Blue Hill Bach

Join the singers and instrumentalists of St. Mary Schola for a concert celebrating the timeless beauty of music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Heinrich Schütz. In honor of Bach’s birthday and Early Music Month, Artistic Director James Kennerley leads the ensemble in Bach’s choral masterpiece, Jesu, meine Freude. Composed around 1723, this motet stands as one of Bach’s most complex and profound choral works, showcasing his mastery of counterpoint and emotional depth in sacred music. Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien (1636), composed for the funeral of Count Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera, is a cornerstone of Baroque sacred music. Celebrated for its emotional resonance and innovative musical language, it blends biblical texts, Lutheran hymns, and funeral responses to create a reflective meditation on mortality and eternal life. The program also features Bach’s Passacaglia for organ, performed by Kennerley on one of Maine’s finest historical-style pipe organs.