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Helmuth Rilling, Festival Conductor and Lecturer
Doreen Rao, Artistic Director, Conductor and Teacher

Inspired by Dr. Rao’s association with Maestro Helmuth Rilling and their mutual friend Royce Saltzman, the Executive Direction of the long-running Oregon Bach Festival, the Toronto Bach Festival is a uniquely educational performance festival at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. The Festival was created to celebrate Bach’s universal message of peace and compassion, offering an interactive series of lectures, master classes, and performances designed to capture the strength and breadth of Canada’s diversity through the unique talents of the University’s students, artists, educators, and scholars. Over the past two years, the Bach Festival has grown exponentially in size, and hopes to expand ever further in future years to bring the joy of Bach’s music to Toronto.

Highlights of the Festival include:

The Discovery Series, an open rehearsal with Maestro Rilling, soloists, choir and orchestra at University of Toronto Walter Hall.
Evening Lecture-Concerts, the final concert performance of each cantata in Walter Hall.
Sunday Cantata Service at Trinity-St. Paul’s Church
Bach Academy for Young Choirs, to which local children’s and high school choirs are invited to study the cantatas with Maestro Rilling
Organ Recitals at the beautiful Church of the Redeemer, featuring music performed by Toronto’s most talented organists ...and much more!

January 12 – 16, 2004: J. S. Bach in the World Today
October 1 – 9, 2005: The Poetry and Politics of Bach’s Early Cantatas
October 18 – 23, 2006: The Leipzig Cantatas
October 21 – 27, 2007: The St. John Passion, BWV 245
October 26 – November 2, 2008: TBA,

For more information, please visit the Bach Festival’s website at www.torontobachfestival.ca, email info@torontobachfestival.ca, or call 416-978-3515 (2224).