The oldest collegiate Bach festival west of the Mississippi, running March 16-19, 2012. This year's series, Bach and the Piano, will feature five concerts that explore the connection between the music of Bach and an instrument which has had a great impact on the world for the last three centuries. The 75th annual celebration is dedicated to the memory of festival founder and pianist Margaretha Lohmann, who taught music at Whittier College from 1929 until her retirement in 1970.
Special guests include pianists Lucinda Carver and Larry Karush, as well as Chorale Bel Canto and conductor Stephen Gothold. All events will take place in the Whittier College campus, 13406 Philadelphia Street, Whittier, CA 90608. For additional information or to purchase tickets, please call the Box Office at 562.907.4203, or visit online, www.shannoncenter.org.
Bach Musicale Friday, March 16, noon. Memorial Chapel, admission is free. The annual Bach Musicale will feature performances by students and faculty.
Bach Choral Concert Saturday, March 17, 4 p.m. Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts Chorale Bel Canto, soloists and orchestra conducted by Stephen Gothold, will present what is considered to be one of the finest choral work ever composed, Mass in b minor, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Admission is $20 general, $17 seniors, $5 student rush Please use this link for tickets for this concert only:http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/221049
Bach and the Piano Lecture and Master Class Lucinda Carver Sunday, March 18, 3 p.m. Music Building, admission is free. Acclaimed pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor of classical and operatic works Lucinda Carver will present a lecture and master class with a focus on Bach and the piano.
Bach and the Piano Bach de Rhythm: Instilling the Master's music with World Rhythms Larry Karush, piano, with Randy Gloss, percussion Sunday, March 18, 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 general; $5 students; and free to Whittier College students, faculty and staff.
Bach Chamber Concert Central 4 with Timothy Durkovic, soloist Monday, March 19, 8 p.m. Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts Bach Chamber Concert featuring soloist, Timothy Durkovic who will perform the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue. Performances also include the Central 4 piano quartet, D minor Keyboard Concerto, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, as well as a world premiere of a piano quartet by Jenni Brandon. Admission is $10 general; $5 students; and free to Whittier College students, faculty, and staff.
BIOS
Extremely gifted and versatile, Lucinda Carver enjoys a prominent career as pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor. As music director and conductor of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra from 1992-2001, Carver garnered critical praise for her stylistic interpretations of music from the Classical era. Active in both the symphonic and operatic arenas, she has been proclaimed "a find... a first-rate conductor" by Bernard Holland of The New York Times and "an important emerging conductor" by Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times. Carver's symphonic credits include appearances with the National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. She has conducted at major music festivals, including Wolf Trap, Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Eclectic Orange Festival, and she was featured at Davies Hall as part of the San Francisco Symphony Great Performers Series.
Larry Karush is an improvising pianist/composer with roots in Jazz, 20th/21st century western music, African-based percussion, and the classical music of North India. From Carnegie Hall to the Purple Onion, he has performed Jazz with John Abercrombie, Jane Ira Bloom, Jay Clayton, Bennie Wallace, and Oregon, World Music with Kanai Dutta, Francisco Aguabella, and Glen Velez, and New Music with Steve Reich and Terry Riley, in addition to his own solo piano performances.
His compositions and improvisations have been recorded on the ECM, Vanguard, Inner City, AudioQuest, Music of the World, Groovenote, and NAXOS labels. He has received grants and commissions from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the NEA/Arts International, Meet the Composer, the California Arts Council, and the City of Los Angeles. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, and a nominee for the 2008 Herb Alpert Foundation Prize in Music.
He has performed concerts of original music for solo piano and his piano/world percussion - based ensemble, The Combination, throughout the United States in addition to festival appearances in Europe, Canada, and South Africa.
