Festival Stories: Les Helmuth

Every Bach Festival Sunday morning Leipzig Service starts with this blessing of the gathered group: 

Dominus vobiscum. (The Lord be with you.) 

The Bach Festival has always been a rich, cultural experience. I have sung in each of the Bach Festivals as a soloist or cantor for the Sunday Leipzig Service, with one exception. 

The most memorable and impactful was 2001. Ken Nafziger brought a Cuban chamber group, Coro Exaudi, and their conductor, Maria Felicia Pérez, to the Festival. They brought their rich history of music and culture to the Bach Festival, infusing a level of energy we had not known or experienced before. We performed Missa Cubana for one of the Festival concerts and enjoyed the rhythmic and lyric melodies that embody this piece. The depth of community and friendship we experienced in a week with Coro Exaudi crossed culture, music, and faith. 

Making music with colleagues during the Bach Festival creates opportunities again and again to experience community and family. It brings us together like few experiences in our culture.   

As cantor, I’ve enjoyed bringing the Sunday morning worship into focus through this simple chant, and then sending the audience out with a blessing: 

May God bless you and keep you. 
May the very face of God shine on you and be gracious to you. 
May God’s presence embrace you and give you peace. 

Les Helmuth
SVBF Interim Director