Singer

Celebrate the 300th anniversary of the creation of this masterwork!

The great Passions of J. S. Bach remain unparalleled in their dramatic impact and universally experienced emotional effects. Bach took the genre to new worlds of expression, incorporating new Italianate operatic elements with the Lutheran tradition of sung chorales. The result is a powerful force of rhetoric that tells the Passion story reinforced by personalized illuminations.

This is music that transcends cultural, religious, and theatrical boundaries between performers and audience members, drawing in listeners as historical participants. Maestro Thomas, one of the Baroque music world’s most celebrated Bach specialists, brings his unique and insightful perspectives to the podium in definitive performances that are profoundly beautiful and moving.

EPSG:4326

Saint John Passion 300th Anniversary

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

Saint Mark's Episcopal Church

Davis Community Church

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church

No other Bay Area performances come close to offering the visual, aural, and emotional qualities that have made ABS’s Messiah in Grace Cathedral so superlative. Featuring a stellar cast of vocal soloists, American Bach’s annual tradition of performing Handel’s Messiah in San Francisco’s historic Grace Cathedral perennially provides a treasured December holiday event to capacity audiences.

Handel's Messiah in Grace Cathedral

Grace Cathedral

In this special abridged evening performance, perfect for the whole family, you’ll hear the Christmas portion (Part I) of Handel’s Messiah along with music of the season by Baroque composers including Michel Richard de Lalande and Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The finely tuned voices of the American Bach Choir and the polished sheen of sonorities brought by ABS’s period-instrument orchestra soar within the majestic interior of San Francisco’s Nob Hill landmark. Together with the best highlights of Handel's peerless composition, ABS will perform Charpentier's Messe de Minuit (“Midnight Mass”), one of the most treasured Christmas compositions from the Parisian Baroque.

A Baroque Christmas 4545

From the rich legacy of psalm settings, our season finale juxtaposes music from the Jewish and Christian traditions. In convertendo (Psalm 126) from the operatic master Jean-Philippe Rameau infuses the psalmist’s words with flair and passion, while companion pieces by Salamone Rossi and J. S. Bach infuse psalm texts with sonorous counterpoint.

Songs of Zion

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Richard Strauss began our season with his Rosenkavalier Suite and kicks off the final concert with his Fanfare for the Vienna Philharmonic.  One of their favorite composers, this short piece was composed and dedicated to the orchestra to begin the grand ball that raised funds for the musicians’ pension fund.  A triumphant work that announced the matron of the ball, it has been played every year since!  While we don’t have a ball, SOST is pleased to conclude this Anniversary season with a majestic fanfare, followed by the grandest of symphonic pieces, Carmina Burana.

Fanfare and Fortitude

Julie Rogers Theatre

The Early Baroque era of Italian music brought a zenith of dramatic and technical display in the hands of new generations of virtuoso singers and instrumentalists. Composers and performers united in their course of revealing new depths of expression, color, and theatrical effects through music that is immediately thrilling and enthralling.  From the delicate and spatial interplay of three violins in Marini’s Sonata in Ecco to the full-throated and lovelorn dramatic vocal works of Monteverdi — including two epic narratives from his Madrigals of Love and War — this is a program that moves from mystery to magic and from the sacred to the secular.  Headliner works are Isabella Leonarda’s entrancing Sonata XII, Monteverdi’s Magnificat a 6 from the Vespers of 1610, and the same composer’s powerfully arresting setting of Torquato Tasso’s Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. An ensemble of evocative ABS artists brings this passionate music to light in a program featuring vocal and violinistic fireworks. 

Steven Brennfleck

Tenor

Events

8 - 11 Mar, 2024

Saint John Passion 300th Anniversary · American Bach Soloists

14 - 15 Dec, 2023

Handel's Messiah in Grace Cathedral · American Bach Soloists

Dec 13, 2023

A Baroque Christmas 4545 · American Bach Soloists

May 13, 2023

Songs of Zion · Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Apr 1, 2023

Fanfare and Fortitude · Symphony of Southeast Texas

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