(Click photo to watch video from News Center Maine 207, June 2025)
News
The Eternal Bach: celebrating Bach and beyond at New York’s Bach Virtuosi Festival
The Bach Virtuosi Festival, founded and directed by violinist, conductor, and pedagogue Lewis Kaplan, launched its New York concert series on 14 May 2024. Bringing this festival, which began in Portland, Maine in 2016, to New York has been Kaplan’s desire for several years. The Portland festival will continue with its ninth season from 19-25 […]
Concert review: Tradition comes out on top in dueling Bach festivals
Returning musicians from the original event give Bach Virtuosi Festival the edge over Portland Bach Experience The battle of the Bach festivals in Portland entered its second round Sunday evening, when Lewis Kaplan raised the curtain on his Bach Virtuosi Festival, just hours after Emily Isaacson’s Portland Bach Experience concluded its run. Kaplan had started […]
Interview on Spectrum TV
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s involvement in Brotherhood/Sisterhood, the opening night production of the 2020 Bach Virtuosi Festival, was featured on NY-1 Spectrum TV. More than 825,000 people watch NY-1 each week and their stories are repeated multiple times per day. Below is the video. We story of Brotherhood/Sisterhood is about the larger role that classical music […]
Q&A with Countertenor Jay Carter
It has been a busy autumn for countertenor Jay Carter. He has continued teaching and mentoring his undergraduate students at William Jewell College, as well as touring and performing a considerable amount. We caught up with Jay to ask him a few questions. Bach Virtuosi Festival: Tell us about a few of your performances and […]
Q&A with violinist Renee Jolles
I am thrilled to perform in Portland for the third summer at the Bach festival. Johann Sebastian Bach is one of my favorite composers, and I am delighted to play his music with so many talented musicians each summer. The audiences that we play for every year are kind, respectful and cultured; it’s clear that […]
Boston Globe calls Bach Virtuosi Festival ‘can’t miss classical event’ of the summer
The Bach Virtuosi Festival is included in the Boston Globe’s Summer Arts Preview: Classical Critic’s Picks, “From Bach to ‘The Barber of Seville,’ 10 Can’t Miss Classical Events“ “For the third year in a row, Portland becomes a destination for all things Bach and Baroque in June. Cantatas, concertos, and cello suites featuring some of […]
A video interview with countertenor Jay Carter and soprano Sherezade Panthaki
We continue our Videos with the Virtuosi series with soprano Sherezade Panthaki and countertenor Jay Carter, two singers who are beloved by our Portland audience because of their exquisite performances last summer. In part one of our candid interview, Sherry and Jay share their feelings about Bach, Handel, and the acoustics at St. Luke’s Cathedral. […]
The passion of playing Bach, a video interview with flutist Emi Ferguson
We spent a few minutes speaking with flutist Emi Ferguson about playing Bach and what she is most looking forward to at this summer’s Bach Virtuosi Festival. Emi shared with us her passion for playing Johann Sebastian Bach and added historical facts about when Bach first composed music for the flute. Her energy clearly comes […]
A video interview with trumpet player John Thiessen
Virtuoso Conversation: John Ferrillo, First Oboe of the Boston Symphony
John Ferrillo is a consummate musician, he has a sensitive ear and a warm style. His musical ideas are clear and persuasive and in chamber music these are great attributes. He has a major role in the concert on June 2, playing and leading the Sinfonia from Bach’s Easter Oratorio. He joins an all star cast […]
Four Questions for Henry Kramer
Bach Virtuosi Festival: Share with us details about upcoming performances and tours in 2018. Henry Kramer: I am very excited to be performing piano with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Robert Moody on January 30. I will also be making my Philadelphia recital debut through Astral Artists in March, an appearance on Yale’s Horowitz […]
Q&A with soprano Sherezade Panthaki
How wonderful it is to be invited back to gorgeous Portland, Maine, for a summer Bach festival, celebrating the music of my all-time favorite composer! I’m delighted to have met such warm, engaged audiences last summer; it’s clear that this beautiful city attracts people that are passionate about supporting a world-class Bach Festival, and the […]
Video with the Virtuosi – Tenor Brian Giebler
As a part of our ongoing series, Videos with the Virtuosi, we sat down with tenor Brian Giebler to discuss Handel’s Messiah from Trinity Wall Street (with members of BVF), performing Bach for the Portland audience, and the world-renowned musicians of the Bach Virtuosi Festival. Brian Giebler performed at the 2019 Bach Virtuosi Festival.
Concert review: Bach’s breadth, secular and sacred, on display at Maine festival’s opening program
A top-flight ensemble of Baroque music specialists demonstrates their ample strengths. It’s tempting to think of June as Bach season in Maine, thanks largely to a pair of festivals: the Bach Virtuosi Festival, which got underway Sunday evening at the Cathedral of St. Luke’s, and runs through Sunday, and the Portland Bach Experience, which runs […]