Congratulations to my colleagues in The Choir and Orchestra, and many thanks to everyone who turned out for our 50th Bach at Noon, this afternoon. We had a capacity audience (standing room only!) with guests from four schools, in addition to our usual audience. Greg was able to acknowledge two audience members, an individual in The Choir, and himself and our beloved Executive Director, Bridget George, as attendees at all 50 concerts (Greg mentioned that he even conducted one performance from a wheel chair, after a knee injury). Our colleagues in the Bach Festival Orchestra had an excellent First Brandenburg Concerto, with particular kudos to Tony Cecere and Dan Braden, who played the demanding horn parts marvelously. Likewise, all of the sections of the orchestra distinguished themselves in Bach’s virtuosic concerto grosso. It was great fun to sing Cantata 65, and to hear the wonderful obligato playing of oboes da caccia by Mary Watt and Nabuo Kitagawa. Christòpheren Nomura and Robert Petillo both sang excellent recits and wonderful arias. There was a wonderful sense of good cheer and encouragement from the audience, and just an overall sense of celebration. Many thanks, also, to Greg Funfgeld, for his vision in conceiving this venture, and to the many individuals who worked so hard to bring it to fruition. Here’s to 50 more, and then some!
The Morning Call already has some pictures of the afternoon up on their site.
The Los Angeles Times has a short video from the same journalist who took the photography for the slide show above about the 50th Bach at Noon up on their site.