By Randi Bjornstad

The Oregon Bach Festival makes a solid return after two years of “virtual festival” performances — yes, of course, a result of the coronavirus pandemic — with 29 events on the schedule from June 17 through July 5.

The opening concert is at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 17, and it’s called Bach: Musical Offering. It features the Oregon Bach Festival Baroque Orchestra under the direction of violinist and conductor Monica Huggett, with this introduction in the rather substantial program guide:

In 1747, a weary and aging Bach visited his son C.P.E. in the Potsdam court of King Frederick of Prussia. Upon J.S.’s arrival, the king bellowed, “Old Bach is here!” and proceeded to issue J.S. a challenge — compose a six-voice fugue based on a simple musical theme. From that challenge, the iconic “Musical Offering” was born, and the world was changed forever.”

And the beat goes on, with music by composers as varied in time, place, and style as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Danielpour, George Frideric Handel, César Franck, Kurt Weill, Sam Cooke, Meredith Monk, Reena Esmail, George Gershwin, Paola Prestini, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Bologne, Maurice Ravel, Olivier Messiaen, Franz Schubert, Caroline Shaw, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Edvard Grieg, with apologies to anyone inadvertently left off this list.

In keeping with the the 2022 festival title, there also are many opportunities to hear vocal performances, including the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, University of Oregon Chamber Choir, the Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy (with soloists soprano Elizabeth Marshall, alto Rhianna Cockrell, tenor David Kurtenbach, and bass Michael Hix), and baritone Tyler Duncan, accompanied by pianist Erika Switzer, performing Schubert’s Winterreise, or Winter Journey.

Another highlight of this year’s Oregon Bach Festival is appearances on the podium by the three finalists for the position of artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival: Kazem Abdullah, Eric Jacobsen, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

Harth-Bedoya probably is the most familiar name to Eugene audiences, because he was music director of the Eugene Symphony from 1996 to 2002. Abdullah also has appeared in Eugene as guest conductor of the Eugene Symphony. Jacobsen is music director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

All three will conduct a major work during the festival, beginning with Abdullah conducting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 and Jessie Montgomery’s commentary on The Star-Spangled Banner on June 18, followed by Bach’s  Mass in B Minor on June 21.

Jacobsen will conduct Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 on June 24 and Bach’s St. John Passion on June 28.

Harth-Bedoya will take the podium on June 30 to conduct a program called The Leipzig Connection, examining the influence that Bach and the city of Leipzig itself had on future composers, including Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Richard Wagner, as well as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, on July 5.

According to information from the Oregon Bach Festival, 2022 will be the first time in more than 35 years of the Bach Festival’s half-century that all three of these works have been performed in their entirety during the same season.

For a complete rundown of dates, times, and programs, go online to oregonbachfestival.org.

Oregon Bach Festival

When: June 17 to July 5, 2022

Where: Various locations, including Beall Concert Hall, Central Lutheran Church, Silva Concert Hall and Soreng Theater at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, Frohnmayer Music Building Courtyard (University of Oregon), and First United Methodist Church

Complete program and tickets: oregonbachfestival.org