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Courtesy the Oregon Bach Festival Oregon Bach Festival conductor and founder Helmuth Rilling is releasing 160 CDs of interpretations of Bach’s work. Oregon Bach Festival vows to stun all music aficionados By Rory Carroll Oregon Daily Emerald For many students, summer in Eugene connotes long, laid-back days in the depopulated metrop olis. What many don’t realize is that Eugene is the epicenter of the world-renowned Oregon Bach Festival, a gala that has gained in ternational attention for its achievement and excellence. Begun in 1970 by organist and conductor Helmuth Rilling as a week-long collection of perform ances and workshops, the festival has blossomed into an interna tional event that expects to top its record 30,000-plus audience from last year. This year’s festival is celebrat ing the 250-year anniversary of Jo hann Sebastian Bach’s death with the most ambitious event yet. From June 23 through July 9, the Hult Center for the Performing Arts and Beall Concert Hall will honor Bach’s memory with per formances by nationally known conductors, including Rilling, Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Fred Sjoberg. This year’s crowd will be treat ed to performances from a variety of musical styles, including sever al international choirs that will fly to Eugene to perform at the fes tival. The choirs’ project is called “International Voices: A Bridge to the Future.” The key components to the project include the world premiers of a traditional song from each choirs’ homeland by a native composer. These com posers will be on hand for the per formance, which will take place on the opening night of the festi val Friday. The primary reason that the fes tival focuses on Bach is because Rilling, the artistic director, is from Germany and is one of the world’s specialists in the interpre tation of Bach’s music, according to H. Royce Saltzman, Executive Director for the Bach Festival. Rilling is releasing 160 CDs of interpretations of Bach’s work on the German label Htinssler Classic, which will be distributed in the BMG record club catalog, opening its market to millions worldwide. While the festival emphasizes Bach, it is not only interested only in Bach. Saltzman said that there will also be performances of Mendelssohn and Beethoven. “The thread that goes through the tapestry you might say is Bach,” Saltzman said. George Evano, Director of Com munications for the 30-year-old festival, said that the theme of this year’s gala is Music Beyond Boundaries. “If there is any composer whose music is beyond any con strictions or restriction of a time period, it’s Bach,” Evano said. According to Saltzman, the ver satility of Bach’s music is what has kept it popular. “Bach’s music has been pretty much universal,” Evano said. Evano said that his relatively recent addition to the marketing staff has been an easy transition because the festival has been a success since its inception in 1970 and has enjoyed incremen tal growth, particularly in the past 5 years. “When I came here it was a pretty mature organization, so it had reached the level of populari ty that was pretty high for an arts group,” Evano said. This year’s festival sets out to top last year’s festival by adding more events. “This year is the most ambi tious festival since I’ve been here. There are almost 50 events,” Evano said. “It will be a much larger final attendance because it’s program-driven.” While the festival is legally an entity of the University music school, in reality it is a self-sup ported arts organization. Bach Festival coordinators raise monev from sponsors and donors to flourish. Last year, the festival had ticket buyers from 30 states and private donations from more than 20 states. “At the heart of the festival, ed ucation has always been at its core,” Scott Barkhurst, director of publicity for the school of music, said. The festival sprung from summer classes at the music school. On a trip to Germany, Saltzman met Rilling and invited him to Eugene to teach. “The thing grew incremental ly,” Barkhurst said, and added that education has remained at the festival’s nucleus. Many media outlets have picked up on the festival’s re markable development. The Los Angeles Times, The San Francis co Examiner and The Washington Post have all given nods to the Eu gene-based Bach Festival. Evano said that the 250th an niversary is a good time to reflect on how central a figure Bach is in music. “While other composers from his time period like Vivaldi or Handel, when music people Courtesy Oregon Bach Festival Thomas Quasthoff think of them they think, ‘That’s Baroque music,’” Evano said. “But to the Romantic composers a century later, he was just as wild and an inspiration to them. And then to the composers of the ear ly 20th century, he was this math ematical genius.” Sure to be a highlight of the fes tival will be the performance of “American Songbook” by Thomas Quasthoff on Sunday. His baritone voice lends itself beautifully to jazz interpretations of Bach’s work. Quasthoff will also perform on opening night along with the choirs who will band together un der the direction of Conductor Harth-Bedoya of the Eugene Sym phony for Beethoven’s “Sympho ny No. 9.” Get results with Oregon Daily Emerald Classifieds! 346-4343 1711 Willamette (next to Blockbuster) 343-3330 Little Caesars MEDIUM PEPPERONI E PIZZA Tune in to UO Today! THE OREGON HUMANITIES CENTER PRESENTS A 30 MINUTE WEEKLY TELEVISION SHOW THAT TAKES YOU INSIDE THE UNIVERSITY. Humanities Center Director Steven Shankman interviews faculty, staff, and visiting lecturers about their research and interests. UPCOMING PROGRAMS: June 28, 2000 July 5, 2000 July 12, 2000 July 19, 2000 July 26, 2000 Aug. 2, 2000 Aug. 9, 2000 Aug. 16, 2000 Aug. 23, 2000 Aug. 30, 2000 Sept. 6, 2000 Sept. 13, 2000 Sept. 20, 2000 Marjorie Taylor, Psychology Dianne Dugaw, English/Folklore Tsianina Lomawaima and the Museum of Natural History Exhibit on Indian Schools George Sheridan & Evlyn Gould, European Studies Milagro Vargas, Voice and Music Steve Larson, Music Theory Mia Tuan, Sociology Marion Goldman, Sociology Ehud Havazelet, Creative Writing David Bradley, Creative Writing Danzy Senna, Author/Lecturer Ghaffar Pourazar, Beijing Opera performer/director Hill Walker, Dir., Center on Human Development Gary Snyder, Poet Barbara Allen Babcock, O’Fallon Lecturer Barry Lopez, Author Peggy Pascoe, History The new season begins September 27! 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