Movement to popularize Bach comes to Kolkata

KOLKATA: An

international

movement to popularize creations of Bach that started in New York in 2010 and has since spread to hundreds of cities in over 40 countries has finally arrived in Kolkata.


Cellist Dale Henderson, founder of the movement named ‘Bach in the Subways’ after legendary German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, will perform at Judges Ghat on the banks of the Hooghly on September 8 at 5pm. The free performance will be held in conjunction with Calcutta Classical Guitar Society.

“Last March for the fourth year in a row musicians joined a global music movement to share their love of Bach’s music with new audiences. Public performances were open and accessible to all. No admission fee was required, and no money was accepted by performers. Bach in the Subways strips away all cultural and artificial barriers that impede peoples’ natural appreciation for classical music,” said Henderson.

Eight years ago, when he first embarked on a rigorous campaign of free performances of Bach’s Cello Suites in subways of New York to sow seeds for future generations of classical music lovers, he envisioned ‘Bach in the Subways’ as a solo project. But it evolved into a movement with several thousand musicians in over 140 countries joining in every March to commemorate Bach’s birthday and spread the wonder of the composer’s music by performing in all kinds of public spaces.

As part of the five-day birthday celebration last March, Henderson launched his #Bach333 initiative to honour Bach’s 333rd birthday. Henderson performed in 3 cities in 3 countries on 3 continents —

Seattle

, Singapore and Tbilisi — between March 21and 25. His passion to share classical with new audiences continued in June with a visit to

Philadelphia

, and now with the support of Calcutta Classical Guitar Society, Kolkata joins his ongoing initiative.

“Since the city of Rabindranath Tagore and Ravi Shankar stands as one of India’s major artistic and cultural hubs, I was especially drawn to the idea of performing Bach here.”

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