Boulder Bach Festival 2023

Schedule Of Events:

Saturday October 21, 2023

Boulder Bach Festival Transcendence: The Goldberg Variations with David Korevaar

Originally composed to entertain nights of insomnia, this is Bach's only work of its kind, a golden goblet of sonic nourishment.

The 43rd Season opening concert of Boulder Bach Festival features one of Colorado's favorite musicians, pianist David Korevaar. He presents an iconic work by J.S. Bach, the Goldberg Variations. This 70-minute sonic journey is performed without pause, transporting the audience through the many colors of variation on an extremely tender musical theme.

Korevaar's spectacular and unorthodox recording of the Goldberg Variations has received glowing reviews internationally. Hearing this work in the Gordon Gamm Performance Space at The Dairy offers the audience an up-close-and-personal experience with the artist, as if in a candlelit salon from another time. Calming lighting design by Craig Bushman invites the listener to enter the sound world of Korevaar, Bach, and the Baroque.

Buy Tickets

Sunday December 17, 2023

Boulder Bach Festival A Baroque Christmas:

One of the most adored works of music celebrating Christmas is approached with a fresh spirit by a collective of soloists and a chamber choir of Colorado's finest professional singers.

Boulder Bach Festival presents its CORE musical artists in a reimagined rendition of the Christmas portion from Handel's Messiah. The performance begins with two Christmastime a cappella works performed by chamber choir, and continues with a delightful and imaginative violin concerto written by Antonio Vivaldi, played with ornamentation and embellishments by Zachary Carrettin. Keith Barnhart's baroque guitar continuo playing adds rhythmic zest to the accompaniment.

BBF's 16-piece professional choir is joined by baroque string orchestra with harpsichord and chamber organ. This is a rare opportunity to hear the work performed without conductor by an ultra-communicative ensemble. Vocal soloists include Mara Riley, Sarah Moyer, Claire McCahan, Daniel Hutchings, and Adam Ewing; the soloists perform in the chamber choir as well.

Two years ago, BBF presented Carrettin's edition of this work with one-per-part instruments and voices, in an intimate "oratory" style. Retaining that approach overall, this time the riveting choruses will feature an expanded vocal ensemble, offering powerful verve and contrast to the arias.

Buy Tickets

Saturday February 10, 2024

Boulder Bach Festival Aequora: Mystery Sonata Performs New Music From Iceland

Icelandic composers Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Pall Ragnar Palsson, Daniel Bjarnason, and long-time Sigur Rós collaborator Maria Huld Markan Sigfusdottir create new worlds in sound, traveling beyond tradition and academic expectations in their art form. This performance features new work, much of which was composed specifically for the duo Mystery Sonata, comprised of pianist Mina Gajic and violinist Zachary Carrettin.

Projections of Iceland's natural beauty offer a visual context while sonic landscapes ebb and flow, utilizing contemporary techniques that explore harmonics, timbre, and the resonating structure of the piano. One of the works includes ambient electronica that interplays with the piano and violin, culminating in a heart wrenching melody that somehow exists beyond time and place, beyond pulse and tempo.

Buy Tickets

Thursday March 21, 2024

Boulder Bach Festival Old & New Dreams: Vadim Gluzman with Boulder Bach's CORE

The season finale of Boulder Bach Festival occurs on J.S. Bach's birthday and features one of the world's most famous violin soloists, Vadim Gluzman. Performing on his Stradivarius violin, Gluzman collaborates with BBF's CORE artists in a program that travels from Bach's Violin Concerto in A Minor to an intimate work of the French baroque. Navigating the waters of music history, Gluzman and the CORE ensemble then present a passacaglia by Arvo Pärt, one of the most profound composers of our time, whose works "Fratres" and "Spiegel im Spiegel" were performed by BBF at The Dairy last year. Finally, the ensemble gathers, and BBF Music Director Zachary Carrettin joins Vadim Gluzman for a wild and heartfelt rendition of Bach's much-adored Concerto for Two Violins.

In addition to a solo career in which his concerts frequently sell out all of the world's concert halls, from Carnegie Hall to Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, and Milan, Ukrainian-born Israeli violin virtuoso Vadim Gluzman offers a remarkable musical sensitivity and stylistic flexibility. This performance offers a view into the mind of one of the world's greatest living violin virtuosos, in a concerto/ensemble collaboration with some of our region's finest musical artists, Boulder Bach's CORE ensemble.

Buy Tickets

Date and Time:

Saturday October 21, 2023 : 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Sunday December 17, 2023 : 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Saturday February 10, 2024 : 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Thursday March 21, 2024 : 4:00pm to 5:30pm

Cost: $30-$65

Location: Gordon Gamm Theater, 2590 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80302

Click here for more information