Opening Reception: Thursday May 3, from 6-8 pm.

In conjunction with the Bethlehem Bach Festival 100th anniversary celebration, May 3-12, LUAG presents an exhibition that traces the founders, participants, and history of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Over 700 photographs, collages, artifacts and documents are displayed throughout the gallery, including several walls listing the approximately 5000 musicians and voices that have comprised the Bethlehem Bach community. A continuous video of archival images and sound will run in the gallery multimedia room, DVD available. Sections include:

The Bach Choir Family.  The entrance to the exhibition displays over 5000 names of singers, instrumentalists, conductors, board members, and staff who contributed to the present high, local, national and international profile of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem.

Building the Bethlehem Bach Festivals: 1898-1934.  A chronological overview of objects related to the early history of the Bach Festivals and images of individuals who were integral in making the Festivals happen.  Most of these artifacts have been rarely, if ever, displayed before.

Bethlehem and Beyond documents many important national and international performances of The Choir.  Again, these objects have never previously been assembled as one story.

In the Media: a continuous video-loop showing examples from the print, sound, film, and digital media that have recorded a wide variety of The Choir’s activities.  The images are presented on a large plasma screen.

A Bach Community in America contains a variety of objects that express an intimate personal side of the Festivals.  J.S. Bach greets J. Fred Wolle.  Bach and his family greet Greg Funfgeld and the family of children, adults, guarantors, and Festival attendees.

Voices of the Bach Choir Family provides a permanent record of the celebration on DVD.  It contains historic recordings from the Choir Archives, many heard for the first time, and a wide variety of testimonials, both past and contemporary, that affirm the personal, local, national and international impact of the Choir.  The DVD is continuously projected in the small gallery theater during the exhibition and is for sale.

Faces of the Festival is a digital photo collage mural presenting a view of one hundred years of the Bethlehem Bach Festival: formal, casual, young, old, performers and listeners.

Curatorial team lead by Ricardo Viera, LUAG Director/Curator: Bach Choir Archivist Paul Larson, Linda Ganus, Sally Gillispie, Mary Jo Hill, Steven Lichak, Jeff Ludwig, Phil Metzger, Denise Stangl and Mark Wonsidler.

EXHIBITION: “The Bach Choir of Bethlehem: A Visual History”: Spring 2007