The Bach Society Orchestra, known as BachSoc, is Harvard University's premier chamber orchestra. The orchestra is staffed, managed, and conducted entirely by students. Each year, the members of the orchestra select the next year's conductor, always an undergraduate. In turn, at the beginning of the new year the inaugurated conductor auditions new and returning members of the orchestra.
BachSoc generally performs four times per year, with concerts featuring works for chamber orchestra – interpreted broadly to include intimate chamber pieces as well as mid-sized symphonies – taken from an eclectic set of historical periods. Works featured in recent seasons have included Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3, Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7, Barber's Adagio for Strings, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (narrated by the Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes), and Villa-Lobos' Sinfonietta No. 1.
The Bach Society Orchestra has been an official undergraduate organization of the university since the 1954–55 academic school year. At its founding, the orchestra loosely devoted itself to performing the music of J.S. Bach. Since then, the repertoire has grown to span the historical continuum from baroque to the contemporary. The orchestra's annual composition and concerto competitions have become respected institutions of the Harvard music scene. Alumni include cellist Yo-Yo Ma, composers John Adams and John Harbison, conductors Joel Lazar, Andrew Schenck, Alan Gilbert, Isaiah Jackson, Christopher Wilkins, Hugh Wolff, Samuel Wong, and Edwin Outwater, and members of top American symphony orchestras.
An excerpt from History of Music at Harvard to 1972 by Elliott Forbes (Harvard UP: 1988) describes the beginnings of BachSoc:
The 'Musical Club of Harvard University,' as it was called upon its founding in 1898, took on new life after World War II. The idea of a chamber orchestra was broached for the first time in 1947. Then in 1951 an organizational meeting of the Harvard Music Club was called to discuss the forming of a chamber chorus and orchestra. The next year a catalogue was compiled of all Harvard and Radcliffe musicians, and finally in the academic year 1954-55 were founded the Bach Society Chorus, Howard M. Brown '51, conductor, and the Bach Society Orchestra, Michael L. Greenebaum '55, conductor.
The chorus was soon disbanded, but the Bach Society Orchestra has continued to flourish. Greenebaum continued as conductor for a second year, then as a graduate student. Starting with his successor Michael Senturia '58, who led the orchestra from 1956 to 1958, the conductor has always been an undergraduate, chosen either by an independent jury or by the orchestra members acting as a collective jury.
Music Directors +YearMusic director1955Michael Greenebaum1956Michael Greenebaum1957Michael Senturia1958Michael Senturia1959John Harbison1960John Harbison1961Joel Lazar1962Andrew Schenck1963Bentley Layton1964Gregory Biss1965Isaiah Jackson III1966Daniel Hathaway1967John C. Adams1968John C. Adams1969Philip Kelsey1970Martin Kessler1971Nils Vigeland1972Robert Hart Baker1973Robert Hart Baker1974Hugh Wolff1975Neal Stulberg1976Christopher Wilkins1977Christopher Wilkins1978Peter Lurye1979Richard Green, James Ross1980James Ross1981Diana Watt1982Samuel Wong1983Scott Kluksdahl1984Scott Kluksdahl1985Jeffrey Goldberg1986Scott Gregg1987Scott Gregg1988Alan Gilbert1989James Kwak1990Edwin Outwater1991Edwin Outwater1992Evan Christ1993Evan Young1994Steve Huang1995Jonathan Yates1996Jonathan Yates1997Eric Tipler1998Eric Tipler1999Benjamin Rous2000Grace Kao2001Lembit Beecher2002Sean Henry Ryan2003Alexander Misono2004Alexander Brash2005Daniel Chetel2006Aram Demirjian2007Aram Demirjian2008John Sullivan2009Yuga Cohler2010Yuga Cohler2011Jesse Wong2012Lucien Werner20132014Sasha Scolnik-Brower2015Sasha Scolnik-Brower2016Sasha Scolnik-Brower2017Reuben Stern2018Reuben Stern2019Reuben Stern2020Soren Nyhus2021Soren Nyhus2022Camden Archambeau2023Lucas Amory2024Enoch Li2025Enoch Li2026Moshi Tang
References
External links Official website