education

Dear students,

Hello and welcome from myself and Bach Akademie Australia!

A little bit about us….

We are an ensemble dedicated to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. You might be asking why would a group of musicians dedicate themselves to performing the music of only ONE composer? And why specifically Bach? Well, the answer lies in the music itself, and also the influence Bach had over every single musician who came afterwards!

In our opinion, J.S. Bach’s music represents the cornerstone of western classical music. He is the foundation upon which this tradition was built. His influence and impact cannot be overstated. For us professional musicians, he is as important to us as Shakespeare is to the literary world! Or Stephen Spielberg is to the film world. There is a reason the music of Bach was sent into space on the Voyager space probe NASA sent into space in 1977. Not one but two pieces of Bach were chosen to be sent into space as examples of the very best examples of human achievement!

The thing is, Bach’s music is still so relevant to us today, even though it is now 272 years since his death. He wrote music about all the things that affect us every day in our lives such as love, death, faith, fear, war, hunger, revenge, silliness, trickery, laughter, lying, honesty, and the whole gamut in-between. It deals with universal themes which are so very human and will continue to be relevant to us and the many many generations to come, even though our lives hardly resemble Bach’s at all these days.

But human experience hasn’t changed. We all still experience everything he did, so we can very readily connect so very much with this music.

There’s another aspect to all this though. Bach had a bit of a thing for numbers. He had enormous fun weaving in marvellous mathematical and numerological patterns and sequences in all his music, challenging the number sleuths to find them and delight in his secret messages. He was a cryptologist and symbolist, using musical notes to weave even more meaning into his music to really get his message across. You can have enormous fun just exploring this aspect of Bach!

However, for me, the single most important characteristic of Bach himself and his music is his ability to COMMUNICATE! He was hands down the best musical story-teller of all time. In my opinion, we are all story junkies. We love a good story! We always have and we always will. You will always find great stories communicated in the most magical ways in Bach’s music. What we aim to do with our performances of his music is to tell you the story, to bring you with us on these magical musical journeys and delight in experiencing the wonder of them with you!

We cannot wait to see you there.

Madeleine Easton - Artistic Director

Easter Oratorio

Bach - Easter Oratorio, BWV 249 - Gardiner

Watch a complete performance of Bach’s Easter Oratorio performed by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, our international patron