About Us

The Bach-Académie de Montréal is a non-profit organization founded in Montreal, a city well-known for its sophisticated culture and cultivated artistic communities. As a testament to the city's unique appreciation of Baroque period music and its special sensitivity to virtuosic artistry, the Bach-Académie de Montréal will organize a biannual music Festival featuring outstanding Montreal ensembles alongside international artists. Three pillars form the basic concept of the Bach-Académie de Montréal: performance, scholarship and education.

The biannual festival implements this concept through the symposium, performances with students, master classes and numerous concerts

Why a Bach Festival in Montreal?

Montreal is home to one of the largest artistic communities specialised in baroque and ancient music in North America. Comparatively to Boston, which has gained a world-wide reputation in the domain, Montreal fosters diverse musical ensembles of impressive quality. This is why, under the initiative of the Bach-Académie de Montréal, major Montreal ensembles are uniting for the first time to launch a large-scale festival devoted to an emblematic figure of baroque music: Johann Sebastian Bach. In the same spirit as hundreds of festivals devoted to this musician, who left an indelible mark on the history of music, the Montreal Bach Festival has the ambition and the means to become an international reference, as are the Bach Festivals in Leipzig, Ansbach, Paris (2005), Oregon and London.

Organizers

The 2005 Festival is organised by the Bach-Académie de Montréal in partnership with McGill University, Le Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, Arion, Les Boréades, Les Idées Heureuses and the Theatre of Early Music.

Two important conductors are sharing the artistic direction of the event: Christopher Jackson and Julian Wachner.

Program of the 2005 Festival

The Festival will hold 22 events, 50% of them free to the public. The Bach-Académie de Montréal will produce two major events of the Festival: the Gala Concert and the Musica Antiqua Köln concert. The other concerts and events will be produced in partnership with the organisations associated with the Festival.

The Festival will feature artists of international renown in the heart of Montreal, in mythical sites that testify to Montreal?s heritage, including St. Joseph's Oratory, the Chapelle Notre Dame de Bon Secours, and the Church of St Andrew and St Paul. For this first edition, the Festival will host artists from the local, national and international scenes.