After having to cancel its series last summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Andrewâs Bach Society is returning to live in-person concerts for its 33rd summer concert series beginning Aug. 15.
The truncated series opens with Tucson Symphony Orchestra principal horn player Johanna Lundy and pianist Hsin-Chih Chang performing âLuminous: Selections from France and Belgiumâ and will end Sept. 12 with the return of popular violinist Steven Moeckel.
âThe focus is on quality not quantity,â said Ben Nisbet, who has been the societyâs artistic director since 2011. âItâs not what I would love to do for our first time back; I was kind of hoping for our first time back to be really spectacular and crazy â orchestra concerts and choir, like weâve done in the past. ... But the focus is on bringing people back safely and easing our way back to normal life as it pertains to indoor concerts.â
Nisbet had originally thought he would have to resort to video concerts for the popular series, which since its launch 34 years ago has been the only classical music happening in Tucson over the hot summer months. But after things started opening up in the spring and the series home venue at Grace St. Paulâs Episcopal Church gave the OK for live events with restrictions, Nisbet shifted gears.
âI was definitely getting the sense ... that there was a little bit of a fatigue with the video thing,â Nisbet said.
The series, which traditionally has four to five concerts, is getting a late start; usually the opening event is held in late May or early June and concerts are held monthly through August, with some months featuring two events.
This summerâs series â which should have been the 34th had they not had to cancel last summer, Nisbet said â will feature three in-person events and one special video event, the concert film of internationally acclaimed pianist Willie Wilfromâs 2017 Tucson performance of Bachâs Goldberg Variations. The film will be available free of charge at standrewsbach.org, beginning July 24 â the day that tickets go on sale.
Tickets ($15 and $25) will only be available through standrewsbach.org/tickets. There will be a limited number of tickets after Grace St. Paulâs cut the capacity to half of its 450 seats.
Concerts begin at 2 p.m. at Grace St. Paulâs, 2331 E. Adams St.
The series
Opener, Aug. 15: Horn player Johanna Lundy curated a program with pianist Hsin-Chih Chang that âcelebrates composers with the ability to radiate light through sound.â Composers include 19th century Frenchman Paul Dukas, 20th century Frenchman Jean Francaix and 20th century Belgian composer Jane Vignery, whose sonata for horn and piano is the programâs centerpiece.
Monsoon Brass Ensemble, Aug. 29: The 5-year-old Monsoon Brass is made up of some of the highest caliber brass players in the Southwest, which is likely behind the groupâs fast rise as one of the preeminent brass ensembles in Tucson and the region. The groupâs recitals crisscross genres that are often overlooked by standard brass quintets. Expect to hear them play everything from the music of Bach to jazz and works from the renaissance, classical and romantic periods.
Steven Moeckel returns, Sept. 12: Violinist Moeckel, the former TSO concertmaster and current Phoenix Symphony concertmaster, was looking for a place to bring his new program with harpist Stephen Hartman, and Nisbet was looking to fill the series finale. Talk about kismet. In addition to classical masterworks, pieces by Saint-Saens and Vaughan Williamsâ beloved âThe Lark Ascending,â Moeckel will perform the world premiere of his Phoenix Symphony colleague Glenn Stallcopâs âUnreal Dwelling,â a work for unaccompanied violin that the longtime double bassist/composer wrote for Moeckel on commission. In program notes, Stallcop said the piece was inspired by the writings of 17th-century Japanese haiku poet Matsuo Basho and the sense of isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic.
