title: Bach festival
text: A Bach festival is a music festival held to celebrate the memory of the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). Various locations throughout the world hold festivals dedicated to Bach. A notable example is the Bachfest Leipzig, held each year in the city of Leipzig, where the composer worked as Thomaskantor for the last 27 years of his life.
  
  Historical festivals
  
  Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival
  The Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music at Baldwin Wallace University is home to the BW Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach festival in the nation. The festival was founded in 1932 by Professor Albert Riemenschneider (longtime director of the College Conservatory) and his wife Selma. The then Baldwin-Wallace Festival Choir and Orchestra presented the first Bach Festival in June 1933 and has continued since then. The oldest Bach Festival, The Bethlehem, and Baldwin Wallace performed together for BW's 75th anniversary of the festival.
  
  Winter Park Bach Festival 
  The Bach Festival Society was founded in 1935 at Rollins College to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's birth by presenting the composer's orchestral and choral music to the public "for its enlightenment, education, pleasure, and enjoyment" at Knowles Memorial Chapel. Isabelle Sprague-Smith, a former New York artist and school principal, was the president and driving force behind the Bach Festival from 1935 until her death in 1950. At Sprague-Smith's death, the future of the Bach Festival was uncertain. Rollins President Hugh F. McKean (husband to Jeannette Genius McKean) asked John M. Tiedtke, the treasurer of the College, to fulfill the obligation and he accepted. Tiedtke served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees until his death in December 2004. The festival has been presented each year since 1935, and has expanded to a multi-week event including chamber music, lectures, master classes, and community events.
  
  Notable Bach festivals
  
  Bach in the Subways
  Bach Music Festival of Canada
  Bachfest Leipzig
  Bachwoche Ansbach
  Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival
  Carmel Bach Festival
  English Bach Festival
  Oregon Bach Festival
  Thüringer Bachwochen
  Tilford Bach Festival
  The WQXR All-Day Bach Organ Marathon
  Bachfestival Antwerpen
  Bachfestival Dordrecht
  
  See also
  Early music festivals
  
  References
  
  External links
  
  Classical music festivals in the United States
   
  Lists of classical music festivals