Tafelmusik will present A Bach Celebration, a program curated by Ivars Taurins, Director of Tafelmusik´s Chamber Choir. The concerts celebrating the works of J.S. Bach take place March 12 to 15.
Ivars Taurins is a violinist, composer, and professor at the University of Toronto who has made Bach and his genius the focus of his career. He has spent four decades listening and studying Bach’s more than 200 cantatas.
For the concert, he has hand picked rarely performed music that he felt deserved to be heard. It’s a chance to hear Bach’s genius in the field of sacred music that goes beyond the usual and most popular pieces.
“When you explore Bach’s cantatas, you discover an inexhaustible well of invention,” says Ivars Taurins in a statement. “I wanted to create a program that feels like walking through a gallery of Bach’s imagination. Unexpected, revelatory, and deeply moving.”
The Program
The program includes a selection of movements from Bach’s cantatas that showcase the breadth of his talents with the form, from the vibrant trumpet and timpani of Cantata 11 to the intensity of Cantata 127. They include:
- Chorus: Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen (Cantata 11)
- Tenor chorale/recitative: Die Welt sucht Ehr und Ruhm (Cantata 94)
- Chorus: Du sollt Gott (Cantata 77)
- Soprano aria: Die Seele ruht (Cantata 127)
- Chorus: Es erhub sich ein Streit (Cantata 19)
- Tenor aria: Die schäumenden Wellen (Cantata 81)
- Chorale: Wer hofft in Gott (Cantata 109.6)
- Soprano chorale: Ich, dein betrübtes Kind (Cantata 199)
- Chorus: Du wollest dem Feinde (Cantata 71)
- Chorus: O ewiges Feuer (Cantata 34)
- Chorus: Sei Lob und Ehr (Cantata 117)
- Chorus: Jesu, der du meine Seele & Tenor aria: Das Blut, so meine Schuld (Cantata 78)
- Recitative: Wohl aber uns (Cantata 130)
- Soprano aria: Wie zittern und wanken & Chorale: Nun, ich weiß (Cantata 105)
- Gloria in excelsis Deo (Cantata 191) — Chorus: Gloria in excelsis Deo; Duet: Gloria patri; Chorus: Et in saecula saeculorum
Soloists
Two vocal soloists join Tafelmusik’s orchestra and choir for the concert.
Myriam Leblanc, soprano
Québecoise soprano Myriam Leblanc returns to Tafelmusik and Toronto after her well received performances in Handel’s Messiah and Choral Splendours.
She is a former member of the Atelier lyrique of Montreal Opera, and has been a guest soloist of the Montreal Symphonic Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Tafelmusik, Trois-Rivières Symphonic Orchestra, Québec Symphonic Orchestra, Saskatoon Symphonic Orchestra and Metropolitain Orchestra, among others.
Myriam specializes in oratorios and concerts, and her repertoire includes classical and early music, along with bel canto opera. She has won several prizes for her work, including first prize and Audience Choice Award at the Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestra Competition, an Audience Choice Award in the Center Stage competition of the Canadian Opera Company, the excellence grant awarded annually by the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, and first prize at the Mathieu Duguay Early Music Competition at the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival in 2017.
James Reese, tenor
Grammy Award-winning tenor James Reese is also returning to Tafelmusik. He made his debut with the orchestra in 2023.
James earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. He is a graduate of the Yale University’s School of Music, where he won the 2018 Margot Fassler Award for the Performance of Music. James studied at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music, and earned his Master’s degree. He also won the Career Advancement Award from the Musical Fund Society, which recognizes “especially promising young artists”.
James is a specialist in early repertoire as well as an advocate for new music. As a recording artist, he won a GRAMMY award as a soloist singing the music of Edie Hill on the record Born, released by The Crossing. He also appears as a soloist on several discs released on the Hyperion Label.
The Concert
“Ivars has hand-picked stunning selections from Bach’s cantatas, and curated a program that explores a remarkable range of human emotion,” says Cristina Zacharias, Artistic Co-Director of Tafelmusik.
“We invite you to join us in a powerful journey into one of the greatest musical minds, in the intimate setting and beautiful acoustic of Jeanne Lamon Hall.”
The concerts take place March 12 to 15 in Jeanne Lamon Hall at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.
- Find tickets and show details [HERE].
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