May 13-16, 2027
The 119th Bethlehem Bach Festival is the culminating celebration of our season, welcoming audiences back to historic Bethlehem for four days of music, discover, and shared tradition. This year’s Festival traces a journey through Bach’s enduring influence, from intimate chamber performances and conversations with leading scholars to Mendelssohn’s historic 1841 adaptation of St. Matthew Passion and the Bach Choir’s crown jewel performance of the Mass in B Minor. With acclaimed guest artists, beloved Festival traditions, and programs that look ahead to the Choir’s return to Leipzig, the Festival invites us to experience how great music travels across generations, places, and time.
THURSDAY, MAY 13
Outside the Bachs: Eliot Fisk
7pm
Location: Diamond Theatre, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
The 119th Bethlehem Bach Festival opens with guitar at its most virtuosic as world-renowned guitarist Eliot Fisk takes on some of the most spectacular music written for the instrument. Fisk pairs Baroque dances by J.S. Bach with dance-inspired works by Paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios, often called the “Chopin of the guitar.” He then performs a piece by Niccolò Paganini, remembered as one of history’s great violin virtuosos but also an accomplished guitarist who wrote extensively for the instrument.
The program closes with Phrygian Pick, the final movement of Robert Beaser’s Guitar Concerto, written especially for Fisk. Working with Beaser, Fisk has brought the solo and orchestral parts together in a version for one guitar, creating an unbelievable finish to an evening centered on technical brilliance and the extraordinary range of the classical guitar.
FRIDAY, MAY 14
Films From the Archives
11:00am
Location: Room 145, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
Join Bach Choir Archivist Cory Dieterly for a cinematic look inside the Choir’s remarkable history. Drawing from a curated collection of rarely seen films and archival footage, this program brings the past to life through behind-the-scenes moments, milestone performances, and glimpses of the artists, audiences, and community members who have shaped over 125 years of music-making.
Free lecture, no tickets required!
The Barnette Distinguished Scholar Lecture • Dr. Rebecca Cypess
1:30pm
Location: Room 145, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
Musicologist and historical keyboardist Rebecca Cypess joins the Festival to illuminate the music world that helped shape the Bach revival and give context to our Bach at 7 concert featuring Mendelssohn’s 1841 arrangement of the St. Matthew Passion. Her research on Sara Levy, a central figure in Berlin’s Enlightenment salons and Mendelssohn’s great-aunt, connects Bach’s legacy to the family and cultural networks surrounding Mendelssohn. As co-editor of Sara Levy’s World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin, Cypess brings an informed perspective on how private collecting, musical salons, and performance helped carry Bach’s music into the 19th century. Rebecca Cypess is Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Mordecai D. Katz and Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of the Undergraduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yeshiva University and has been featured on BBC’s Early Music Show.
Free lecture, no tickets required!
Chorale Sing
3:30pm
Location: Incarnation of Our Lord Church, Thomas & Buchanan Streets
Join Conductor Christopher Jackson and members of the Choir to sing Bach chorales prior to the Bach at 4 concert. Singers of all levels welcome, sheet music provided, and no German language skills necessary!
Bach at 4
4:00pm
Location: Incarnation of Our Lord Church, Thomas and Buchanan Streets
This year’s Bach at 4 program is a special celebration that brings together our Choir community in unexpected ways, with Executive Director Leela Breithaupt taking the stage as flute soloist, joined by Artistic Director & Conductor Christopher Jackson as the bass character of Schlendrian for Bach’s light-hearted and humorous Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211, commonly known as the Coffee Cantata. Artist-in-Residence Eliot Fisk closes out the program with his dazzling transcription of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, with members of the Bach Choir adding their voices to the celebration. Join us for the special event full of the camaraderies that makes our musical community so special!
Dinner & Discussion
5:15pm
Location: Butz Lobby, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
Before the 7pm concert, enjoy a relaxed evening of dinner, conversation, and discovery with fellow music lovers. Following a buffet meal, Dr. Larry Lipkis, Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at Moravian University, will compare Bach’s original 1727 version of the St. Matthew Passion with Felix Mendelssohn’s 1841 revision, exploring selected arias, accompaniments, and orchestrations. His insights will offer fresh context and deepen your appreciation of the performance that follows.
Bach at 7
7:00pm (new time for 2027 only)
Location: Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University
The Festival’s journey toward Leipzig continues with Felix Mendelssohn’s 1841 version of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, a powerful meeting of two musical giants across time. Mendelssohn’s historic performances helped bring Bach’s monumental Passion back into public life, reshaping how generations could have heard and understood this masterpiece. For the Bach Choir, the piece holds special significance as a result of the Choir’s world-premiere performance and recording of the new scholarly edition in 2023. This season’s performance serves as both a homecoming and a departure point, preparing the Choir to carry the work to Bachfest Leipzig in June 2027, where it will represent North America during the 300th anniversary celebration of the St. Matthew Pa
n.
SATURDAY, MAY 15
Ifor Jones Memorial Chamber Music Concert
11:00am
Location: Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
Clarinetist Dominic Giardino and harpsichordist Charlotte Mattax Moersch explore the influence of Bach on Felix Mendelssohn through historical instruments and music from different eras of the composer’s life. The program opens with Mendelssohn’s Op. 113, Konzerstück No. 1, written when the composer was 22 for clarinetists in his circle. The clarinet was the only wind instrument for which Mendelssohn composed solo repertoire, and Giardino’s performance on period clarinets brings audiences closer to the sound and feel of Mendelssohn’s 7 Charakerterstüke, Op. 7 for solo piano, written when he was approximately 15 and deeply immersed in the study of Bach. Its Bach-inspired inventions, dances, and fugues will be interwoven with selected works by J.S. Bach, revealing how the young composer mastered and transformed the music of his predecessor. The concert culminates with J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord in D Minor, BWV 1052, a celebrated work with strong ties to Mendelssohn’s family and musical circle, later performed by both Felix Mendelssohn and his sister.
Heritage Society Festival Luncheon
12:15pm
Location: Butz Lobby, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
Gather with fellow Bach Choir supporters and friends for a special luncheon and midday pause filled with good food and pleasant conversation. One of our special Festival guests will offer their personal reflections to enhance the experience. Advanced registration is required, limited capacity.
Chorale Sing
2:00pm
Location: Outside Packer Memorial Chapel
Friends and choral enthusiasts gather outdoors near Packer Memorial Church to sing Bach chorales for 20 minutes with Conductor Christopher Jackson and members of the Bach Choir, accompanied by the Festival Brass Choir. Join us in this beloved tradition!
Mass in B Minor
2:30pm – Part 1 | 4:30pm – Part 2
Location: Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University
At the heart of the Bethlehem Bach Festival, the Mass in B Minor remains a profound act of return: to Bach, to Bethlehem, and to a tradition more than a century in the making. First performed in full in America by the Choir in 1900, this monumental work continues to gather listeners from near and far inside Packer Memorial Church for an experience of grandiosity, intimacy, and wonder. For some, it is a beloved annual pilgrimage. For others, it is a first encounter with music that seems to reach beyond time. However you arrive, we invite you to be part of this extraordinary Festival tradition.
Zimmerman’s Coffee House
7pm
Location: Foy Hall, Moravian University
Step into the atmosphere of Zimmermann’s Coffee House, the legendary Leipzig cafe where Bach and his contemporaries gathered for music, conversation, and community. This relaxed evening features Baroque chamber music performed by talented young musicians selected by audition. With expressive performances in an informal setting, Zimmermann’s Coffee House offers a welcoming glimpse into the social and musical world that helped shape Bach’s time.
SUNDAY, MAY 16
Chamber Music in the Saal
11am
Location: Saal of the Moravian Museum, Church Street
Set within the historic atmosphere of the Moravian Museum’s Saal, harpsichordist and early music specialist Marc Bellassai returns to perform Fond Farewells, an exploration of music shaped by memories and goodbyes. Featured works include Bach’s deeply moving Contrapunctus VI in Stile Francese from The Art of the Fugue and his spirited Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo Fratello dilettissimo, a musical farewell to a beloved brother. Expressing a range of emotions through his masterful artistry, Fond Farewells offers a poignant musical journey through the many emotions of parting.
