A MESSAGE FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR RUBEN VALENZUELA

Dear Friends,

BCSD 21 ushers in a third decade of bringing world-class performances of early music and beyond to San Diego. Last year's unforgettable 20th anniversary season showcased thrilling performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion — the music still ringing in our memories and ears. BCSD 21 will be no different, coming in hot with four exciting Mainstage performances alongside our ever popular Bach at Noon series. 

Our Mainstage series begins with LAST BLASTS!, a pairing of Telemann's rarely heard cantata Ino alongside C.P.E Bach's Concerto Doppio for Harpsichord and Fortepiano, two works inextricably linked by two composers in the twilight of their careers. We have the return of Handel's MESSIAH/EL MESíAS, with performances in English and Spanish featuring our commissioned libretto by Mario Montenegro which continues to garner national attention. We are especially excited to return to Tijuana, Mexico to perform at Tijuana's Centro Cultural for a celebration marking the bicentennial of diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico. In March, LOVE AND REVOLUTION, features an exciting collaboration with GRAMMY award-winning lutenist Stephen Stubbs highlighting the composer Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporary Sigismondo D'India in a program of scintillating madrigals displaying Monteverdi's genius ability to communicate the full compass of human emotions. Our Mainstage season draws to a close with BOUND FOR BACHFEST, our Bachfest Leipzig program preview which includes three of Bach's Advent and Christmas Cantatas from his second year in Leipzig. BCSD 21 draws to a close in blazing fashion with our highly anticipated BACHFEST LEIPZIG debut in collaboration with the Pauliner Barockensemble on the site of the historic Paulinerkirche (Paulinum), followed by a tour of Thuringia to include a performance at the historic Bachkirche in Arnstadt. 

Don't miss BCSD 21, put together from top to bottom with some of the finest musicians you've grown to love, delivering some of the most dynamic and virtuosic performances of this repertoire you'll ever encounter, HERE IN SAN DIEGO. Join us for BCSD 21!

Ruben Valenzuela