GALA | OCTOBER 2007

2007 GALA BENEFIT
CONCERT, DINNER & AUCTION

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20th AT 6:00PM
St. Stephen’s Church, 3 Bayview Avenue, Belvedere

• Sumptuous Hors d’oeuvres and Dinner by Delicious! Inc. •
• Musical Entertainment by American Bach Soloists •
• Unique and Exciting Live and Silent Auction Items •

If you love the music of ABS, you will not want to miss this exciting Event!

TICKETS: $100

For more information, contact Katherine McKee at 415-621-7900
or send email.

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Bach CHRISTMAS ORATORIO | JANUARY 2008

Start 2008 with one of Bach’s greatest masterpieces: the Weihnachts-Oratorium! This expansive work of six festive cantatas will ring in the New Year with joy. Maestro Thomas directs eight extraordinary young specialists in the field of Bach vocal performance along with a diverse ensemble of period-instruments, including horns, flutes, four oboes and a battery of brass. Performing one-to-a-part, together they reveal Bach’s intricate writing with astonishing clarity. Don’t miss this opportunity to join the American Bach Soloists as they bridge the Christmas season with the New Year.

Abigail Haynes and Yulia van Doren sopranos
Sonia Gariaeff and Katherine Growdon mezzo-sopranos
Derek Chester and Aaron Sheehan tenors
Jesse Blumberg and Joshua Copeland baritones

“When Jeffrey Thomas’ American Bach Soloists perform Bach’s cantatas, you hear and feel the benefits of his specialization in that repertory.”
San Francisco Classical Voice

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VOCAL VISIONARIES | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008

Every period of music history featured composers who stood out as visionaries: individuals who changed the musical landscape. Jeffrey Thomas and the critically acclaimed American Bach Choir perform an innovative program of music by those who “pushed the envelope” of musical expression and choral techniques. You’ll hear old-world master Tomas Luis de Victoria's haunting Requiem, considered to be his magnum opus, alongside works by Richard Strauss and Eric Whitacre, as well as an encore performance of Sven-David Sandström’s Agnus Dei paired with his ecstatic setting of Henry Purcell's Hear my prayer, O Lord.

“The concert was an experience to treasure for a lifetime…an evening of choral brilliance.”
San Francisco Classical Voice

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1685 and THE ART OF IAN HOWELL | APRIL 2008

Countertenor Ian Howell—winner of the Laurette Goldberg Prize at the 2006 ABS / Henry I. Goldberg Young Artists Competition—is showcased in a program featuring works by Bach, Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti, three composers coincidentally born in 1685. Mr. Howell, praised for his “polished sound, clear resonance, and powerful enunciation,” will perform Bach’s luscious cantata Vergnügte Ruh and Scarlatti’s gorgeous Salve Regina. In addition, he will offer an exquisite collection of Handel arias, composed for the opera and concert stage in the era of the celebrated castrati, Senesino, Guadagni, and Farinelli.

Ian Howell countertenor
with Debra Nagy, oboe
and Corey Jamason, organ & harpsichord

“A model of what the early music movement can offer at its best.”
San Francisco Chronicle

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SOUND THE TRUMPET | MAY 2008

Baroque trumpeter John Thiessen, whose playing has been called “flawless” and “effervescent,” joins ABS to celebrate the anniversaries of two contemporaries of Bach—Johann Friedrich Fasch and Guiseppe Torelli—with a program of virtuoso trumpet concertos. As an added bonus, ABS will perform Georg Philipp Telemann’s Water Music, a boisterous dance suite that pays homage to seafaring life in early 18th-century Hamburg. Each movement has a mythical aquatic personality: Neptune, Triton, Thetis, Aeolus, and Zephyr are brought to life in music. Bach’s rousing Sixth Brandenburg—a virtual quadruple concerto for violas and violas da gamba—will bring the season to a brilliant close.

John Thiessen trumpet

“A flawless ensemble…a level of finesse one rarely encounters.”
The Wall Street Journal

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