Recording artist Laura Harrison will open this year’s Bach Festival on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 5:30pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach. Harrison’s set, entitled Mash-up! Bach to Basie, will take the audience from Johann Sebastian Bach to jazz legend William “Count” Basie, and will include Baroque arias, jazz standards, and popular favorites on the same program.
Harrison’s debut jazz CD, entitled Now…Here, currently plays in 43 states and 13 countries, climbing to number 18 on the CMJ Jazz National Chart. Wilbert Sostre of the Jazz Times believes she sets the standard for jazz singers today. Of her debut album, Sostre writes: “…this is what a jazz singer should sound like.”
On March 3 at 7:30pm, The Central4 Piano Quartet will combine classical and contemporary music in a performance at First Congregational Church of Long Beach. The group’s performance, Brandenburg, Old and New, will include Bach’s Brandenburg Concert No. 5 in D Major, as well as a piece commissioned specifically for this occasion by Los Angeles composer Jenni Brandon.
The popular “Bach a Bacchus,” featuring pianist Lindsey Hundley, will be the third presentation of the Bach Festival on March 10 at 7:30pm at The Wine Bar in Long Beach. Audience members will have the opportunity to sample wines and hors d’oeuvres while they enjoy jazz-inspired variations of some of Bach’s most famous work.
The Long Beach Bach Festival will conclude this year with “GLORIA! Beauty and the Baroque” performed by the Long Beach Camerata Singers and Orchestra. The concert, conducted by Robert Istad, will highlight the best of the Baroque Period with Vivaldi’s Gloria in D, Handel’s Laudate Pueri Dominum and Bach’s Cantata BWV 4—Christ lag in Todesbanden.
Admission prices are $25 for advanced tickets and $30 at the door. Purchase advanced tickets at longbeachcameratasingers.org.
