About the Lexington Bach Festival
The Festival Orchestra returns to Lexington, Michigan this September for its 23rd Season.
Last fall, the Lexington Bach Festival was able to bring back the Festival Orchestra. Here's what we have in store for you this year.
The festival opens on Thursday in Port Huron's St. Clair County Community College with a varied program of music by Bach, Still and Beethoven performed by the Festival String Quartet. On Friday, the festival features music for violin and piano performed my Kurt Nikkanen and Maria Asteriadou. Nikkanen is the concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra at Lincoln Center and performs as a soloist around the world. Maria Asteriadou is renowned as one of Greece's finist pianists with an international career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. They will join the Festival Orchestra in a double concerto by Mendelssohn on Sunday afternoon. Nikannen will be the featured soloist for Saturday night in Piazzolla's famous work for Violin and orchestra, Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The Festival Orchestra will present works by Haydn, Mozart, and JS Bach.
Join us for the twenty-third year celebrating the music of Bach in Lexington: September 14 - 17, 2023!
Located 80 miles north of Detroit, the village of Lexington is in the Blue Water Thumb Region of Michigan. Each year the Lexington Bach Festival offers residents and visitors to "the first resort north" great music by Johann Sebastian Bach and composers influenced by his works.
The Lexington Bach Festival was founded by violinist, teacher, and musical force of nature, Julia Kurtyka in 2000. Working with Lexington Arts Council, and Festival leadership of Lee Jones, she engaged Don Th. Jaeger as its first music and artistic director. Don Th. Jaeger led the festival for fifteen years, collaborating with artists as diverse as Jazz musician, Chris Brubeck; Concert Violinist, Caroline Goulding and Concertmaster of four major orchestras, William Preucil. When Julia Kurtyka passed away in 2011, her work was continued by Denice Turck and Kay DeLuca. Their devotion to continuing this festival was met with support and cooperation from the Lexington Arts Council. In 2014, Maestro Jaeger stepped down from the position of music director of the Lexington Bach Festival, and John Thomas Dodson was named as his successor.
One of the most unique elements of this music festival is the degree to which it is ingrained into the community of Lexington. The musicians are guests of the community, housed in their homes and celebrated for bringing their gifts of music to enhance the quality of life of the Lexington residents. This special bond with the community has developed into a defining characteristic of the Lexington Bach Festival. Concerts are well attended, the musicians are respected as visiting artists, and individuals. Patrons, local businesses and the Lexington Arts Council continue to provide the annual financial support necessary to make the festival a success.