Bach Weeks 2012 in Thuringia focus on "Reformation and Music"

Photo: ekd/SchoelzelDresdner Kammerchor.From March 30th until April 22nd, the Bach Weeks 2012 in Thuringia offer 51 events in 13 locations all over the Free State. Christoph Drescher, managing director of the board of trustees in Erfurt, said that the focus of the festival will be given by the theme year "Reformation and Music" of the Evangelical Church in Germany. For the first time, the program will also include lectures and a symposium.

The opening of the event in Eisenach, Johann Sebastian Bach's birthplace, will include a cantata church service, a performance of St. Matthew Passion and a panel discussion about Bach and church music. Ilse Junkermann, Bishop of central Germany, Petra Bahr, Cultural Commissioner of the Evangelical Church in Germany, and Martin Petzold, Chairman of the Neue Bachgesellschaft (New Bach Society), have been announced as participants in the panel, which will be held in the Bachhaus. The symposium at the end of the program will highlight Martin Luther's understanding of music.

Internationally renowned musicians

Participants include the Scottish ensemble "Dunedin Consort", conducted by John Butt, the vocal ensemble "Sette Voci" with Peter Kooij, the "Hamburger Ratsmusik" and Herrman Max with the Rheinische Kantorei. The lutenist and conductor Luca Pianca will come to Thuringia with his "Ensemble Claudiana" and soloists of the boy's choir "Wiener Sängerknaben". Amongst the soloists are the internationally renowned viola da gamba player Jordi Savall and the pianist Ragna Schirmer.

For the first time, the Bach Weeks will be guests in the Reformation city Schmalkalden in Southern Thuringia, as well as in Jena. The organisers expect altogether 15,000 visitors from the whole of Germany and Europe.