Baroque jams

Provided photo The Bach Fest String Quartet performs at Rio Vista Winery.

Lake Chelan Bach Fest

Live season planned for its 40th year

In 1981, Lake Chelan United Methodist Church had a new organ and church members were looking for a way to celebrate. They got together and produced a cantata featuring the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The community was thrilled, and a group of committed individuals made plans to turn that summer performance of classical music into an annual display for the Chelan community and beyond.

As the Lake Chelan Bach Fest grew, it began to attract highly acclaimed musicians from further afield and gained national acclaim. It also expanded beyond Bach to other classical composers and to other genres of music, including jazz and pop.

The festival orchestra, the festival chorus and the string quartet developed into pillars of the festival.

The festival is still run by volunteers and supported by local fundraising efforts. The accomplishments of the past four decades merited a grand celebration, and before 2020 the Lake Chelan

Rich Uhlhorn photo A musician plays during a Lake Chelan Bach Fest show.

Provided photo The 2018 Pops in the Park concert drew a large crowd to the Chelan Riverwalk Park Pavilion.

Rich Uhlhorn photo A Bach Fest musician explains to a youngster how the bow is tightened.

Bach Fest board had its creative juices flowing with this in mind.

“We had great plans for what we were going to do,” said past board president Kerry Travers.

For a festival that typically spans 10 days and includes 22 events with nationally acclaimed musicians, the anniversary bash would certainly need to be big.

Then came the pandemic.

The group showed its flexibility and resilience by hosting a series of 12 virtual concerts in lieu of the 2020 festival.

This year, the board has planned a scaled-down season — July 10-17 — that will include 11 live outdoor performances and four virtual performances.

The outdoor performances will be held at Riverwalk Park and at local wineries. They will feature a smaller group of musicians than the 100 that normally gather in Chelan for the festival.

The festival string quartet will perform evening concerts at area wineries. Participating wineries include Tunnel Hill, Tsillan Cellars, Hard Row to Hoe and Rio Vista.

There will be a live noon concert series Tuesday through Friday and a grand finale concert, called Pops in the Park, on July 17. The duo Tango Cowboys will perform July 16 in the park.

Virtual concerts will include a musical storytelling of Hansel and Gretel, a vocal soloist recital, a young musicians’ recital and a collage concert featuring the principal players of the Bach Fest orchestra.

For more information about Bach Fest and the concert schedule, see the website at bachfest.org. F

2021

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