黑料正能量

Audience favorites from the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival’s infancy will share billing with works not previously heard 鈥� including a film score by a scion of one of Hollywood鈥檚 royal families 鈥� when the festival stages its 25th season June 11-18 at 黑料正能量.

From the beginning, says , SVBF鈥檚 conductor, artistic director, and co-founder, the intention has been to make each festival so different from those which preceded it that no one could聽ever say, 鈥渂een there, done that.鈥�

鈥淏ach is the constant,鈥� Nafziger says, 鈥渂ut the material around him is always changing.鈥�

This year鈥檚 festival will feature, on its opening night, such crowd-pleasing fare as Bach鈥檚 Brandenburg Concerto in G major, No. 4; and his Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major (source of the famous 鈥淎ir on the G String鈥�);聽as well as, to close the second festival concert on Friday the 16th, the Symphony No. 8 in B minor (鈥淯nfinished鈥�) of Franz Schubert.

Opening the second concert, SVBF concertmaster will team with violist Diane Phoenix-Neal and cellist Beth聽Vanderborgh on the Sinfonia Concertante in A major of Carl Phillipp Stamitz, a near-contemporary of Bach.

The fourth Brandenburg Concerto, which has been played several times previously at the SVBF, will this year exhibit an early music texture consistent with what Bach鈥檚 own musicians may have produced, thanks to the use of recorders in place of the usual flutes.

Recorder players Nancy Garlick and David McGown will be joined by violin soloist , a Baroque specialist and founder of the Charlottesville-based ensemble Three Notch鈥檇 Road.

McCormick, who will 聽appear for the first time on the SVBF stage, is also the festival鈥檚 newly appointed executive director. He says SVBF is characterized by a 鈥渨onderful sense of community鈥� in which not only the performers share, but also music-lovers from all over the Eastern seaboard and beyond.

鈥淎s someone who lives and breathes the music of Bach鈥檚 period, I鈥檓 thrilled to be part of this festival,鈥� McCormick says.

In keeping with the festival鈥檚 鈥淏ach is just the beginning鈥� credo, it will also serve as a platform, the second and third festival concerts, for several recent works by Los Angeles-based composer and violinist Maria Newman.

In addition to a pair of string concerti, Newman, daughter of nine-time Academy Award-winning composer/conductor Alfred Newman, will bring to 黑料正能量鈥檚 Lehman Auditorium one of the more than one-dozen scores she has written for vintage silent films. At the third festival concert, on Saturday the 17th, the 1914 Mary Pickford feature 鈥淐inderella鈥� will be screened with live accompaniment from the festival orchestra.

An additional highlight on Saturday night will be its excursion into Cuban music. Nafziger, a frequent participant in cultural exchanges with Cuba, will lead the orchestra in La bella cubana, by Jos茅 Silvestre White, and Volver atras, by SVBF violinist Eleonel Molina.

One of the festival鈥檚 other defining characteristics 鈥� its eagerness to promote the development of young musicians 鈥� will be showcased in a work on the opening-night program, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart鈥檚 Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra in C major. The teenage soloists are Emma Resmini of Fairfax Station, Va., on flute, and harpist Morgan Short, of Roanoke, Va.

Despite their youth, Resmini and Short both have ties to the festival which extend back several summers.

Among the other soloists returning for this year鈥檚 SVBF are violist Scott Hosfeld, clarinetist Leslie Nicholas, and bass-baritone Daniel Lichti.

The festival concludes on Sunday, June 18, with a non-sectarian service of worship such as might have been conducted during Bach鈥檚 heyday as a church musician in Leipzig, Germany. It will feature the Magnificat in D major 鈥� yet another piece brought back from the festival鈥檚 first year.聽In addition to Lichti, soloists include sopranos Veronica Chapman-Smith and Heidi Kurtz, countertenor Joel Ross, and tenor Brian Thorsett. Marvin Mills will be the organist.

The homilist for the Leipzig service will be Isaac Villegas, pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship in North Carolina.

For more information about the festival, including details on the series of free concerts offered weekdays at noon at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Harrisonburg, go to .