News
72nd Annual Whittier College Johann Sebastian Bach Festival
March 9, 2009 Press Release
Whittier College's 72nd Annual Johann Sebastian Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach festival west of the Mississippi, will highlight the music of Bach for the violin with a slate of concerts and lectures that will take place over the course of a five-day celebration, March 20-24. The festival will feature Whittier College alumnus and noted Bach scholar Ray Erickson '63, local performing group Chorale Bel Canto, and other musical guest artists.
All events, unless otherwise noted, will take place in the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts, Whittier College, 6760 Painter Ave., Whittier, CA 90608. For additional information, directions, or to purchase tickets, please call (562) 907-4203, or visit online, www.shannoncenter.org.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, March 20, noon. Our annual Bach Musicale will take place in Whittier College's Memorial Chapel, 13406 E. Philadelphia St., Whittier, CA 90608. Students will perform music by Bach and his contemporaries. Admission is free.
• Saturday, March 21 — Johann Sebastian Bach and the Violin
1 p.m.
Lecture — Bach and the Violin: An Introduction
This lecture, illustrated with visual and musical examples, will describe Bach's personal relationship to the violin and viola as well as to leading virtuosi of his time. The reception of his solo string music will be traced from his own time to the present.
Raymond Erickson '63, Lecturer
Ellie Kang, Violin
2:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Bach Masterclass
Haroutune Bedalian, Violin
Ellie Kang, Violin
Adriana Zoppo, Baroque Violin
Admission to Lecture and Master Class: $10 General, $5 Student.
6:30 p.m.
Lecture — Bach's Ciaccona for Solo Violin, BWV 1004/5: Challenging the Performance Tradition.
The Ciaccona from the Partita #2 in d minor for unaccompanied violin is perhaps the most challenging single work to be mastered by the professional violinist. In this lecture, the standard performance approach utilizing great flexibility of tempo stemming from the 19th century revival of Bach's work is challenged. The challenge is based on the notion that the title itself is imprecise and possibly misleading as is the case in many instances of Bach's stylized dance movements. Instead the work is viewed in the context of French baroque theatrical passacaille, while also combining the Italian love of brilliant variations and the German tradition of polyphonic writing.
Raymond Erickson '63, Lecturer
Ellie Kang, Violin
8:00 p.m.
Formal Concert — Unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas for Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach
Sonata #1 in g minor BWV 1001 — Ellie Kang, Violin
Partita #3 in E major BWV 1006 — Adriana Zoppo, Baroque Violin
Partita #2 in d minor BWV 1004 — Haroutune Bedalian, Violin
Admission to Lecture and Recital: $15 General, $5 Student.
• Sunday, March 22, 4p.m. Chorale Bel Canto conducted by Stephen Gothold will present First Brandenburg Concerto, Cantatas 8 and 78, and Komm, Jesu, Komm. Tickets are $25 general at the door, $20 general pre-sale, $5 students.
• Tuesday, March 24, 7:30 p.m. The festival will close with a Bach Chamber Music Concert featuring Whittier College music department faculty and friends performing works by Bach and his contemporaries. Admission $10 general, $5 students. This event will take place in the Whittier College Memorial Chapel.
Guest Artists
Haroutune Bedelian
Since winning the First Prize at age twenty in the prestigious BBC Violin Competition, Bedelian has performed, broadcast and televised in major cities and concert halls around the world. He is also invited regularly to participate in international music festivals. In 2007, Bedelian issued on DVD the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. This is the first time these works appear in their entirety on DVD. In 2009 Centaur Records issued on CD the above works with the 1853 piano accompaniment by Robert Schumann. Before his appointment at the University of California, Irvine, he was professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music, London, England. "Mr. Bedelian has an unforced silvery tone and showed his musicianship in his immaculate phrasing,†The Strad Magazine.
Raymond Erickson '63
Raymond Erickson combines the credentials of a professional keyboardist with those of an active scholar. As a pianist and harpsichordist, he has concertized all over the US and in Europe. One of the nation's most experienced teachers of historical performance practices, Erickson has in recent years focused on the music of Bach, giving lectures and master classes on Bach interpretation at The Juilliard School, Austria's Mozarteum, The Ohio State University, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), the Whittier College Bach Festival, the Longy School of Music, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and elsewhere. He has directed thirteen interdisciplinary Summer Institutes for College Teachers. Two of his four books are outgrowths of these Institutes: Schubert's Vienna (Yale University Press, 1997) and the forthcoming The Worlds of J.S. Bach (Amadeus Press); the latter will be dedicated to the memory of his inspirational teacher, Margaretha Lohmann, founder of the Whittier College Bach Festival.
Ellie Kang
Raised in Chicago, violinist Ellie Kang, has performed internationally as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. She was a soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center, New York, in South Africa with the KwaZulu-natal Philharmonic Orchestra and also with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Kang has appeared on PBS, performing live, in more than 35 major cities and states. Winner of the Harvey E. Mittenthal Competition, Kang was also active as a member of the Sienna Piano Trio. She participated in the Steinway Young Artists Concert Series and has given solo recitals in Boston, New York, Chicago, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China. She is on faculty at Queens College of CUNY, and Saint David's School and is the director of the violin program at the Alexander Robertson School.
Adriana Zoppo
A native of Los Angeles, Adriana Zoppo performs professionally on violin, viola, baroque violin, baroque viola, and the unusual and rarely heard viola d'amore. She plays with the original instrument ensemble Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, and is the baroque violinist for the period ensemble the Los Angeles Baroque Players. A member of the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra for several years, she has served on the faculty of the Maud Powell Festival as baroque violin performer and teacher and plays currently for the annual Corona del Mar Baroque Festival. In addition to performing regularly in the string sections of the Santa Barbara Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Long Beach Opera, and Los Angeles Master Chorale, Zoppo plays frequently for film and television, solo artist recordings, and live shows encompassing musical styles from classical to jazz.
Founded by Quakers in 1887, Whittier College is an independent, four-year college offering a traditional liberal arts program integrated with both professional and pre-professional courses of study. With an emphasis on diversity, community, and curricular innovation, the College's primary mission is to endow students with the education, skills, and values appropriate for global leadership and service. Whittier College is a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI).
Whittier Law School, which is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, is located on a separate campus in Orange County.
