READ OUR REVIEWS
"Lewis Kaplan, the founder and artistic director of the Bach Virtuosi Festival (and the Portland Bach Festival, from which it emerged), has gathered a top-flight ensemble of Baroque music specialists, several of whom have been with the festival from the start. He also assembled an opening program that introduces these musicians and their ample strengths efficiently, while also offering a glimpse of Bach’s compositional breadth, both secular and sacred." -- Allan Kozinn
The Forecaster by Scott Andrews
"The final concert of the Bach Virtuosi Festival, slated for this Sunday evening in Portland, includes a reference to the year 1685 in its title. I asked founding artistic director Lewis Kaplan, whom I’ve known for two decades, to explain. All three of the composers who will be featured were born in the year 1685: Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Domenico Scarlatti.""At age 85, Lewis Kaplan draws energy trying to match or surpass what he has done before as a teacher, performer and music festival administrator. Speaking about the next Bach Virtuosi Festival at hand in early June, his conversation speeds up with enthusiasm as he talks about the roster of stars coming to Portland to play and sing.." -- Allan Kozinn
"In Bach's Cantata 70, the festival fielded a choir of only eight voices, which matches scholars’ information about the forces available to Bach at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Having a minimal choir means, of course, that the singers must all be thoroughly focused, not to mention well-blended. The vocal octet here was superb, and sounded full and lovely in the resonant acoustic at St. Luke’s. The cantata benefited from excellent, astutely phrased solo singing by Panthaki, countertenor Jay Carter, tenor Brian Giebler and baritone Dashon Burton, as well as superb trumpet work by John Thiessen, graceful oboe playing by Priscilla Herreid, and firm support from the magnificently polished chamber orchestra." -- Allan Kozinn
“People in Portland have opened up their houses to our artists and not only given them a room, but given them their heart,” Kaplan said. “This is by way of saying thank you.”
“I had never met him or worked with him, but I knew of him. He is such an incredible and revered performer and educator,” Ferguson said of Kaplan, who teaches at the Juilliard School. “My response was, ‘Oh my god, yes. I would love to be there.’ It was so exciting and cool. Lewis assembled the most awesome group of musicians, and the rest history.”
Maine Classical Beat
When I was working for ad agencies I would visit New York weekly, with some light excuse, to hear music or go to the ballet. I never heard anything as good as what Lewis Kaplan has brought to Portland. Let us all hope that it continues.The Forecaster by Scott Andrews
"When I started the Bach festival three years ago, I had a vision of bringing the greatest Baroque musicians in the world to Portland to perform in intimate spaces where all that matters is the music,” Kaplan explained.Step Outside
"There will be a free concert supporting the Food Pantry of Falmouth on June 23, 2018 at 7pm. The concert will feature Lewis Kaplan and other musicians from the Bach Virtuosi Festival."READ OUR TESTIMONIALS
Brian Giebler, Tenor
"The Bach Virtuosi Festival was a great season ender for me. It was a celebration of my favorite music, with some of my most talented and cherished colleagues. Getting to make joyous beautiful music in such a serene... Read More >>"The Bach Virtuosi Festival was a great season ender for me. It was a celebration of my favorite music, with some of my most talented and cherished colleagues. Getting to make joyous beautiful music in such a serene and stunning environment is something every artist dreams about. Luckily for me and a few others, we got to live it. "
Beiliang Zhu, Cello
"Few things inspire good music making more than a combination of breath-taking scenery, delicious food, consoling music, and brilliant colleagues. The Bach Virtuosi Festival is a place where..." Read More >> "Few things inspire good music making more than a combination of breath-taking scenery, delicious food, consoling music, and brilliant colleagues. The Bach Virtuosi Festival is a place where tradition and innovation marry beautifully. Director Lewis Kaplan creates a supporting environment that allows artists to present the music through being the best of themselves."
Tom Troeger, Yale Divinity School
"My wife and I are struck not only by the outstanding quality of the performances offered by the Bach Virtuosi Festival, but also its exciting, creative programming, especially as evident in the concert, “Before Bach and Beyond.” Read More >>"My wife and I are struck not only by the outstanding quality of the performances offered by the Bach Virtuosi Festival, but also its exciting, creative programming, especially as evident in the concert, “Before Bach and Beyond. This was one of the most elegantly conceived concerts we have ever attended, and both of us, now retired, have been going to classical music concerts from childhood. To open with Buxtehude and Vivaldi was to take us into the sonic world that helped incite and shape Bach’s musical imagination. It made it possible to listen with new ears to the very well known Prelude and Fugue in E Flat Minor from “The Well-Tempered Clavier.” We had a fresh sense of how Bach took what he heard and stretched and developed it into his own unique idiom....We owe you and your festival a great debt for providing us not only with compelling performances but also for engaging us in a profounder understanding of this art that we love and celebrate."
John Thiessen, Trumpet
"Wonderful, virtuosic colleagues playing beautiful music for an appreciative, engaged audience. What could be better?"WATCH OUR VIDEOS
Sunday, August 1, 2021 full concert
Interview on Spectrum TV October 2020
Brotherhood/Sisterhood August 16, 2020
Full Concert August 18, 2020
Full Concert August 19, 2020
Full Concert August 20, 2020
Masterclass August 23, 2020
About Brotherhood/Sisterhood
2020 Trailer
Before Bach and Beyond June 2019
Before Bach and Beyond 2019 preview
Six Movements from Four Concerts
June 2, 2019 Full Concert
2019 BVF Associates Concert
Teaser for June 6, 2019
June 24, 2018 Full Concert
June 21, 2018 Full Concert
June 19, 2018 Full Concert
June 17, 2018 Full Concert
June 17th Concert Overview
Discussing the BVF Musicians
Videos with the Virtuosi: Henry Kramer
Flutist Emi Ferguson on BVF
Sherezade Panthaki & Jay Carter Pt 1
Sherezade Panthaki & Jay Carter Pt 2
Trumpet John Thiessen interview
Lewis Kaplan on Johann Sebastian Bach
The Key to Understanding Bach
LISTEN TO OUR RADIO INTERVIEWS
Cultural Conversation: Lewis Kaplan on Handel's Messiah with Robin Rilette on MAINE PUBLIC RADIO
December 17, 2018
Listen to Interview >>Cultural Conversation: Bach Virtuosi Festival Director Lewis Kaplan with Robin Rilette on MAINE PUBLIC RADIO
June 14, 2018
Listen to Interview >>