FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

April 23, 2003

Contact: Deb Faling:

for further information

BACH LEGACY LECTURE

FEATURES MAESTRO RAYMOND HARVEY

As part of the Kalamazoo Bach Festival Week, Kalamazoo Symphony Maestro Raymond Harvey will examine the historical context of Bach’s B Minor Mass, and offer a listener’s guide to the performance in a lecture titled, “The Mightiest of Masses.” His lecture will take place on Thursday, May 15, in Stetson Chapel, Kalamazoo College. The lecture is free and will begin at 8:00 p.m.

The Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra will perform the B Minor Mass on May 17, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. in St. Augustine Cathedral. This lecture is the last in a series of three lectures that will help to inform the audience about the Mass and its historical significance.

Raymond Harvey has been called “one of a welcome new breed of American-born and trained conductors currently enriching our national musical scene.” Music Director of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra since 1999, he has also been Music Director of the Fresno Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony, and Associate Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic. An excellent pianist and accomplished choral conductor, Mr. Harvey holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music. He has been featured in Ebony and Symphony magazines and is profiled in the book, Black Conductors, by Antoinette Handy.

Bach Festival Week runs from May 11 to 17 and includes the Young Vocalists Concert on Sunday, May 11, Bach-Around-the-Block Organ Crawl on Monday, May 12, and the Bach Legacy Lecture on Thursday, May 15. These events are all free and open to the public. The Festival Finale Concert will take place on Saturday, May 17. J.S. Bach’s B Minor Mass will be performed by the Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra conducted by James Turner, music director. Tickets for the B Minor Mass are $25, $18, or $5 and are available by calling the Bach Festival office at 269-337-7407 or at the Miller Auditorium Box Office, 269-387-2300. For further information regarding any of the Bach Festival events, please call the office or check out their web site, www.kzoo.edu/bach/.

For more information about the Kalamazoo Bach Festival and its programs, please call 269-337-7407. Tickets for the B Minor Mass are now available by calling the Bach Office or at Miller Auditorium Box Office, 269-387-2300.

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The Bach Festival is generously supported by Kalamazoo College, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Fund of Kalamazoo County, Burdick-Thorne Foundation, Center for Western European Studies, H.P and Genevieve W. Connable Fund, Dorothy U. Dalton Foundation, Plaza Arts Circle, Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation, Stryker Corporation, Fritz and Associates, Inc., Jaqua Realty, Millennium Restaurant Group, Peter J. Thomas Company, Inc., and many individual supporters.