07/23/2025
Throw🔙 to the 2025 Musicking Conference!
Oregon Bach Festival
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Since 1970, the Pacific Northwest's summer home for the music of Bach and the world of music he influenced.
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Eugene, OR
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In 1970 German organist and conductor Helmuth Rilling came to the University of Oregon for a series of workshops and an informal concert. Since then, Oregon Bach Festival—through the efforts of Rilling, co-founder Royce Saltzman, and a cadre of volunteers, musicians, patrons, and donors—has blossomed into one of the foremost celebrations of Bach’s music and legacy in the United States.
That first collaboration between Rilling and Saltzman was modest, culminating in a concert of short choral and organ works. But in 1971, under the banner of the “Summer Festival of Music,” four concerts were added to the schedule, including a complete performance of Bach’s St. John Passion. Over the next few years, the Festival expanded to include performances of major choral-orchestral works, instrumental and chamber concerts, solo recitals, workshops, and master classes. As the decade closed, the event was renamed Oregon Bach Festival, more clearly defining the Festival’s location and honoring the composer who inspired the founders.
The Festival was originally housed at UO’s Beall Concert Hall, one of the finest chamber recital rooms in North America. With the 1982 opening of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, the Festival was able to expand and attract renowned performers of the highest caliber.
Such internationally regarded artists as Arleen Auger, Sylvia McNair, Frederica von Stade, Ben Heppner, Thomas Quasthoff, Jeffrey Kahane, Robert Levin, Ya-Fei Chuang, Nicholas McGegan, Sarah Chang, Midori, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, The 5 Browns, Pink Martini, and Savion Glover have been introduced to the Eugene-Springfield community, courtesy of OBF. Members of the Festival chorus and orchestra come from professional organizations throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and return year after year.
