The livestream of this socially distanced performance will be available for you to watch from home. Please do not come to the building. This performance is not open to a public in-person audience.

J.S. Bach, known as the great master, wrote more than 200 cantatas, and UMD Choral Activities aims to sing them all in this series of short performances led by conductors in the graduate program. Conducted by Jonathan King, this performance will feature the first part of Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (I had much grief), BWV 21.

This cantata was originally written during Bach's time in Weimar (Schlosskirche), and serves as one of his first sacred compositions to leave the motet style and utilize operatic compositional idioms and poetic texts. The work, dealing with the subjects of grief and lament, was used by Bach on several occasions and subtitled "for all times" on the manuscript in his own hand. The work is separated into two parts to be performed before and after the sermon, and became eleven movements in length after Bach revised the work for a performance in Leipzig. Our performance will include the first portion of this cantata.

All participants have met the UMD 4Maryland requirements to return to campus and have chosen to perform in-person. The performers have worn masks during rehearsals and are socially distanced. There will be no public audience, and the orchestra and chorus are all one-on-a-part to minimize personnel on stage. The Bach Cantata Series is an integral part of the degree requirements for our choral conducting graduate students.