2026 Festival
The Board of the Arizona Bach Festival is excited to present the details of our 17th annual festival! Visit our Tickets and Subscriptions page, or click on any of the concert titles below to buy tickets to that concert right now. Whether or not you attend the concerts in person, we also offer high-quality video recordings on YouTube of all four Festival concerts! Watch our Facebook page for updates and be sure that you’re subscribed to our email list to receive our important festival news!
Jonathan Swartz, violin leads the Festival Orchestra
Sunday, February 15, 3:00 p.m.
All Saints’ Episcopal Church
6300 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85012
Tickets: $50 advance / $55 at the door
The 2026 Season opens on Sunday, February 15th with a Baroque tour de force: Arizona State University professor Jonathan Swartz appears as soloist and leads the Festival Orchestra in Bach’s Violin Concerto in E, and Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. He is joined by harpsichordist Jonathan Rhodes Lee, professor at University of Nevada, and flutist Elizabeth Buck, also an ASU professor. Also on the program is Telemann’s Don Quixote Suite and Johann Bernhard Bach’s Overture in G minor, an Arizona premiere. Craig Westendorf will give a pre-concert lecture at 2:00 p.m.
Steven Moeckel, Violin
Sunday, February 22, 3:00 p.m.
Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West
3830 N Marshall Way, Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Tickets: $50 advance / $55 at the door
On Sunday, February 22nd, Steven Moeckel, former concertmaster of the Phoenix Symphony, will present Soul Searching, a journey through the three sonatas for solo violin by J. S. Bach at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West amid their glorious artwork. Admission to this special event includes a tour of the museum and a pre-concert reception. Our onsite box office will open at 1:00 p.m. and museum tours will start shortly after that.
Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano with the Festival Orchestra and Chorus
Sunday, March 1, 3:00 p.m.
Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center
12701 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Tickets: $65 advance / $70 at the door
On March 1st, Arizona Bach Festival presents the Arizona premiere of Lidarti’s oratorio Esther, the only late Baroque oratorio in the Jewish tradition. This recently-discovered work features Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg in the title role as well as Phoenix favorites Nina Cole Garguilo and Paul Nicosia along with the Festival Orchestra and Choir.
The work dates from 1774, and was commissioned by the Portuguese Jewish Synagogue of Amsterdam. The work was composed by Giuseppe Cristiano Lidarti using a libretto by Venetian Rabbi Jacob Saraval. The work was lost until 1997, when it was discovered by a Cambridge scholar and authenticated by Israel Adler, a musicologist of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. It is an exemplary work of 18th century art music in Hebrew. The work will be performed in Hebrew, with both a projected and printed English translation provided to the audience.
As a special bonus, a series of recorded talks will be distributed (in early February) to those purchasing tickets online for this performance.
Avi Stein, organ and John Thiessen, Baroque trumpet
Sunday, March 8, 3:00 p.m.
All Saints’ Episcopal Church
6300 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85012
Tickets: $40 advance / $45 at the door
The Festival’s annual organ recital features organist Avi Stein and Baroque trumpeter John Thiessen. Both are faculty at The Juilliard School. On March 8th they will perform a program of organ and Baroque trumpet repertoire rarely heard in Arizona and surely not one to be missed! Craig Westendorf will give a pre-concert lecture at 2:00 p.m.
In addition to teaching at Juilliard, Avi Stein is the organist and chorusmaster at Trinity Church, NYC and the artistic director of the Helicon Foundation. John Thiessen has been principal trumpet player for Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and American Classical Orchestra.