Member Organizations

The Global Bach Community was founded to assist local Bach organizations in raising funds and sharing Bach information. Our membership roster includes the following prestigious Bach organizations. To learn more, visit our Membership page.

GBC Launches "24/7 Bach" Internet Radio Station

The Global Bach Community recently initiated an Internet Radio station known as 24/7 Bach. As its name implies, we are streaming Bach performances around the clock with no commercial interruptions. The station currently features a monumental performance of Bach's complete organ works by Dr. Dennis Schmidt, former Artistic and Executive Director of The Bach Festival of Philadelphia. They were performed in observance of Bach's tricentennial in 1985 at St. John's Cathedral in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

To listen, use this link in a browser or audio application like iTunes: http://76.99.102.145:8000. For more information, visit the radio/podcast page or the internet radio FAQ page.
 

21^st Century Bach

After 250 years, Bach's music continues to excite and entertain. On the performance side we have novel fusions with other musical genres such as Gospel music, the timeless choral themes of the old Schoolmaster of Leipzig rephrased in modern spiritual vocabulary. Please visit our Inventions and Articles pages to read about recent collaborations and news as Bach's music enters a new millenium.

On the technical side, toccatas are traded as mp3's, cello suites arranged to digital synthesizers and synclaviers, and live performances captured and reproduced as audio-DVD. New media like streaming audio and podcasts promise to extend the interest of Bach's music. Classical.com is an online classical music subscription service offering listening, downloads, custom CDs; Operadio.com has a variety of online "internet radio" stations in the classical genre; Newmusicjukebox.org offers scores and biographies by new American composers; and Kulturvideo.com offers a selection of videos geared to the performing arts. These entities complement the well-known iTunes and Napster online music download venues.

Finally, the German government, in collaboration with IBM, has undertaken the massive feat of posting all of Bach's original manuscripts on the internet. The project, called Bach Digital, showcases the truly magnificent corpus of his work.
 

Annual ABS Meeting

The American Bach Society held its biennial meeting from May 11-13, 2006, at the Bach Archive in Leipzig. The theme for the meeting was "Bach Crossing Borders." The conference included lectures and performances, an exhibition of Bach manuscripts and other Bachiana, as well as excursions to points of interest in the vicinity of Leipzig. To read more, click here.

Discovery of New Aria

An unknown composition by Johann Sebastian Bach has been discovered by a classical music scholar in Germany. Michael Maul, a researcher at Leipzig's Bach Archive, found the score two weeks ago among documents from the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar. To read more, click here.

45^th Conference on Organ Music

This event was held October 9-12, 2006 at the University of Michigan. Many performances were played on the new organ dedicated to Marilyn Mason, Chair of the Organ Department. As a result of extensive research and consultation among members of the School of Music organ faculty and C.B. Fisk, Inc., of Gloucester, Massachusetts, it was decided that the instruments of Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753) should be the models upon which the Marilyn Mason Organ would be based. A host of dstinguished performers got to try their hand on this glorious new instrument. To read more about the organ and the event, click here and here.

Bach's 250^th Anniversary Celebration in Leipzig

The year 2000 marked the 250^th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. The celebration in Leipzig commemorating this historic event was spectacular in both musical and visual aspects. Two members of our Steering Board traveled to Leipzig and reported on the festivities. Click here to read their firsthand account.

Other Bach Organizations

Compendia of Bach organizations around the globe can be found on the Bach Festival of Philadelphia's website, The American Bach Society's links page, the Bach-Cantatas page, and the jsbach.org resources page.