Looking for something interesting to do Saturday? Head on over to Staunton for a day of music by one of the most influential composers ever. WMRA’s Kimberlea Daggy reports.
He’s the original GOAT – greatest of all time. Johannes Brahms said to study his music, and there you will find everything. And Albert Schweitzer said that nothing comes from him, everything merely leads to him. He is Johann Sebastian Bach, and on Saturday in Staunton, the Heifetz Institute presents their annual Bach marathon, Bach-Around-The-Clock. The day-long celebration kicks off at 9 in the morning and runs all day long, highlighting many aspects of Bach’s music. Last year, the institute hired a new Artistic Director, violinist Nicholas Kitchen. He’ll play throughout the day, and he popped into the WMRA studio to talk about the composer known as the master of masters.
NICHOLAS KITCHEN: Bach encompassed everything. It’s like he personally mapped the genome. That thoroughness has a timeless quality. It’s not a sense of progress. It’s just that his thoroughness allowed everything to be touched on.
And talk about everything – Saturday’s marathon highlights the gamut of Bach’s music, from cantatas to solo instrumental works, including organ, harpsichord and even banjo! Musicians have known that studying Bach’s music is so much more than learning the notes.
KITCHEN: Anybody that got serious about music in anytime since Bach has been alive knew that studying his music was going to lead them to some of the greatest truths about music.
Those truths will be revealed through Bach’s organ music, concertos, cantatas and sonatas. It’s the Heifetz Institute’s Bach-Around-The-Clock all day on Saturday at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Staunton.
