125th Season-at-a-Glance
Bach at Noon | Second Tuesdays 12:10 – 1pm Central Moravian Church, Historic Downtown Bethlehem, PA
2023 September 12 | October 10 | November 14
2024 January 9 | February 13 | March 12 | April 9
Summer series:
St. John’s Lutheran Church, Allentown
2024: June 4 | July 9 | August 13
Zimmermann’s Coffee House, Oktoberfest Edition
September 30, 2023 at 7:00pm | Peter Hall, Moravian University
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE 2023-24 SEASON BROCHURE
Christmas Concerts | Bach’s Magnificat + Christen ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63
Saturday December 9, 2023 at 4pm | First Presbyterian Church of Allentown – new time!
Sunday, December 10, 2023 at 4pm | First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem
VIRTUAL Christmas Concert, live from Bethlehem Sunday, December 10 at 4 pm
Gala Anniversary Concert & Fundraiser | WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
Saturday, November 4, 2023 at 3 PM
Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University
Greg Funfgeld Family Concert | DANCING WITH BACH
Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 3pm | Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University
Spring Concert | Bach Inspired
Bach Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80
| + Selections from our upcoming European tour
Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 4pm | First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem
116th Bethlehem Bach Festival
May 10-11 & May 17-18, 2024
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
* In addition to the in-person performance,
we will Live-Stream the Mass in B Minor
on Saturday, May 11, 2023.
An Anniversary Season and our new Artistic Director & Conductor:
As we continue our 125th Anniversary season, we look forward to celebrating our legacy of excellence, welcoming our newly appointed Artistic Director and Conductor and sharing all the blessings found in the music of J.S. Bach with our beloved audience.
Join us!
Dr. Christopher Jackson named as the 7th Artistic Director and Conductor of The Bach Choir
Dr. Jackson began his tenure following the June 30 retirement of Greg Funfgeld, Artistic Director and Conductor Emeritus, who ended his career with The Choir after 39 seasons.
Dr. Jackson is a specialist in choral conducting with expertise in early music, performance practice, and community engagement. He is currently the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Muhlenberg College, where he teaches and conducts several ensembles. He is a member of Skylark Vocal Ensemble, a professional choral ensemble where he also serves as Director of Education, and The Thirteen, a Washington D.C. based choral ensemble. Dr. Jackson was the Conductor and Co-Founder of the Lycoming Baroque Choir and Orchestra where he conducted works by Bach and others. Over the course of his career, he has led international choir tours on several continents.
In addition to his work as both an ensemble and solo vocalist, Dr. Jackson has been a conducting fellow at Norfolk Festival (Yale Institute of Sacred Music) and at Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. He is a member of Chorus America, National Collegiate Choral Organizations, Early Music America and American Choral Directors Association.
Dr. Jackson received his BA in voice performance from Oklahoma State University, and his Master in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College, and his doctorate in choral conducting from the University of North Texas.
Board President Harold Black commented, “We were encouraged by the number and the quality of applicants for the position. Chris Jackson was a standout from the start. He made a very favorable impression on our choristers young and old as well as our orchestra members. He received an enthusiastic recommendation from the committee, which the Board endorsed. Besides his musical talents, Chris displayed a deep understanding of our mission, our community, and the culture of our organization. He shares our commitment to the legacy built by Greg Funfgeld. We are excited about our future with Chris as our artistic leader.”
Leela Breithaupt, The Bach Choir’s Executive Director, is also looking forward to welcoming Chris. “The Bach Choir is enormously fortunate to have Dr. Chris Jackson as our 7th Artistic Director and Conductor. Our search spanned several countries, and we are delighted to have found Dr. Jackson in our own backyard. He brings not only an outstanding conducting craft, musicality, and leadership, but also his intimate knowledge of the Lehigh Valley and The Bach Choir’s unique place in history and the world. We are excited to embark on our journey into the future under the baton of such a gifted and communicative artist.”
The international search for an artistic director and conductor began in October 2019, under the direction of Board member Dr. Larry Lipkis and Board President, Harold Black. The search was interrupted for several months when COVID emerged in March, 2020 but was completed earlier this year as finalists were invited to visit Bethlehem and perform with The Choir and Orchestra.
Bach at Noon
Initiated in 2005, this free concert series, designed as a community and economic development initiative, educates new audiences about Bach’s music. It includes seven performances at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem and three summer concerts at St. John’s Lutheran Church in downtown Allentown. Dr. Christopher Jackson introduces each program with an engaging, informal talk. Bach at Noon has been a phenomenal success attracting audiences of all ages totaling more than 8,000 a year. A frequent response from audience members is, “This is such a blessing!”
Bach at Noon welcomes back our in-person audience to our performances in the 2023-2024 season.
Bach at Noon concerts will are broadcast by WWFM, the Classical Network. This award-winning classical music station is listener supported, and has offered a number of Bach Choir concerts in previous seasons. We’re delighted that they’ll be sharing our joyous Bach at Noon concerts with listeners near and far each month!
Bach at Noon Broadcast Live! – Listen online at WWFM.org or tune in to WWFM on any of the broadcast stations listed on the chart and enjoy!
Gala Anniversary Concert, LIVE CD Recording & Fundraiser
PLAN TO JOIN US FOR THIS WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE!
The Bach Choir invites you to attend the world premiere performance and live recording of Felix Mendelssohn’s version of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, in celebration of our 125th Anniversary.
Led by Artistic Director and Conductor Christopher Jackson, our Bach Choir singers, Bach Festival Orchestra and national soloists will perform this work, the first published scholarly edition of this composition. Music Scholar Malcolm Bruno, a luminary in the realm of early music ensembles and choir recordings, asserts that ‘There is no better choir for this project than The Bach Choir of Bethlehem.’
We agree that this is a fitting way for America’s oldest Bach Choir to celebrate this milestone anniversary, marking yet another “first” for The Bach Choir and for the world of classical music! Don’t miss your chance to be part of this significant musical premiere!
Saturday, November 4, 2023 at Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University
Concert – 3:00PM; Doors open at 2:30pm
Christmas Concerts
The Choir’s long tradition of offering Christmas music concerts began with the first complete performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in the United States in 1901. Since then, the Choir has continued to bring Bach’s music, along with the sacred Christmas music of other composers, including more contemporary pieces, to the community with its annual December concerts in Allentown and Bethlehem.
Family Concerts
Noah’s Flood (Noyes Fludde) masks, created by the students who played our Ark of animals in our 2020 Greg Funfgeld Family Concert.
Initiated in 2000, the annual Greg Funfgeld Family Concerts are imaginative, collaborative, interactive concerts that feature professional and student artists in the fields of music, dance, theater, visual arts, and poetry, performing with the full Bach Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra.
For many parents, the Greg Funfgeld Family Concert offers the perfect opportunity to introduce their children to Bach, classical music and a live performance.
Spring Concerts
Welcoming the spring and celebrating the sacred Easter season with the music of J.S. Bach has been a long been a tradition of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Centerpieces of these performances over the years have included Bach’s Jesu, meine Freude and The Passion According to Saint John, along with the works of more contemporary composers including Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten and Morten Lauridsen.
116th Bethlehem Bach Festival
Our largest event of the year takes place in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on the campus of Lehigh University and on the historic grounds of the Moravian community. The Festival is a glorious tradition treasured by thousands of people from throughout the United States and beyond since the American premiere of Bach’s monumental Mass at the first Bethlehem Bach Festival in 1900. The Festival is presented each year over two weekends in May, and includes guest artists-in-residence, featured young musicians, lectures and chorale sings with the audience.
