UMassGives 2026

UMass Amherst Bach Festival & Symposium 

Since its inception in 2015, the UMass Amherst Bach Festival & Symposium has grown steadily in stature and scope, and it now occupies a prominent position in the region, attracting local, national, and international attention to UMass Amherst. Over 300 students and 100 alumni have performed in the Festival through the years. The 2017 event was reviewed in The New York Times by James Oestreich. Both the Festival and the Symposium offer important and unique opportunities for our students to collaborate with and be mentored by more than a dozen UMass Amherst faculty and esteemed guest artists and scholars.  

In the case of the Festival, UMass Amherst students receive dynamic mentoring when they perform alongside faculty and alumni. In the Symposium, graduate students have presented their research and received feedback from important scholars in the field. Plans for the 2027 Symposium are beginning to take shape with a scholarly theme of “Bach and Dance.” As in the past, organizers invite scholars of international stature to our campus to join in a robust series of presentations, making the UMass Bach Symposium a destination event in the field of scholarly work surrounding the music of Bach.

The 2027 Festival will feature its regular slate of concerts and will feature Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, in celebration of the 300th anniversary of its first performance. The performance will be led by guest artist Ryan Turner, who enjoys an international reputation for his masterful interpretations of Bach as longtime artistic director of Emmanuel Music of Boston. He will lead guest soloists and the Festival Chorus and Orchestra, composed of current students, alumni, and faculty. Our last performance of St. Matthew Passion, in 2019, drew an audience of one thousand. Additional concerts will include a Friday night faculty concert, the Coffee Cantata in a local coffee shop, and pre-festival educational events in the Amherst public schools, retirement homes, and public venues such as The Drake. 

Website showing the wide range of programming at the last UMass Amherst Bach Festival & Symposium (in April 2025): https://websites.umass.edu/bach/