Friday, May 30
8 PM
Eastminster
United Church
(310 Danforth Ave)

Saturday, May 31
12 PM
Eastminster
United Church
(310 Danforth Ave)

Saturday, May 31
4 PM & 8 PM*
Church of the
Holy Trinity
(19 Trinity Square)
*Choose your time when purchasing your Festival Pass

Sunday, June 1
3 PM –New time
Eastminster
United Church
(310 Danforth Ave)

Sunday, June 1 • 12 PM –New time
Eastminster United Church
(310 Danforth Ave)

Friday, May 30 • 8 PM
Eastminster United Church
310 Danforth Ave

Directed by John Abberger

Experience the Brandenburg concertos in a dazzling new light!

Bach aficionados have long lamented the fact that the composer left us with only six Brandenburg concertos. To remedy this situation, we propose a “new” Brandenburg concerto, based on movements from the rich repertory of Bach’s cantatas, and fashioned to complement Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.

The program will open with this new concerto, and will also include Bach’s own reuse of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in a thrillingly intimate version for harpsichord, with our beloved Christopher Bagan as soloist. Another harpsichord concerto will be heard in its probable original form, as a soaring violin concerto, with Julia Wedman as soloist. And the program will conclude with the masterful Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 itself, a work which perfectly expresses the joy of Bach’s contrapuntal genius.

Featuring

Julia Wedman, violin
Patrick Jordan, viola
Matt Antal, viola
Christopher Bagan, harpsichord
The Toronto Bach Festival Orchestra

Programme

Brandenburg Concerto No. 12, after BWV 163, 80, and 18

Concerto in F Major for Harpsichord, BWV 1057
(Bach’s adaptation of Brandenburg 4)

Concerto in G minor for Violin and Strings, after BWV 1056

Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, BWV 1051

Saturday, May 31 • 12 PM
Eastminster United Church
310 Danforth Ave

A fascinating keyboard instrument from Bach’s personal collection.

Bach’s personal collection of keyboard instruments included an instrument known as a lautenwerk, but no examples of this instrument have survived into our time. The widely admired recitalist Dongsok Shin will perform on a reconstructed example of this instrument, which he will bring to Toronto for this special program. 

Mr. Shin is an expert on historical keyboards, and will also present a short lecture on the history of Bach and the lautenwerk. You won’t want to miss the moving intimacy of this fascinating instrument, not previously heard in Toronto.

Featuring

Dongsok Shin, lautenwerk

Programme To Include

Works for lute and harpsichord,
including Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro, BWV 998
and Sonata for oboe and harpsichord, BWV 1030a

Saturday, May 31
Two Performances: 4 PM & 8 PM
Church of the Holy Trinity
19 Trinity Square

Directed by John Abberger

A joyful cantata for a wedding, in a popular returning favourite!

Join us again for our acclaimed Kaffeehaus concert, as we continue to explore Bach’s secular vocal music, as well as instrumental gems by Bach and his contemporaries. The spacious acoustic of the Church of the Holy Trinity (by the CF Toronto Eaton Centre) will be transformed for our recreation of an 18th-century Leipzig coffee house.

The program will include Bach’s Wedding Cantata, a shining work filled with sunshine and optimism, featuring soprano Sinéad White. Acclaimed star of the Canadian stage and screen R.H. Thomson will once again preside as Herr Zimmerman, and dancer-creator Brian Solomon will add an exciting new element to the program.

The Kaffeehaus is proudly produced with the support of the City of Toronto through Toronto Arts Council.

Featuring

R.H. Thomson, actor
Brian Solomon, dancer
Mariana Medellín Canales, dancer
Sinéad White, soprano
The Toronto Bach Festival Orchestra

With Special Guests
Students from the Collegium Musicum, University of Toronto

Programme To Include

Chaconne from Violin Partita No. 2, BWV 1002
(Jeanne Lamon arrangement)

Wedding Cantata, BWV 202

Sunday, June 1  •  3 PM
Eastminster United Church
310 Danforth Ave

Directed by John Butt

A monumental work for the ages.

Among the great works composed by Bach, his setting of the passion drama in St. John’s account stands out as one of his choral masterpieces. Bach laboured over this monumental setting throughout his tenure in Leipzig, and experts now trace no fewer than four versions of the work. Our performance will present the second of these, with its striking differences from the version most often heard in concert. This version includes three new arias, as well as new versions of the opening and closing movements that Bach composed anew or extracted from previously composed works and placed here.

We are pleased to welcome back award-winning performer and noted Bach scholar John Butt as our special guest director for the St. John Passion.

Featuring

Ellen McAteer and Sinéad White, sopranos
Daniel Taylor and Nicholas Burns, altos
Charles Daniels and Shane Hanson, tenors
Jonathan Woody and Jesse Blumberg, basses
The Toronto Bach Festival Orchestra

Programme

St. John Passion, BWV 245.2 (1725 version)

Sunday, June 1  •  12 PM
Eastminster United Church
310 Danforth Ave

Presented by John Butt

In addition to directing the St. John Passion, John Butt will also present the annual lecture to examine and illuminate Bach’s creative process as he revised this great work, which survives in no fewer than four distinct versions.

Author of several books on the music of J.S. Bach, Mr. Butt is the director of Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort, a Principal Artist with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Gardiner Professor of Music at the University of Glasgow.

310 Danforth Ave, Toronto, ON

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Located on the north side of Danforth Ave, one block west of Chester Station (TTC). The main entrance is on Danforth Avenue. The accessible entrance is off Jackman Avenue, on the east side of the church.

19 Trinity Square, Toronto, ON

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Located just east of Bay St beside the Marriott Hotel and behind the Eaton Centre, a short walk from both Dundas Station and Queen Station (TTC). The accessible entrance is on the south side of the church opposite Trattoria Mercatto restaurant.