Young virtuosos in the Valley aren’t shy about striking the right notes. “The bar keeps being raised,” says Mary Kay Adams, executive director of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. On May 5 at 3 p.m., eight teenagers will take the spotlight in Eastern Mennonite University’s Martin Chapel, for the Young Artists’ Recital, sponsored by the festival. “Over time, a ...More
A grant of $12,000 from the E. Rhodes and Leon B. Carpenter Foundation will help bring five gifted performers to the 21st annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, June 9-16, 2013. “Through the grant we were able to secure Veronica Chapman-Smith, Kenneth Gayle, Heidi Kurtz, Grant Youngblood and Naoko Takao as part of our concerts,” said ...More
A German Bach specialist once observed that the music of Johann Sebastian Bach can be played successfully on modern or on period instruments, “but what you can’t recreate is the audience of the time.” Ken J. Nafziger, artistic director and conductor for the Shenandoah Valley Bach Fes ...More
Over 300 years may have passed since Johann Sebastian Bach swept a stage in Germany, but the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival will stir its strings and winds for the 20th year in Harrisonburg on June 10-17. Executive Director Mary Kay Adams calls the annual festival “an enhancement of the cultural fab ...More
The works of Mozart, Hummel, Haydn, Loewe and others will be on display Sunday, May 6, at 3 p.m. in Martin Chapel, as 11 local students showcase their talents in a young artists’ recital on the campus of Eastern Mennonite University (EMU). The program, sponsored by the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, will “give the community an opportunity to reco ...More
A program connecting the organ works of Johan Sebastian Bach and the vocal arrangements of Negro spirituals will create “a spiritual connection spanning the genres,” March 21, at 7 p.m., in Trinity Episcopal Church, Staunton, Va. The program will feature organist, Marvin Mills, and American soprano, Marlissa Hudson. The duo will alternate between solo organ works and addition ...More
“Great music. Great musicians. Nourishment for the soul.” Artistic director and conductor Kenneth J. Nafziger made these promises to the audience at the start of the 19th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. In keeping with Nafziger’s comments, the June 12-19 festival at Eastern Mennonite University featured works by Bach and Mozart, energetic vocal and instrumental performances ...More
It’s a match made in musical heaven. Two classical giants will meet on the Lehman Auditorium stage at Eastern Mennonite University, not to compete against but to complement each other at the 19th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, June 12-19, 2011. The glorious works of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus ...More
The near-capacity crowds that filled Lehman Auditorium were treated to the soaring harmonies that filled the air at the 18th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. Versatile musician John McCutcheon com ...More
A concert to benefit one of the area’s premier cultural events, the annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, will be held 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, at the Bridgewater Church of the Brethren, 420 Coll ...More
