Bach Festivals & Cantata Series
American Bach Society: Meetings

Name:

American Bach Society - Meetings

Location:

Various locations

Venues:

See: Recent Meetings below

Years:

1976-1988 (Triennial Meetings)
Since 1988 ((Biennial Meetings)

Months:

Usually May

Artistic Director:

Chairmen of the New Bach Society, American Chapter:
Gerhard Herz (1972-1974)
Robert L. Marshall (1974-1977)
Robert Freeman (1977-1982)
Paul Brainard (1982-1986)
George Buelow (1987-1988)
Presidents of The American Bach Society:
George Buelow (1988-1992)
Don O. Franklin (1992-1996)
George B. Stauffer (1996-2000)
Robin A. Leaver (2000-2004)
Gregory G. Butler (2004-2008)
Mary Greer (2008-2012)
Stephen Crist (2012-2016)
Andrew Talle, editor of Bach Notes

Ensembles:

-

Website:

American Bach Society (Official Website)

History & Mission:

Brief History:
The beginnings of the American Bach Society can be dated to 1972, when a group of American scholars formed a chapter of the Neue Bachgesellschaft (New Bach Society), an organization founded in Germany in 1900 to promote the study and performance of J.S. Bach's music. When Germany became a divided country after World War II, the New Bach Society sought to retain its members and, in particular, to find a means whereby members living in East Germany would be able to attend its annual meetings. By forming chapters in East and West Germany as well as the USA, the Neue Bachgesellschaft was established as an international organization, enabling it to achieve its goals.
Charter members of the American chapter included Gerhard Herz, Alfred Mendel, William H. Scheide, and Alfred Mann. Mann, as secretary, administered the business of the chapter from the offices of the oldest American Bach organization, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem (founded in 1898), where he served as director from 1970 to 1980. The Bach-Jahrbuch, along with English translations of the Gesellschaft’s newsletters, were distributed annually to members of the chapter. The New Bach Society, American Chapter, held its first meeting in 1976 at the Moravian Seminary in Bethlehem, PA, and continued to hold meetings on a triennial basis until 1988.
In 1988, under the guidance of George Buelow, the chapter incorporated as the American Bach Society, an independent, non-profit organization. Administered by a president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer in consultation with an advisory board, a primary goal of the Society was to encourage and sponsor the publication of J.S. Bach research in English. In addition to issuing a semiannual Newsletter, from 1989 to 1993 the Society published the journal BACH in collaboration with the Riemenschneider Bach Institute. In 1994, the Society initiated Bach Perspectives, a serial publication edited by members of the Society in consultation with an editorial board, and in 2004 replaced its Newsletter with Bach Notes, a semiannual publication that includes articles, reviews, and information about members of the Society.
The creation of an endowment by William H. Scheide in 1990 enabled the Society to award, in alternate years, the Scheide Fellowship to support individual research projects, and the Scheide Prize to honor a publication of exceptional merit. In 2000, in collaboration with The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, the Society established a biennial Bach Vocal Competition for Young American Singers. All awards are announced at the biennial meeting of the Society, normally held in association with a college or university but also occasionally hosted by other institutions, such as the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institution (2000), the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig (2006), and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem (2008).

Recent Meetings:

1^st Meeting: 1976 - Bethlehem, PA, USA
2^nd Meeting: 1979 - Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
3^rd Meeting: 1982 - University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
4^th Meeting: 1985 - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
5^th Meeting: 1988 - Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
6^th Meeting: 1990 - Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, OH, USA
7^th Meeting: 1992 - Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
8^th Meeting: 1994 - Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
9^th Meeting: 1996 - University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
10^th Meeting: 1998 - Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
11^th Meeting: 2000 - Smithsonian Institution/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA
12^th Meeting - April 26-28, 2002 - University of Houston/Rice University, Houston, TX, USA (J.S. Bach: Liturgy - Music - Theology)
13^th Meeting: Apr 16-18, 2004 - Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA (Images Of Bach)
14^th Meeting: May 11-13, 2006 - Bach-Archiv, Leipzig, Germany (Bach Crossing Borders)
15^th Meeting: May 8-11, 2008 - Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, USA (Bach and the Oratorio Tradition)
16^th Meeting: May 7-9, 2010 - University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA (Bach and His German Contemporaries )
17^th Meeting: Sep 27-30, 2012 - Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, USA (Bach and the Organ)
18^th Meeting: May 1-4, 2014 - Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA (J.S. Bach and His Sons)
19^th Meeting: April 7-10, 2016 - University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA (J.S. Bach and the Confessional Landscape of His Time)

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