Pilgrimage to Bach

EMV closes its Bach Festival with two solo Bach cantatas performed by our artist-in-residence, Jonathon Adams, a Two-Spirit, nêhiyaw michif (Cree-Métis) baritone specializing in early music performance, and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra led from the organ and harpsichord by Alexander Weimann. BWV 82 “Ich habe genug” (It is enough) and BWV 56 – “Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen” (I will carry the burden) are particularly relevant to current times. The cantatas, which work as companion pieces, represent a solo journey, or transition, from this world to the next. In BWV 82, the tension between the physical body and the caged spirit within will be explored whereas the deliberate reframing of colonial Christian narratives towards Indigenous land rights and reclamation of spirit will be the focal point in Cantata BWV 56.

Reneltta Arluk, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and director of the “Messiah/Complex” will serve as a consultant for this project.

Part of the 2021 Vancouver Bach Festival.

Please note that this event is a recording session for EMV’s Digital Concert Hall, not a traditional concert.

J.S. Bach

Cantata BWV 56

“Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen”

Cantata BWV 82

“Ich habe genug”