The American Bach Society will hold its biennial meeting at Yale University, April 24-26. Events that are free and open to the public are listed below. The American Bach Society, established in 1972, is an organization of scholars, performers and admirers of the music of J. S. Bach. The conference will include four sessions of scholarly papers and lecture-demonstrations covering new research on harpsichords, flutes, trombones, and other instruments of Bach's time.
Guest speakers come from across the United States, Canada and Europe.
Melamed is coordinating the meeting at Yale. The theme of the conference is a natural one for Yale, whose Collection of Musical Instruments is rich in the kind of instruments Bach knew, and whose libraries hold some of the most famous manuscripts of Bach's instrumental music. They include the keyboard notebook Bach assembled for his oldest son Wilhelm Friedemann and the only copy of the so-called 'Neumeister' chorale preludes for organ that were first identified in 1985. The conference will bring together specialists on Bach and his music and experts on historical instruments. The program committee and the Yale libraries, museums and performing organizations have put together an event that will be immensely stimulating.