To launch our next 75 years, we will be announcing a new name in the Spring of 2023, one that puts singing at the center. This new title will reflect a new mission statement for the organization, defined by the board of directors:“to create, enrich, and transform community through singing.”
This mission embodies three important values that drive our work:
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a clearer identity,
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openness to an expanded repertoire and diverse audiences, and
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a core belief in the power of singing to bring people together.
The Bach Festival Week Opening Concert – Feast and Famine will feature the Bach Festival Chorus and Kalamazoo Philharmonia partnering together to present a concert about two great historical injustices. William Walton's spectacular oratorio Belshazzar's Feast foretells doom for the decadent Belshazzar, and liberation for the Hebrew slaves in Babylonian captivity. This ancient tale is balanced by music which commemorates a more recent tragedy: the Ukrainian Holodomor of 1933, when millions of Ukrainians perished needlessly on Stalin's orders. Contemporary Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych's Requiem for Those Who Died of Famine memorializes the tragedy's 85th anniversary. This concert will be this work's U.S. premiere.