North Park University to Host Bach Week Festival Concert May 5

University students to perform in first-ever festival concert in Chicago

CHICAGO (April 16, 2013) — North Park University will host a Bach Week Festival performance at 2:30 pm, May 5, at the University's Anderson Chapel, the first time a festival performance will be held in the city of  Chicago. The North Park concert—featuring works by the renowned German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach—will include performances by University musicians as well as professionals from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The Bach Week Festival is an annual event held in the Chicago area in spring. Now in its 40^th year, the festival is a signature blend of solo, concerto, orchestral, and choral performances in concerts, according to a Bach Week news release.

"The North Park School of Music is honored to collaborate with the Bach Week Festival to present this concert," said Dr. Craig Johnson, dean of the University's School of Music and professor of music. "This event is a wonderful example of the advantages that North Park music students have to experience the artistic excellence so prevalent in Chicago—right on the campus." Johnson added that all undergraduate School of Music students will be able to attend and hear the musical excellence offered by the Bach Week performers.

The North Park concert features Margaret Martin, University organist. Making her Bach Week Festival debut, she will open the concert with Bach’s Toccata in F Major, BWV 540. Her spouse, Christopher Martin, principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will perform in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047. Cellist Katinka Kleijn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will perform Bach’s Suite No. 3 for solo cello, BWV 1009.

The finale will be Bach’s Magnificat in D, BWV 243, a 12-movement work for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Among the soloists is Dr. Julia Davids, who will make her debut with the Bach Week Festival. Davids directs the University's choral activities and holds the Stephen J. Hendrickson Endowed Chair in Music. The North Park University Chamber Singers, directed by Davids, will perform with the festival chorus and orchestra, directed by Richard Webster, director of music and organist at Boston's historic Trinity Church, and the festival's music director since 1975. This will be only the second time in Bach Week history that a guest ensemble has sung with the festival’s own chorus, and the first time for a student group, according to festival organizers.

The Chamber Singers' participation "adds a touch of historic resonance" to the festival’s first Chicago concert, Webster said. "Bach himself conducted ensembles of local university students, professionals, and guest artists at weekly public performances at Zimmermann’s Coffee House in Leipzig, Germany. This collaboration honors that tradition and will be a wonderful experience for performers and audience alike," he added.

The 2013 Bach Week Festival also features concerts April 19 and April 21 at Nichols Concert Hall, Evanston, Ill.

Use @npunews to follow North Park University News on Twitter. For further information or resources, contact John Brooks, Director of Media Relations and News, via email or at (773) 244-5522. Learn more about North Park University.