Festival Stories: Benjamin Bergey

One of the main reasons I chose to study at Eastern Mennonite University was to study and work with Ken Nafziger (founding director of SVBF). I found myself with many similar passions and trajectories and was drawn to study with him for those many reasons. At the time, I was not familiar with the Bach Festival, but quickly came to see how valuable it was in this community, and what a rich opportunity it was to observe as a young conductor at that time.

I interacted with the festival in different ways over the years. Sometimes it was as a concertgoer, other times performing in the festival choir, as a shadow conductor, or even as an intern before my current position as assistant conductor. 

One of my most vivid memories was when I was in college helping the festival as an intern. I was assisting with stage changes for a noon concert at Asbury. The quartet wanted to use their own wire music stands with music on them. I was trying to carry two at a time to make the transition quicker, but the music started to fall off due to the open back of a wire stand. As I tried to catch the music, I set one of the stands down but set it at the edge of the stage. As I went to pick up the music, that stand tipped off the stage. By now, the audience was laughing, so I just smiled and quickly set everything up before going off to find a cave to crawl into.

It is now my honor and privilege to serve the festival as the assistant conductor. The Leipzig services are such a treasured and special component to these festivals. I hope to see you Sunday morning for the next one!

Benjamin Bergey
Assistant Conductor