will understand her awe-inspiring skill. We are honored to have her as our first Initiative faculty!
Magic Flutes Orchestral Concert
Magda Schwerzmann & Elizabeth Buck, flute – double concertos by Telemann and Vivaldi
Conducted by Scott Youngs
Sunday, March 10, 3:00 p.m.
All Saints’ Episcopal Church
6300 N Central Ave, Phoenix
This centerpiece concert of the Festival features flutists Magda Schwerzmann from Switzerland, and ASU’s own professor of flute, Elizabeth Buck, performing concertos for two flutes by both Telemann and Vivaldi. Bach makes his appearance on the program with the Orchestral Suite #2 in B minor, and Handel joins us with two of his Concerto Grosso works from Opus 3. A final Vivaldi work, the Symphonia in G, rounds out the program with its fire and virtuosity. Stephen Redfield is the concertmaster for this orchestral feast.
For the King’s Pleasure
Water Music and music for entertainment of the court – chamber orchestra, Jacquelyn Island, soprano
Sunday, March 17, 3:00 p.m.
All Saints’ Episcopal Church
6300 N Central Ave, Phoenix
Entertainment for the royal courts often consisted of special music presentations and dancing, as well as background music for dining. These two works, both called Water Music Suites, were composed for royal events. Telemann’s Suite was for the Centennial celebration of the Hamburg Admiralty, and Handel’s was for King George’s barge trip from Whitehall Palace up the Thames to Chelsea. Mighty fine entertainment 300 years later! The arias from Bach’s secular cantata #204 Ich bin in mir vergnügt feature the elegant and lyrical voice of Jacquelyn Island singing “Although I am not rich or great, I am content and happy with myself.” The Vivaldi Concerto for Strings provides all the excitement and drama that Vivaldi is known for. This concert features a small chamber orchestra with Steven Moeckel as concertmaster.