Davidson Bach Festival Celebrates Classical Music’s ‘Influencer’
March 26, 2025
Here at WDAV Classical Public Radio, we sort of have a thing for Johann Sebastian Bach. You’ll hear us play his work throughout the week. On top of that, Rachel Stewart serves up a heaping helping of the iconic Baroque composer and his contemporaries on Biscuits & Bach every Sunday from 7:00 to 11:00 a.m. So, we can’t think of a better way to spend a spring weekend than with three days of soul-restoring Bach performances. The North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, the Davidson College Music Department, and Organ at Davidson present the Davidson Bach Festival, March 28-30, 2025, at Davidson College Presbyterian Church in Davidson, NC.
The collaborative four-concert event will celebrate the life and legacy of the man who is arguably classical music’s greatest creator and innovator. J.S. Bach’s music exhibits the height of skill and craftsmanship, artistry and emotion. While his most active years were in the first half of the 18th Century, Bach’s influence has been heard and felt ever since. From countless composers who followed in his footsteps to the Beatles, Paul Simon, even to heavy metal and hip hop, Bach’s ideas and notes continue to stand the test of time. The Davidson Bach Festival will take us back to the wellspring.
Davidson Bach Festival Events and Information
Leading off the festival lineup is Bach’s Goldberg Variations: The Music Transcends the Medium on Friday, March 28, 7:30 p.m. at Davidson College Presbyterian Church. According to festival organizer Jane Cain, this performance is the Davidson premiere of the complete Goldberg Variations. Although this seminal work was written for keyboard, different variations will be performed by piano, harpsichord, and string trio. Friday, March 28, 7:30 p.m., Davidson College Presbyterian Church sanctuary (100 N. Main Street).
It’s a doubleheader on Saturday, March 29, beginning with Bach’s secular Coffee Cantata (BWV 211, Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht). The 25-minute comic opera pokes fun at an 18th-century father’s anxiety over his daughter’s excessive coffee consumption. (Starbucks was still 250 years away.) The semi-staged performance will feature Davidson College Music Department students, directed by Renata Berlin, and members of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra. Saturday, March 29, 11:30 a.m., Congregation House of Davidson College Presbyterian Church (218 Concord Road).
The Saturday schedule continues with the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra Chamber Players bringing us the Glorious Chamber Music of J. S. Bach. In addition to fresh interpretations of Bach’s sonatas and trio sonatas, this performance will also feature internationally renowned harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright performing Concerto No. 4 in A Major.
Saturday, March 29, 5:00 p.m., Davidson College Presbyterian Church sanctuary (100 N. Main Street).
Rounding out the festival on Sunday, March 30, is the Organ Music of Bach. Organ at Davidson presents Dr. Timothy Olsen, Kenan Professor of Organ at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Associate Professor of Organ at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC. Admission to this event is free, but donations will gladly be accepted in support of the Organ at Davidson series, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary next season. Sunday, March 30, 5:00 p.m., Davidson College Presbyterian Church sanctuary (100 N. Main Street). Tickets for the performances on March 28th and 29th are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and students, plus fees. You can buy your tickets and find more information at the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra website.