NEWS

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Announcing the Davidson Bach Festival: March 28-30, 2025

An inspiring and inventive weekend of music awaits local audiences at the upcoming Davidson Bach Festival running March 28-30, 2025. A collaborative effort between the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, the Davidson College Music Department, and Organ at Davidson, this four-concert event brings together many of our community’s most outstanding musicians to celebrate the life and legacy of iconic Baroque composer J.S. Bach.

“Why have a festival devoted to Bach? In Bach’s music we find everything: intellect, emotion, craft, skill, challenge, humanity, divinity, transcendence,” said festival organizer Jane Cain. “It touches every aspect of our spirit and allows us to soar. This festival ranges from a lighthearted cantata about coffee to the profundity of the pipe organ. It includes the first Davidson performance of the inimitable Goldberg Variations and glorious collaborative chamber music.”

Tickets for all performances and more information can be found at the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra website.

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EVENT INFORMATION

Bach Goldberg Variations: The Music Transcends the Medium
Friday, March 28 | 7:30 PM | Davidson College Presbyterian Church

Bach’s thirty variations for keyboard exhibit both his creativity and his craftsmanship. In a unique presentation of this seminal work, different variations will be performed by piano, harpsichord, and string trio. This event also marks the Davidson premiere of the complete Goldberg Variations.

The Coffee Cantata  Saturday, March 29 | 11:30 a.m. | Congregation House of Davidson College Presbyterian Church, 218 Concord Road.

Bach’s secular Coffee Cantata (BWV 211, Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht) is a 25-minute comic opera that satirizes 18th-century anxieties over coffee consumption. The plot revolves around Lieschen, a young woman whose love for coffee frustrates her stern father, Schlendrian, who attempts to curb her habit by threatening to withhold privileges.

Though she appears to concede, she cleverly ensures that any future husband will allow her to continue drinking coffee, highlighting the futility of her father’s efforts. So please, join us for a cup of coffee over this semi-staged performance by Davidson College Music Department students, directed by Renata Berlin, and members of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra.

Glorious Chamber Music of J. S. Bach Saturday, March 29 | 5:00 p.m. | Davidson College Presbyterian Church.

Join the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra Chamber Players for “Musical Gems of J.S. Bach,” featuring internationally renowned harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright performing Concerto #4 in A Major. The ensemble also brings exciting interpretations of Bach’s glorious trio sonatas and sonatas.

Organ at Davidson: Dr. Timothy Olsen Sunday, March 30 | 5:00 p.m. | Davidson College Presbyterian Church.

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, North Carolina. This event is free, with donations accepted to sustain the Organ at Davidson series, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary next season.