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The Bach Institute

Pamela Dellal, Director; Ryan Turner, Associate Director

The Bach Institute, with public events throughout each performance season, provides engagement with Bach’s music through presentations and participatory activities. We are creating and sharing a trove of resources specific to the varied interests of music professionals, amateurs, aficionados, and anyone curious about what Bach’s music may offer to today’s listeners.

Livestream EventsSeason-Long EventsMeet the 2025 FellowsPrevious Seasons
January Intensive 2025: Bach and Society
January 8-19, 2025
A photo of Ryan Turner conductingMeet the 2025 FellowsMeet BI Fellows from past seasons
The Bach Institute January 2025 Intensive takes an important leap forward with its proposed focus on "Bach and Society." The Institute seeks to engage members of Emmanuel and Boston's wider community by exploring the message in Bach's music and its power to challenge and transform our lives. Bach's cantatas speak vividly and poignantly about the human condition; our aspirations, our failings, and how to create right relationship to God and to our neighbor. This year's Bach Institute will explore how a just society might work from the perspective of the cantata literature.
During the BI January Intensive we invite a group of auditioned talented young musicians for a 10-day exploration of Bach's marvelous cantata repertoire, including lectures, masterclasses, open rehearsals, and stimulating conversations. Bach's music is fully alive at Emmanuel Music; come watch us play in our living laboratory, testing and examining sound, text, and structure to discover the underlying messages in the music.

Bach Institute 2025
Public Events

A performance from Emmanuel's weekly cantata series
Open Cantata Rehearsal
Saturday, January 11th, 2025 at 11:30am and 1:00pm
Register Here
Grab a front row seat to see how the weekly cantata performance comes together in just one rehearsal. Listen to Artistic Director Ryan Turner and guests discuss the musical intricacies of the cantata they are preparing.

11:30am: Cantata Open Rehearsal: John Harbison conducts BWV 123
1:00pm: Conversation: John Harbison discuss the week's cantata

Members of the public are welcome to bring a bag lunch to the talk at 1:00pm.
Choir performing
Cantata Presentation BWV 123
John Harbison, conductor
Sunday, January 12th, 2025 at 10:00am
Livestream Here
Cantata presentation as part of the Sunday morning church service at Emmanuel Church.
Headshot of violinist Adrian Anantawan
Conversation
Pamela Dellal, Ryan Turner, and
Adrian Anantawan
Bach and Society (I)
Monday, January 13th, 2025 at 7:00pm
Register HereLivestream Here
Pam, Ryan, and violinist and Artistic Director of Shelter Music Adrian Anantawan will conduct a stimulating discussion on how Bach addresses the ways in which people interact with each other and how a just society might work from the perspective of the cantata literature.
A photo of The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Conversation
‍Rev. Pamela Werntz, Ecclesia Ministries, and Artists from the Common Art Program
Bach and Society (II)
Wednesday, January 15th, 2025 at 7:00pm
Register HereLivestream Here
A photo of Heidi Braun
Master Class
led by guest faculty
‍Heidi Braun-Hill, violin
featuring the Bach Institute Fellows
Thursday, January 16th, 2025 at 7:00pm
Register HereLivestream Here
Ryan Turner conducting an orchestra
Open Cantata Rehearsal
Saturday, January 18th, 2025 at 11:30am and 1:00pm
Register HereLivestream Here
Grab a front row seat to see how the weekly cantata performance comes together in just one rehearsal. Listen to Artistic Director Ryan Turner and guests discuss the musical intricacies of the cantata they are preparing.
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11:30am: Cantata Open Rehearsal: Ryan Turner conducts BWV 72
1:00 pm: Conversation: Ryan Turner and Pamela Dellal discusses the week's cantata
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Members of the public are welcome to bring a bag lunch to the talk at 1:00pm.
Ryan Turner conducting an orchestra
Cantata Presentation
Ryan Turner conducts BWV 72
featuring the Bach Institute Fellows
Sunday, January 19th, 2025 at 10:00am
Livestream Here
Cantata presentation as part of the Sunday morning church service at Emmanuel Church.
Ryan Turner conducting an orchestra
Showcase Concert featuring Bach Institute fellows
Sunday, January 19th, 2025 at 7:00pm
Register HereLivestream Here
At the culmination of the Bach Institute, the Fellows present a full evening concert featuring all the repertoire they have studied during the workshop. In accordance with the 2025 theme of “Bach and Society” the repertoire will focus on arias that explore how people care for, or abuse, each other; how community can be fostered, and what right relationship with God and with each other can look like through the lens of cantata literature. The concert will conclude with a full performance of BWV 10, Meine Seele erhebt den Herren, also known as the German Magnificat.
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Additionally, the Showcase concert will feature works created in collaboration with Ecclesia Ministries and their Common Art program. Three artists will present their works in response to Bach, focusing on the impact the music has on the daily lives and struggles of people in our present day.
Bach 52: Creating Accessibility
January 7, 2024
conversation between Nicholas Phan and Pamela Dellal

Nick and Pam have a wide-ranging conversation about Bach's impact on listeners, performers, and the world; how the Bach Institute is working to bring the practice and interpretation of Bach cantatas to a new generation of musicians, and why Bach still matters.

Season-Long Events

A photo of a cantata performance
Cantata Conversations
Saturdays
10:00am-11:30am – conversations in the Emmanuel Room
11:30am-12:30pm – open rehearsals in the sanctuary
Stand-alone conversations examining the cantata of the week led by Pamela Dellal and other members of our community. We will listen to excerpts from the cantata and discuss specific examples of Bach's masterful use of this musical form. After our conversation you are invited to listen in on the orchestra and chorus’ Saturday rehearsal.
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Fall 2024 Conversation Dates
11/2 - BWV 77  Sign Up!
11/9 - BWV 60  Sign Up!
11/16 - BWV 26  Sign Up!