{{More citations needed, date=May 2020 The Bach Society Orchestra, known as BachSoc, is

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's premier

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

. 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 Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

's Symphony No. 3,

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

's Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7, Barber's '' Adagio for Strings'', Prokofiev's ''

Peter and the Wolf ''Peter and the Wolf'' ( rus, Петя и Bолк, r="Pétya i volk", p=ˈpʲetʲə i volk, links=no) Op. 67, a "symphonic fairy tale for children", is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children's s ...

'' (narrated by the Reverend Professor

Peter J. Gomes Peter John Gomes (May 22, 1942 – February 28, 2011) was an American preacher and theologian, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School and Pusey Minister at Harvard's Memorial Church — in the words of Harvard' ...

), and

Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the ...

' 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 Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suite ...

. 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 John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

and John Harbison, conductors Joel Lazar, Andrew Schenck, Alan Gilbert,

Isaiah Jackson Isaiah Allen Jackson (born 22 January 1945) is an American conductor who served a seven-year term as conductor of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, of which he has been named Conductor Emeritus. He was the first African-American to be a ...

, Christopher Wilkins, Hugh Wolff,

Samuel Wong Samuel Wong () is a Hong Kong-born Canadian conductor and ophthalmologistbr> Trained at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Wong is an eye surgeon practicing in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In anothe ...

, and

Edwin Outwater Edwin Maurice Outwater (born 12 April 1971) is an American conductor from Santa Monica, California. About From September 2007 until 2017, he served as the music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada. From 2001 to 200 ...

, 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.

External links

The Bach Society Orchestra official website
Harvard University musical groups Musical groups established in 1954 Bach orchestras 1954 establishments in Massachusetts University orchestras