Composer

Jubilant choirs in high church halls, hardly anything reminds us more vividly of the deeper meaning of Christmas: the birth of a child and the promise of a happy future. And so the NDR Vokalensemble groups its Christmas concert around Johann Sebastian Bach’s motto »Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied«. Bach has two choirs compete with each other in the praise of God. And the magnificent final fugue »Alles was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn« with its virtuoso colouratura really hardly gives the singers a chance to catch their breath.

EPSG:4326

NDR Vocal Ensemble / Heide Müller

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Deck the halls with Bach and the brilliance of the Baroque! Celebrate the season with the H+H Orchestra, Chorus, and Resident Conductor Scott Allen Jarrett as they bring you music that overflows with joy and “crackles with spirit” (The Arts Fuse). The holidays shine even brighter with jubilant works by the harmonious duo J.S. Bach and his cousin J.L. Bach, alongside the sparkling beauty of Graupner’s Magnificat.

Baroque Christmas

New England Conservatory of Music

CoCo's Christmas Concerts 2025: Bach cantatas for Christmas time with European star soloists

Concerto Copenhagen invites you to a Christmas concert with some of the most festive and magnificent Baroque has to offer. Together with four outstanding soloists from Europe's top ranks, the orchestra performs three of Johann Sebastian Bach's wonderful cantatas written for the Christmas season.

CoCo's Christmas Concerts 2025

Trinity Church, Copenhagen

Saint Olai Church

From the sparkling brilliance of Garth Edmundson’s Toccata-Prelude on Von Himmel Hoch to the lyrical charm of John Ireland’s The Holy Boy, this programme offers a rich mix of familiar melodies and imaginative interpretations.

Roger Sayer Organ Recital

Smith Square Hall

Johann Sebastian Bach: "Christmas Oratorio Parts I-III"

Church of St. Nicholas

Amid the holiday hustle, take a moment for a joyous and refined musical escape with the Handel Choir of Baltimore. Bask in the beauty of works by Bach and Mozart, perfectly paired with highlights from Handel's Messiah, in this elegant celebration of the season.

Classical Christmas

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

Bach’s genius is on full display in this monumental masterpiece, composed of six cantatas that recount the story of the Nativity. Its powerful arias rise like majestic columns, its intricate vocalizations act as finely sculpted ornaments, and its clarity illuminates the stained glass and brings the colours to life.

Christmas Oratorio

Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal

JS Bach: Christmas Oratorio with the Copenhagen Cantata Choir

Church of Holmen

The BoSy visits Dortmund

Konzerthaus Dortmund

For many, there is no more beautiful Advent tradition: a concert featuring Johann Sebastian Bach's "Christmas Oratorio." The Hamburg-based Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, with Julian Prégardien in the role of the narrating Evangelist and conductor Lionel Sow, who currently shapes the French choral scene like no other, brings this classic to the Elbphilharmonie and complements it with contemporary versions of traditional Christmas carols such as "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen."

Bach: Christmas Oratorio / Lionel Sow

Celebrate the season with a night full of timeless melodies and sonorous brass harmonies. Join members of the orchestra for a musical sleigh ride through the unforgettable holiday hit by Leroy Anderson, as well as Handel’s glorious Joy to the World, Anthony DiLorenzo’s adaptation of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, a mash-up of Hannukah staples, and more.

Holiday Brass

Walt Disney Concert Hall

A delightful collection of your favorite Christmas carols and light classics, including music by Johann Strauss, Bizet, Puccini, Mancini, Sousa and others. Soprano Kristin Vogel returns to celebrate the season with inspiring holiday songs and famous operatic arias. Acclaimed for her powerful lyric voice and onstage intensity, Soprano Kristin Vogel has been lauded for roles that require dramatic passion and sensitive musicality, such as Puccini’s Tosca, Mimi in La Bohème and Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Performing regularly in Europe and the United States, she divides her time between Vienna and the Pacific Northwest.

Holiday Pops

Edmonds Center For the Arts

Since 2010, chamber music ensembles of the Staatskapelle have been performing at the Bode Museum, a jewel of Berlin's museum landscape. Matinee concerts lasting just over an hour in the Gobelin Hall, with diverse programs that include music from the Baroque and Classical periods as well as works from the Romantic and Modern periods, can easily lead into further hours in the museum—for example, with a guided tour of the exhibition and the "Artwork of the Day," a private tour, or a culinary finale in the stylish museum café.

Museum Concert III

UNESCO Weltkulturerbe Museumsinsel

The sentiments expressed in the soprano’s opening aria – “Prepare the paths… Messiah approaches!”- will be quite familiar to British audiences in the Christmas period as it draws from the same biblical passage as the opening numbers of Handel’s Messiah. Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn! is a beautifully reflective piece designed to ready the faithful for the seasonal celebrations.

Bach, the Universe & Everything: December 2025

Kings Place

The festival prize winners of the SIGNUM saxophone quartet prove that saxophones can also sound extremely festive when they invite the audience, together with musical friends, to the finale of the festival winter and send them off into the Christmas season in high spirits after a potpourri of Baroque, Romantic and even pop music.

SIGNUMs for the festival

Schloss und Gut Ulrichshusen

Isaac Thomas + Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

He is the absolute superstar of the oboe, cor anglais, and oboe d'amore: Albrecht Mayer from Bamberg, principal oboe of the Berlin Philharmonic since 1992 and also a celebrated soloist and conductor, touring the world. He will be returning to us during Advent 2025. He will be bringing with him two beloved classics that are inextricably linked to Christmas: Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and music from Humperdinck's fairytale opera Hansel and Gretel . But it only becomes truly cozy and intimate when Albrecht Mayer plays his Bach arrangements—sometimes with choir participation: Christmas concerts couldn't be more beautiful, atmospheric, or festive!

Christmas With Albrecht Mayer

Meistersinger Hall

Concentus Musicus Wien im Musikverein

Musikverein Wien

Bochumer Symphoniker

Bach's Christmas Oratorio

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

One of the most enduring Christmas traditions is the Copenhagen Phil and Copenhagen Boys' Choir's performances of Bach's  Christmas Oratorio . So forget about gift shopping, Christmas stress and overeating for a few hours and instead join us in Bach's wondrous Christmas world.

Christmas Oratorio: Copenhagen Phil & Copenhagen Boys' Choir

Church of Our Lady Copenhagen

Brass concert

Mozarteum Foundation

Local favorites Steve and Allison Martin join HSO for festive selections from The Nutcracker, Leroy Anderson’s classic Sleigh Ride, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and some of the Martins’ favorite songs, including “The Prayer,” “O Holy Night,” and “Ave Maria.”  Rounding out the family-friendly concert will be the audience favorite “Christmas Singalong,” full of well-known holiday carols! Steve and Allison are well known in West Michigan, having sung on opera stages and musical productions locally and around the country.  Allison received her Masters of Music from Michigan State University.  Steve holds a doctorate and master’s in music from Michigan State University.  He has taught at the college level and is now Director of Music and Fine Arts at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas.

Home for the Holidays 2025 Matinee: Steve & Allison Martin

West Ottawa High School Performing Arts Center

CMS’s holiday tradition continues with the joyful and astonishingly varied Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. Virtually unknown until their publication in 1850, the Brandenburg Concertos are a defining demonstration of Bach’s mastery of Baroque music.

The Brandenburg Concertos

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Heavenly choirs, blaring trumpets and thundering timpani! Experience a grand and heartfelt Christmas atmosphere when the 100-year-old Radio Choir rounds off its anniversary year together with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and brilliant soloists in Johann Sebastian Bach’s timeless Christmas Oratorio under the direction of chief conductor Kaspars Putninš.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio part 1–3

Berwaldhallen

SR Berwaldhallen

Iveta Apkalna and Katrīna Paula Felsberga

Marienkirche, Neubrandenburg

Enjoy festive music from Mexico, Ukraine, Canada, South Africa, Estonia, as well as traditional Celtic favourites, in a kaleidoscopic programme showcasing the rich tapestry of global Christmas music.

Christmas Around the World

Bach, Beethoven and Brahmsare sometimes called the three big B's of classical music. In the past, this could result in three plaster busts, which stood a little wobbly lined up on a piano. In this program, we will hear music by all three.

Classic giants

Louis de Geer konsert & kongress

JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is one of the choral masterpieces of the Baroque era. Originally intended to be performed over six days between Christmas and Epiphany, Parts one, two, three and six explore the Birth of Jesus, the annunciation to the shepherds, and the adoration of the shepherds.

Saffron Hall

Christmas is a busy time for everyone – including a composer like Johann Sebastian Bach in the 1730s. Not only is he responsible for all the music in Leipzig's churches and for teaching the students at the associated school – he also has to write new music for the many holidays. And in the midst of a daily routine that would have caused most people stress in a single week, Bach writes some of the greatest masterpieces of Western civilization.

The Christmas Oratorio

Maribo Cathedral

St. Mary's Church Helsingør

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his Musikalisches Opfer in 1747. It is a series of intricate variations on a theme he had received from Frederick the Great of Prussia during a visit to Potsdam. Here we have chosen one of the many movements, in an orchestration by the composer Anton Webern.

Card classics: Beethoven's 5th

Linköping Konsert & Kongress

Celebrate the season with the glad musical tidings of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra’s beloved holiday concert, a favorite family event for music lovers of all ages. CUSO is joined by the University of Illinois Chamber Singers and Oratorio Society to perform Gloria of Francis Poulenc, a spectacular work for large chorus and full orchestra. The angelic voices of the Central Illinois Youth Chorus will be featured in music by John Williams from the film Home Alone. Uplifting songs of the season, a visit from Santa, and a sing-along of carols are sure to make spirits bright.

Good Tidings!

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

A long tradition of Christmas concerts connects the Regensburg Cathedral Choir and the Munich Radio Orchestra. And when the renowned lieder singer Benjamin Appl joins the choir, the former Cathedral Choir member meets "his" choir – the perfect setting for an atmospheric Wednesday evening with Christmas classics such as Peter Cornelius's "The Kings," the most beautiful excerpts from Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and many other heartfelt songs, choral pieces, and well-known melodies.

Christmas Classics

Prinzregententheater

Join the Newport Symphony in our annual celebration of Baroque music. Featuring the stunning talents of Hannah Brewer on the wonderful Bond Organ at First Presbyterian Church and our own Concertmaster, Casey Bozell, this is a not to be missed opportunity. Celebrate the season in our coastal home with the music of the Baroque masters as well as seasonal favorites.

Christmas at the Coast

First Presbyterian Church of Newport

True to tradition, the Copenhagen Bach Choir and Orchestra will perform JS Bach's Christmas Oratorio, which is an impressive musical version of the Christmas Gospel and is one of Bach's greatest works consisting of an alternation between recitatives, beautiful arias and beautiful choral movements. The work consists of a total of 6 cantatas - one for each of the 6 days of Christmas, and in this year's concert cantatas 1, 2 and 3 will be performed, which deal with the story of the birth of the baby Jesus, the shepherds in the field and all the well-known scenes from the Christmas Gospel.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio, parts I-III in Holmen's Church

JS Bach: Christmas Oratorio with the Copenhagen Bach Choir

No composer wrote more voluminously or skillfully for the voice than Johann Sebastian Bach, and this selection of chamber cantatas offers a gorgeous sampling of Bach’s vocal music, including his only cantatas in Italian. Caffeine dependency is not a recent trend, as shown in the satirical “Coffee Cantata,” in effect a short comic opera about a drink that was taking Europe by storm; the cantata, in which a father attempts to bribe his daughter to give up the tantalizing beverage, humorously mocks both the growing popularity of coffee and the feeling that the trendy drink was a bad habit.

Bach Cantatas

Freshly sworn in as Leipzig's Thomaskontor, Johann Sebastian Bach was full of energy in 1723, composing, among other works, the "Magnificat," a eulogy cantata for the Advent season for his new choir. Shortly after the annunciation by the angel Gabriel, Mary tells her cousin the good news of her pregnancy with the Savior. This message sounds especially joyful when Vox Luminis, an outstanding early music ensemble, is on stage.

Bach: Magnificat

The Baroque Orchestra Originalerne.org consists of professional musicians who specialize in playing historical instruments. This makes it possible to perform the work close to the sound that Bach intended.

Hellerup Church – JS Bach, Christmas Oratorio BWV 248, Parts I – III

Hellerup Kirke

Looking for a holiday celebration that showcases the remarkable artistry of two of Calgary’s finest musicians? Civic has a gift for you!

Baroque & Beyond

Arts Commons

One of the world’s most acclaimed violinists, Christian Tetzlaff, brings his “incisive brilliance and fierce elegance” (Chicago Tribune) to some of the most profound music ever written. The German virtuoso performs four of Bach’s revelatory works for solo violin, including the beloved Chaconne from Partita No. 2 — repertoire he has spent a lifetime exploring, recording, and performing in interpretations that “match Bach’s 18th-century ingenuity with passion and warmth in the here and now” (The New York Times).

Christian Tetzlaff, violin

Johns Hopkins University

In 2020, the La Crosse Symphony started filming all of their concerts. We have pulled pieces to create the LSO Film Collection which includes a pre-concert lecture from our very own Maestro Alexander Platt.

LSO Film Collection: Bach and Honegger

Rivoli Theatre

Making his debut, this astounding French accordionist has been described by Le Monde as having “a masterly technique and an inexhaustible wealth of phrasing.” Offering a tango-inspired program, Ould evinces his instrument’s rightful place in the classical repertory.

Théo Ould, accordion Union College

Union College

The Baroque era opened the door for the violin to emerge as a defining voice in music. This program features an all-star cast of CMS violinists performing thrilling solo roles in Baroque concertos, including Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, one of the earliest examples of program music. Linked to sonnets possibly written by Vivaldi himself, the works depict the seasons through musical suggestions of babbling brooks, thunder and lightning, blasts of winter wind, and birdsong.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Delight in an experience rich with elegance and virtuosic beauty! Bach’s graceful Third Orchestral Suite, Schumann’s heartfelt Piano Concerto featuring world-renowned pianist Yefim Bronfman, and Mozart’s joyful and exuberant “Jupiter” Symphony combine for a timeless and radiant musical experience full of warmth and connection.

Masterworks III: Schumann Piano Concerto

Adler Theatre

Moline High School

An extraordinary combination of sounds characterises this special concert evening: a clarinet, four saxophones and piano unite to form a fascinating ensemble that delights with sophisticated arrangements of classical dances and works by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Gershwin and other composers. Sabine Meyer, one of the world’s leading clarinettists, meets the renowned Alliage Quintet, which is known for its outstanding musicality and innovative programming. Together, they create a completely new world of sound that is characterised by both virtuosity and sensitive interpretation.

Sabine Meyer / Alloy Quintet

Beethoven’s late sonatas sit at the centre of this rich programme of masterpieces, not the least of which is the ricercar that Bach performed for Frederick the Great in Potsdam in 1747. “Old Bach of Leipzig” improvised on the King’s theme while using a newly developed fortepiano; the finished composition can thus lay claim to be the first major piano work.

James Lisney – A Musical Offering

The Stoller Hall

The Collegium Musicum performs music from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, with repertoire ranging from solo cantatas to madrigals, oratorios, operas, concertos, and other orchestral works. Recent concerts have included performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Handel’s Concerti Grossi, op. 3, Purcell’s King Arthur and The Fairy Queen, Lully’s Psyché and Thésée, Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo, Cavalli’s Ercole amante and La virtù de’ strali d’Amore, and Monteverdi’s Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi.

Collegium Musicum

Eastman School of Music

When one of Europe’s most renowned boys’ choirs, the famous Regensburger Domspatzen, presents a Christmas programme with one of the leading baritones of our time, Benjamin Appl, then visitors can look forward to the highest quality and a special Advent concert. Famous chorales and motets will be performed alongside particularly beautiful Christmas carols such as »Es ist ein Ros entsprungen« und »Adeste fideles«. The concert will be performed largely a cappella, i.e. without an orchestra, and will get the audience in Hamburg in the mood for Advent in a contemplative and festive way. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Regensburg Cathedral Choir / Benjamin Appl / Christian Heiss

Orchester Wiener Akademie

This artist is simply incredible! In recent years, Jaeden Izik-Dzurko has collected first prizes at international piano competitions like other people collect stamps. He won three in 2022, and two more in 2024 – and those are just the most important competitions. To say that the Canadian is a magnificent pianist seems almost an understatement: Up and down the country, the press and audiences praise his outstanding technique, the depth of his interpretations, and his charisma. We will be hearing more from Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, that's for sure. And soon, at ProArte: At the Elbphilharmonie, the pianist will present sophisticated and virtuosic works from Bach to Scriabin.

Discover Talent: Jaeden Izik-Dzurko / Piano Recital

For Johann Sebastian Bach, music ran in the family, and his sons created some of the innovative (and enjoyable) music of the 18th century. But for Tamara Stefanovich – a pianist who’s been described as “fearless, dazzling, exceptional” – there’s more than one side to every musical story, and today she reveals another, captivating side to the genius of Bach: western music’s most beautiful mind.

Steinway International Piano Series: Tamara Stefanovich

Bute Park

2nd Chamber Concert: Festive Music for Advent

Allerheiligen-Hofkirche

Antoine Tamestit : Chamber orchestra

Nur jedem das Seine (BWV 163) is the first of two cantatas composed in late 1715 for the court in Weimar, where Bach compiled the Brandenburg Concertos. (We will hear the second, Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn! (BWV 132), in December’s event.) At the time he was about a year into his employment there and the Court was just emerging from a period of mourning for Prince Johann Ernst, a keen and skilled musician. Speaking to the concerns of the court, the cantata takes as its inspiration the story of the Pharisees laying a trap for Jesus by questioning him about the legality of paying tax to Caesar.

Bach, the Universe & Everything: November 2025

Two figures stand side by side on this poster: the sovereign figure of Bach, with the galvanizing energy of the Brandenburg Concertos, and the kaleidoscopic figure of Schubert, whose precious material is seized upon by Berio's imagination. 

Orchestre de Paris / Masato Suzuki

Philharmonie de Paris

"The Art of Fugue" is, quite bluntly put, a collection of compositions on a theme whose possibilities are systematically explored. Here, Johann Sebastian Bach not only employs various types of fugues (simple fugue, counter-fugue, double fugue, triple fugue, mirror fugue, canon) and their traditional forms (inversion, augmentation, and reduction), but also other, more general musical means. Under Bach's hands, the project of a practical teaching tool attained an unexpected quality and, despite all its erudition, remains pure music of infectious vitality and typically Bachian expressiveness. 

True touchstones

In a beloved annual tradition, Gateway Chamber Orchestra ushers in the holiday season in collaboration with the Gateway Chorale, Clarksville Children’s Choir, and Madison Street United Methodist Church at Winterglow – a Baroque Celebration. This year’s winter baroque concert, led by GCO’s new Music Director Jacob Aaron Schnitzer, features timeless classics like Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major (you might know its famous “Air on the G String”) and Vivaldi’s Gloria. We celebrate our holiday cheer with the Clarksville Children’s Chorus, Madison Street’s glorious organ, and toy instruments… dare we say it… there will be fun for all.!

Winterglow – A Baroque Celebration

Madison Street United Methodist Church

Canadian pianist Tony Siqi Yun, Gold Medalist at the First China International Music Competition, performs works by Bach, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms at his Koerner Hall debut.

Mr. Yun has been hailed as a “poet of the keyboard” (Pianist Magazine) and The Philadelphia Inquirer noted his thrilling performance and “interpretive flashes that point to an emergent big personality: moments of grandness or deep expressivity.” He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2023-24 under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin with Orchestre Métropolitain, following his 2022-23 debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Yun has appeared recently with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Hamilton (ON) Philharmonic, and Rhode Island Philharmonic; outside North America, he has recently appeared with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Tony Siqi Yun, piano

The Royal Conservatory of Music

Getting up on a Sunday and enjoying Bach is the guarantee of a week that starts well. The musicians of the National are reunited with harpsichordist Jeanne Jourquin for the second part of their complete Brandenburg Concertos, which they began two seasons ago. We enjoy the Third and its false airs of Vivaldi, the Fourth , a violin concerto dotted with unexpected dialogues with the flutes, and the Sixth and last, a sublimation and quintessence of the concerto grosso .

National Sundays / Bach, Brandenburger

Maison de la Radio et de la Musique

Ashley Hall-Tighe is an internationally acclaimed trumpeter known for her warm tone, expressive artistry, and dynamic performances on stages from the Sydney Opera House to Beijing’s NCPA. A former touring member of Canadian Brass, she is a sought-after soloist, chamber musician, and educator.

Masterworks: Italian Impressions

Lenoir-Rhyne University

Sip in style at this chamber concert featuring a titan of classical music! This chamber concert features Bach's Coffee Cantata, a comedic piece for voice and strings that tells the story of a girl and her father arguing over love, life, and caffeine. Enjoy the humorous tale in an immersive environment, with coffee and pastries available. Fans of small ensembles and musical storytelling will especially love this program.

Coffee Cantata

Arts XL Center

The COP's second concert features a different set of the three B's!  We hope you enjoy these rarely played works by Britten and Barberas well as a favorite Bach Concerto performed by Amaury Morales.

The Other Three B's

Rodef Shalom Congregation

For those who love the violin, Judith Ingolffssohn plays and directs a program of double violin concertos with concert-master, Min-Young Kim, including Bach’s only concerto for two violins: Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043. It is, a work of remarkably expressive intensity. Double violin concertos by Schnittke, Vivaldi, and Handel complete the program.

Judith Ingolfsson Plays Bach

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Bach’s Third Orchestral Suite

Wooddale Church

Inspired by Bach’s ability to speak to our shared humanity, Yo-Yo Ma performs the six unaccompanied cello suites in a very special solo concert. Experience one of the greatest artists—and arts ambassadors—of our time, and celebrate music’s ability to inspire, uplift, and bring people together.

Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Boston Symphony Hall

Violinist Alexi Kenney returns to play and direct a compelling selection of Baroque and contemporary gems spanning several centuries. Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons lays out a sequence of scenes, all shaped by elemental forces: wind, rain, sunshine, and snow. Vivaldi creates an immersive sound-world complete with calling birds, murmuring streams, rustling leaves, barking dogs, lurching peasants, rolling thunder, chattering teeth. Any composer can simulate natural sounds and noises; Vivaldi makes us feel them. Rich in tunes and tonal contrasts, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos blend the sparkling refinement of the French suite and the lusty vigor of the Italian concerto grosso with the contrapuntal grandeur of German organ music. Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 features a dazzling dance between three virtuoso soloists—on flute, violin, and keyboard—and orchestra.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

San Francisco Symphony

A new take on Bach's Goldberg Variations: The Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich performs them in the sensitive arrangement for chamber orchestra by Józef Koffler, a Polish-Jewish composer whose career began very successfully. In the late 1920s, however, under the pressure of political developments, he stopped composing himself and orchestrated the works of others. He was assassinated in 1944, and to this day, his work remains little known. In the interplay of strings and woodwind, his orchestration explores new aspects of Bach's "Clavier Uebung": Baroque variation art meets the richness of sound of a small orchestra.

Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich

Blaibach Concert Hall

“Colors dance, moods swing, and Chen’s artistry blazes.” (The Times) 

“Ray Chen can do pretty much anything he wants on the violin.” (The Washington Post)

Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Ray Chen was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 15 and captured the world’s attention as First Prize winner of both the Yehudi Menuhin and Queen Elizabeth Competitions. Profiled as “one to watch” by The Strad and Gramophone magazines, his profile has grown to be featured in the Forbes list of 30 most influential Asians under 30, and appearances in the TV series Mozart in the Jungle. He plays the 1715 “Joachim” Stradivarius violin, once owned by the famed Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim.

Ray Chen, violin, with Julio Elizalde, piano

Cleverly conceived and unusual programs are Víkingur Ólafsson's trademark. Whether he's bringing Bach into conversation with Kurtág, Debussy with Rameau—or simply spending a whole season playing exclusively Bach's Goldberg Variations: When the Icelander sits at the piano, you can be sure of discovering new things and hearing familiar things in a completely new way.

Víkingur Ólafsson / Piano Recital

Chair of Historical Performance and Co-Director of SFCM Baroque Orchestra Corey Jamason is a Grammy-nominated harpsichordist whose playing of Bach was described in the Los Angeles Times as displaying "the careful, due balance of objective detachment and lofty passion."

Corey Jamason, Historical Performance

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Is there more perfectly formed Baroque music than Johann Sebastian Bach's "Goldberg Variations"? Numerous self-respecting pianists have attempted them. Glenn Gould twice. And most recently, Víkingur Ólafsson and Lang Lang, to name just a few. Named after the musician Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, born in Danzig in 1727, the 30 variations on a G major aria theme with a common bass melody are an absolute pinnacle of the art of variation, against which subsequent composers have always measured themselves. 

Goldberg Variations

GDA Göttingen

Reformed Church of Göttingen

This concert celebrates the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach, featuring the magnificent cantata, "Wachet auf!" (Sleepers Awake!), a beloved choral work build around the iconic melody that appears in numerous Christians hymnals. Paired with Clarice Assad's innovative Suite for Lower Strings, a contemporary composition that reimagines some of Bach's most popular themes through the unique voices of the lower string section, this program offers a fresh perspective on Bach's timeless music. The concert culminates with the chorale's uplifting rendition of Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium, a sublime tribute to the mysterious wonders.

Sleepers Awake

Mayo Civic Center

The always-evolving Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble features musicians from the legendary Met Orchestra in a variety of unique programs. Together, along with special guest artists from the Metropolitan Opera and beyond, they explore a boundless world of chamber music, adapting to fit the instrumental needs of any piece—from all-time classics to hard-to-find hidden gems and standout works by many of today’s significant composers. In this Sunday matinee, they perform one of J. S. Bach’s legendary Brandenburg concertos, plus inventive arrangements of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15.

The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble 2025 Concert 2

Carnegie Hall

Juno Award winner, UNESCO Ambassador, and alumnus of The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, Jan Lisiecki plays Preludes by Chopin, Bach, Messiaen, and Rachmaninov.

Composer

Johann Sebastian Bach

Events

Upcoming events

Feb 9, 2025 - Jan 11, 2026

3rd Chamber Concert · Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Sep 16, 2025 - Jun 16, 2026

NDR Chamber Concert · Elbphilharmonie

Sep 21, 2025 - May 10, 2026

Chamber Concert / Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra · Elbphilharmonie

Nov 10, 2025 - Feb 19, 2026

The Olympic Concert / Kit Armstrong / Jan Caeyers · Elbphilharmonie

18 - 21 Dec, 2025

CoCo's Christmas Concerts 2025 · Concerto Copenhagen

Past events

Dec 19, 2025

NDR Vocal Ensemble / Heide Müller · Elbphilharmonie

18 - 21 Dec, 2025

Baroque Christmas · Handel and Haydn Society

About

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