The internationally renowned Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) and the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance are pleased to announce the 2023 lineup of concerts and artists. The upcoming season, which runs June 30 through July 16, continues the long-standing tradition of presenting the finest choral-orchestral works, extraordinary new music, illuminating lectures and captivating community events. The Festival will be held in Eugene, with events at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, historic Beall Concert Hall on the University of Oregon campus and local churches.
The 2023 Festival invites audiences to awaken the Musical Wanderlust inside us all. Concerts and events will transport listeners across time and space, while honoring the passage of time and celebrating the musical movement of water, land and air.
“Imaginative and spontaneous” (The New York Times) Dutch conductor Jos van Veldhoven opens the Festival with Bach’s joyous and transformative “Magnificat.” The concert also features movements from Telemann’s celebratory nautical oratorio, “Hamburg Admiralty Music.”
The musical expedition continues with a pilgrimage along the legendary Camino de Santiago, as Grammy-winner Craig Hella Johnson and the OBF Chorus present Jody Talbot’s Path of Miracles. Eric Jacobsen returns to OBF with Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony, depicting the day-long ascent of an alpine mountain and the OBF Period Orchestra explores Vivaldi’s wildly popular The Four Seasons and Haydn’s “The Clock” Symphony, led by Marc Destrubé.
Two iconic OBF legacy projects will mark their 25th anniversaries in 2023. The Krzysztof Penderecki Credo – commissioned by the Festival and premiered in 1998 – went on to win a Grammy Award for Oregon Bach Festival. Anna Sułkowska-Migoń will conduct the “silver anniversary” performance, bringing her award-winning talent and “energetic charm” (Le Monde) to the podium. Additionally, the Festival’s flagship youth education program – Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy – joins forces with more than two decades of SFYCA alumni to celebrate its milestone with an appearance on the Credo concert and its annual stand-alone event.
Closing night of OBF 2023 features the “terrifically gifted” (South Florida Classical Review) New Zealand conductor Gemma New and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony.
Saturday nights will offer crossover events from contemporary artists. Brubeck Brothers Quartet brings the spontaneous spirit of jazz, funk and blues to Eugene, while genre-defying Time For Three will meet audiences at the intersection of Americana, modern pop and classical music during the Festival’s final weekend.
A flurry of incredible guest artists join the 2023 Festival, including a performance of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier from Juno Award-winner, Angela Hewitt and a Liederabend concert from the “exquisite” (The New York Times) soprano, Susanna Phillips. Grammy-winner Paul Jacobs returns and the Festival will partner with Chamber Music Northwest for two concerts, including Schubert’s Swan Song and “An Evening with Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien.” The Festival is also thrilled to be part of the farewell tour of “America’s greatest quartet,” (Time Magazine) Emerson String Quartet.
The Festival schedule rounds-out with performances from the elite Berwick Academy for Historically Informed Performance and Organ Institute.
Additional artists and events will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets go on sale to the general public in late April, with the annual Friends of the Festival Exclusive Presale beginning in mid-March. More information can be found at OregonBachFestival.org.
Oregon Bach Festival has presented the masterworks of J.S. Bach and composers inspired by his work, to audiences in Eugene and throughout the State of Oregon for more than five decades. In addition to traditional choral-orchestral masterworks, the Festival also presents internationally renowned guest artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Pink Martini and Joshua Bell and offers educational opportunities, children and family programing and community events.
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon’s flagship public university. The UO School of Music and Dance presents more than 300 concerts and events during the academic year featuring scholars, guest artists, faculty artists and student ensembles. The wealth of concert material ranges from contemporary dance to African dance, early and classical music to contemporary music, world music and jazz.