My first performances for 2025 are at the Sydney Festival with Bach Akademie Australia from 9-11 January. It’s one of my favourite times to be in Sydney - and in the height of what is usually a very warm summer I like to escape into the cool of the concert hall or theatre when I can!

The two performances are at Walsh Bay (The Nielsen, Pier 2/3 home of the ACO) and form part of a myriad of events being held at ‘The Wharf’ as part of the Festival.

From the Sydney Festival website

When Galileo’s father, Vincenzo, was composing in the 16th century, the heavens were thought to have their own music, audible to the soul. Even today, the ‘heavenly dance’ of the stars and planets evokes a sense of inevitable destiny, elegant precision and timeless mystery. Those same qualities can be heard in the intricate creations of Johann Sebastian Bach, and it’s one of the reasons his music continues to resonate. 

The music of Bach – perfect and universal – is the connecting thread in a compelling program that looks to the heavens for inspiration. Voices and instruments will dance and resound in music from the high Renaissance to our own time, from Europe to the Pacific and First Nations Australia – with the Morning Star as our guiding light.

It’s the kind of concert for which Madeleine Easton and the Bach Akademie Australia have become known: intellectually satisfying, emotionally rewarding and thrilling to the senses. 

PROGRAM

J.S. Bach Sinfonia and Chorus from ‘Himmelskönig, sei willkommen’ – Cantata, BWV 182 
Tomás Luis de Victoria O magnum mysterium 
J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue No.1 in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2
Vincenzo Galilei Highlights from ‘The Well-Tempered Lute’, arr. for string quartet
J.S. Bach Highlights from the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
James MacMillan O Radiant Dawn
Troy Russell Clans, arr. for solo violin
J.S. Bach Aria and Chorale from ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’ – Cantata, BWV 1 

I will be joining Bach Akademie Australia for a few projects across 2024 - my COVID-cancellation at the Sydney Festival not withstanding - and the first is this Cantata project with two concerts in Sydney: Paddington and Chatswood — April 12 & April 14

From the Bach Akademie Australia website

The Bach family spent their lives in service. After four generations of practicing musicians, J.S. Bach was no different. He was a passionate educator, pedagogue, school master and mentor to his own many children and those of the Thomasschule of which he was Cantor. With a strong social conscience, he composed music to enrich, instruct and inspire the lives of all. Bach Akademie Australia presents a program featuring Bach’s cantata ‘Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot’, dubbed the ‘refugee cantata’, thought to have welcomed the arrival into Germany of Protestant refugees banished from Salzburg.

Composed in Cöthen, his Harpsichord Concerto in E arranged for violin is a shining example of clever adaptation, which he used later in his career as a toolfor teaching his students. We end with his famous cantata ‘Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben’ BWV 147, which perfectly encapsulates Bach’s desire that our hearts, mouths, deeds and lives be in service to humanity and to God.

PROGRAM

J.S. Bach Cantata ‘Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot’ BWV 39

J.S. Bach Harpsichord Concerto in E arranged for Violin in D (after BWV 1053) arr. K. Debrezeni

J.S. Bach Cantata ‘Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben’ BWV 147

I’m delighted that my first engagement for 2024 is part of the Sydney Festival’s Temperament Series - a 5-day mini festival of J.S. Bach held at The Neilson, home of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

From the Sydney Festival website

TEMPERAMENT SERIES

JS Bach is a true avant-gardist. Temperament – a week-long celebration and deconstruction of Bach – pays homage to the revolutionary advances his music enabled and its influence on modern composers.

This series features an exceptional group of local and international artists and ensembles including Bach Akademie Australia, Korkmaz Can Sağlam, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Bukenya, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Benjamin Skepper and Ensemble Apex.

"Bach truly is the master of rhetoric and the Bach Akademie Australia the masters of persuasion and joy."

PROGRAM

Under violinist and founder Madeleine Easton, the ensemble's focus on mastery, authenticity and originality of interpretation makes it the ideal companion for the journey of Bach’s remarkable life, from beginning to end. Bach’s earliest cantata (his 'Actus Tragicus', circa 1708) is a perfect place to start, an introspective and innovative funeral cantata. In his splendid Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, written a decade later, we hear what is arguably the first ever keyboard concerto ever written. From Bach’s later life in Leipzig, comes his motet 'Lobet den Herrn’, one of his most joyful works, and his cantata 'Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats', a narrative of faith and hope in six captivating movements. Played in intimate, acoustically excellent surroundings, JS Bach: A Life in Music promises spiritual depth, instrumental brilliance and choral splendour.

TIMES

Tue 23rd Jan, 07:30pm

Wed 24th Jan, 02:00pm

TICKETS & INFO

In November I will join Bach Akademie Australia for their final program in 2023 (the only one I was available for!) which includes performances in Glenbrook, Chatswood, and the ‘flagship’ performance at City Recital Hall, Angel Place. Featuring some of the music I recently sang in the United States with the American Bach Soloists, it will be a fitting end to a big year of Bach for me personally.

Saturday 18 November, 7:30pm, Glenbrook

Sunday 19 November, 2:30pm, Chatswood

Thursday 23 November, 7:00pm, City Recital Hall

From the Bach Akademie Australia Website - where further details can be found

2023 brings us an opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest events in musical history, J.S. Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. As a result, a new era in music history began. For the next 27 years, the requirements of his appointment combined with his deep faith and desire to encourage faith in all others, inspired Bach to produce music of such staggering beauty, complexity and profundity that changed the course of music forever. These works, particularly the cantatas, are still performed and idolised around the world today, demonstrated by the more than 300 Bach choirs and societies that exist worldwide. To celebrate this momentous event, we have chosen 3 of his most celebrated Leipzig cantatas and his jubilant motet ‘Singet dem Herrn’. How can the works of Bach ever be adequately summed up? We will leave it to our international patron Sir John Eliot Gardiner ’But it is Bach, making music in the Castle of Heaven, who gives us the voice of God – in human form. He is the one who blazes a trail, showing us how to overcome our imperfections through the perfections of his music: to make divine things human and human things divine.’

PROGRAM

J.S. Bach Chorale Prelude ‘In Dulci
Jublio’ BWV 729

J.S. Bach Cantata ‘Unser mund sei voll
Lachens’ BWV 110

J.S. Bach Motet ‘Singet dem Herrn’
BWV 225
— Interval —
J.S. Bach Cantata ‘Jesu, der du meine
Seele’ BWV 78

J.S. Bach Cantata ‘Wachet auf’
BWV 140

Welcome to Baroquefest! Australia's boutique baroque music festival in the heart of central western New South Wales. 

We are proud to present Baroquefest 2023, celebrating the music of JS Bach with Bach Akademie Australia. Violinist and Director Madeleine Easton will lead you on a journey through the music of JS Bach from his first composition to his last; your Baroquefest will be rich in musical colour as you enjoy historic Canowindra, fine wine and cuisine!

“With thoughtful, well-researched performances and an elegantly constructed program, Easton and Bach Akademie Australia offered an opportunity to really dig down deep into Bach’s words and music – a profound and rewarding experience.” — Limelight Magazine

Bach Akademie Australia is dedicated to performing the works of J.S. Bach. It was established in late 2016 by Australian violinist Madeleine Easton who has recently returned after 19 years of living and working in Europe. Its aim is to enrich and enhance the musical life of Australia. The ensemble's focus on mastery of performance, authenticity and originality of interpretation brings the music of J.S. Bach to life. Bach Akademie Australia is also focused on forging close links with academic institutions around the country in order to establish educational and learning opportunities for young musicians.

I am very pleased to be joining Bach Akademie Australia for their final program in 2022 - and their first in the wonderful acoustic and high profile location of City Recital Hall, Angel Place.

Taken from the Bach Akademie Australia website:

There could be no better way to conclude our year than to present Monteverdi’s great mass of thanksgiving, written in the year 1631 after plague had once again ravaged Europe. Great art comes from great hardship, and in presenting this work, we acknowledge the great hardship we as the human race have collectively endured over the last two years of our lives. We give thanks to Monteverdi whose selfless act of composition has given us this heartfelt and consoling work. Part 1 of our program begins in Italy with Monteverdi, interposed with works by other titans of the Venetian Renaissance, Marini and Gabrieli. Part 2 takes us on a journey to Germany through the music of Heinrich Schütz, Monteverdi’s great pupil and teacher of J.S. Bach. We end the year with the one composer who is our greatest inspiration, and whose ability to console and bring joy surpasses all others. J.S. Bach’s mighty Christmas Cantata ‘Christen, ätzet diesen Tag’ BWV 63 is a true celebration of the spirit of Christmas and thanksgiving.

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Amongst all of Bach’s wonderful output, his more than 200 cantatas stand out as one of the greatest musical achievements of the human race. The vast majority of these masterworks are dedicated to the glory of God, but what we are perhaps less aware of is that Bach wrote a small but wonderful collection of cantatas for secular occasions. As few as 20 of these works survive, however they provide a wonderful insight into a composer who approached secular music with the same artistic integrity and demand for quality that we find in his sacred music. We present his much loved Wedding Cantata featuring the Australian soprano Susannah Lawergren, as well as his lesser known but haunting Funeral Cantata BWV 198. Artistic Director Madeleine Easton will then perform Bach’s reconstructed Violin Concerto in D major BWV 1053, finally ending with his marvellous satirical comedy, the Coffee Cantata sung by the renowned Australian baritone Simon Lobelson and soprano Chloe Lankshear.

Program

J.S. Bach Cantata ‘Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten’ Wedding Cantata BWV 202

J.S. Bach Cantata ‘Laß Fürstin laß noch einen Strahl’ Funeral Cantata BWV 198

—— interval ——

J.S. Bach Violin Concerto in D major BWV 1053

J.S. Bach Cantata 'Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht’ Coffee Cantata BWV 211

Location

Friday & Saturday 27-28 August, The Cell Block Theatre, National Arts School, cnr Burton St & Forbes St, Darlinghurst

Sunday 29 August, Church of Holy Name Parish, Wahroonga

Fri 26 March, 7:30pm (Paddington)

Sat 27 March, 2:00pm (Wahroonga)

Easter offers us an opportunity to both reflect and celebrate at this special time of year. In our first concert of 2021, we present a program of both reflection and celebration, starting with Bach’s early easter cantata ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ BWV 4.

For those who love the jubilant instrumental works of Bach, we present his lesser known reconstructed Triple Violin Concerto, a treat for lovers of the violin. The choir of Bach Akademie Australia will then shine in the vigorous energetic motet ‘Singet dem Herrn’ featuring a double choir. To crown our Easter celebration, we will perform Bach’s brilliant ‘Missa Brevis’ in A major, written in the last decade of his life. Containing only the Kyrie and Gloria, it is none the less a substantial work of genius meriting him with the title of one of the greatest composers who ever lived.

Program

J.S. Bach Cantata ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ BWV 4

J.S. Bach Triple Violin Concerto BWV 1064R

J.S. Bach Motet ‘Singet dem Herrn’ BWV 225

—— interval ——

J.S. Bach Missa Brevis in A BWV 234