Note from Artistic Director

Bach’s music encompasses everything human: our intelligence and emotions, our strengths and weaknesses, our multiplicity and singularity. His music is poetry, narration, theater, and opera; encoded in little black marks and recreated in the sound that vibrates within us and helps us resonate with the Universe.

Bach is needed. Especially now, when our existence on the Earth is so fragile and our differences are highlighted like never before, Johann Sebastian Bach's music teaches us that even the most complicated puzzles can be solved through harmony.

Founded in 2022 by Veronika Schreiber and Cathy Lanigan, Viva Bach Peterborough is a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the music of J.S. Bach and inspiring the widest possible audience to listen to and enjoy his music. Through our annual Bach festival, as well as lectures, musical demonstrations and education programs, we hope to deepen the Monadnock region’s understanding and appreciation of Bach’s music. Our annual festival offers opportunities for professional musicians and soloists to collaborate and perform Bach’s music in intimate settings. Our Festival Chorus celebrates the talent of local choristers across the Monadnock region who perform Bach’s choral works as an integral part of the festival. Our Young Scholars program provides paid opportunities for professional singers in the earliest stages of their careers to perform alongside our local singers. Through collaborations with other local music-based organizations, we also enable children and teens to participate in the Festival Chorus, offering scholarships as needed. To further our goal of bringing Bach to new audiences, each year we perform small, free concerts in unconventional locations and settings, including coffee shops, book stores and other retail locations, as part of the global “Bach in the Subways” program. These concerts have enabled many local residents and families to experience Bach’s music for the very first time. We hope that our varied programming helps grow awareness and appreciation for the beauty of Bach’s music throughout the Monadnock region.