2022-2023 BachTalks
Join Sonoma Bach's community of musicians for a series of virtual and in-person talks interwoven with our season,
Bach's World. Come with your questions for a lively evening with choir & audience members.
Join Sonoma Bach's community of musicians for a series of virtual and in-person talks interwoven with our season,
Bach's World. Come with your questions for a lively evening with choir & audience members.
BachTalk: Season Introduction with Bob Worth
Thursday, October 6th, 2022 at 7:00PM
Join Sonoma Bach music director, Bob Worth
to discuss Sonoma Bach's coming season, Bach's World.
Thursday, October 6th, 2022 at 7:00PM
Join Sonoma Bach music director, Bob Worth
to discuss Sonoma Bach's coming season, Bach's World.
BachTalk: A Well Tempered Heart
How Bach's keyboard works offers a musical prescription for
balance and wholeness in a crazy world
with Kayleen Asbo
Thursday, November 10th at 7:00PM
J.S. Bach had an extraordinary capacity for joy, love and vitality in the face of perpetual loss and trauma. How was he able to not just endure grief, but alchemize and transmute sorrow? In this lecture-demonstration, Dr. Kayleen Asbo will explore how Bach, in the tradition of Pythagorean philosophy, "tuned" his heart to a life of order, balance and harmony by embracing the "tension of the opposites".
How Bach's keyboard works offers a musical prescription for
balance and wholeness in a crazy world
with Kayleen Asbo
Thursday, November 10th at 7:00PM
J.S. Bach had an extraordinary capacity for joy, love and vitality in the face of perpetual loss and trauma. How was he able to not just endure grief, but alchemize and transmute sorrow? In this lecture-demonstration, Dr. Kayleen Asbo will explore how Bach, in the tradition of Pythagorean philosophy, "tuned" his heart to a life of order, balance and harmony by embracing the "tension of the opposites".
Kayleen Asbo, Ph.D is a cultural historian, composer and pianist who has been a pre-concert lecturer and historian for the Santa Rosa Symphony and the San Francisco Opera and in pre-pandemic years taught much-lauded classes on the intersection of psychology and music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and for the Osher Lifelong Learning Programs at UC Berkeley, Sonoma State and Dominican University. Now directing an international online educational program and performing primarily in Europe, this will be one of Dr. Asbo's only Sonoma County appearances for 2022-2023
Virtual BachTalk with Anne Laver
Understanding the Orgelbüchlein
Thursday, January 12th at 7:00PM
How did the Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book") get its name? What's in it? Why did Bach embark on this composition project and why did he abandon it before finishing? What makes this collection special?
Organist Anne Laver will provide the answers to these questions and more in an informal introduction to this time-honored collection of organ chorales that Bach composed during his time in Weimar. Dr. Laver will also provide insight into some of the Orgelbüchlein chorales that will be featured in her concert with Circa 1600 on Saturday, January 21 at 3pm.
Anne Laver is Assistant Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music. Her performance activities have taken her across the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, Central America, and Africa, and collaborating with Sonoma Bach is always an annual highlight. Her research interests center around organ concerts at the U.S. world's fairs and Bach reception in the long nineteenth century.
Understanding the Orgelbüchlein
Thursday, January 12th at 7:00PM
How did the Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book") get its name? What's in it? Why did Bach embark on this composition project and why did he abandon it before finishing? What makes this collection special?
Organist Anne Laver will provide the answers to these questions and more in an informal introduction to this time-honored collection of organ chorales that Bach composed during his time in Weimar. Dr. Laver will also provide insight into some of the Orgelbüchlein chorales that will be featured in her concert with Circa 1600 on Saturday, January 21 at 3pm.
Anne Laver is Assistant Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music. Her performance activities have taken her across the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, Central America, and Africa, and collaborating with Sonoma Bach is always an annual highlight. Her research interests center around organ concerts at the U.S. world's fairs and Bach reception in the long nineteenth century.
Bach the Borrower with Bob Worth
Thursday, March 23rd, 2022 at 7:00PM
It’s easy to imagine the genius Johann Sebastian Bach churning out piece after piece from his
own musical imagination, without reference to earlier music. But this was not at all the way in
which he operated. Bach took his place in a long line of borrowers, appropriating tunes and ideas
and approaches and even entire pieces and adapting them to his own purposes. Was this stealing?
Certainly it wasn’t conceived as such at the time. Rather, good ideas and musical resources of
high quality were used as a kind of patrimony by most composers.
In ‘Bach the Borrower’ we’ll take a look at Bach’s borrowing, scrutinizing scores and listening
to recordings to tease out the ways in which he employed earlier music to enrich his own
compositions. We’ll find that, though Bach undoubtedly developed a wealth of absolutely
original ideas and approaches, he was also glad to stand on the shoulders of his predecessors as
he created his art. Please join us for this fun and fascinating virtual session!
Thursday, March 23rd, 2022 at 7:00PM
It’s easy to imagine the genius Johann Sebastian Bach churning out piece after piece from his
own musical imagination, without reference to earlier music. But this was not at all the way in
which he operated. Bach took his place in a long line of borrowers, appropriating tunes and ideas
and approaches and even entire pieces and adapting them to his own purposes. Was this stealing?
Certainly it wasn’t conceived as such at the time. Rather, good ideas and musical resources of
high quality were used as a kind of patrimony by most composers.
In ‘Bach the Borrower’ we’ll take a look at Bach’s borrowing, scrutinizing scores and listening
to recordings to tease out the ways in which he employed earlier music to enrich his own
compositions. We’ll find that, though Bach undoubtedly developed a wealth of absolutely
original ideas and approaches, he was also glad to stand on the shoulders of his predecessors as
he created his art. Please join us for this fun and fascinating virtual session!
Bach Through the Years with Dan Solter
Thursday, May 25th, 2022 at 7:00PM
Thursday, May 25th, 2022 at 7:00PM