BachFest 2019 a double reunion for artistic director Zuill Bailey

This year’s Northwest BachFest will be a double reunion for artistic director Zuill Bailey.
He’ll reunite with pianist Yuliya Gorenman, with whom he attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and with cellist Jennifer Morsches, with whom he performed in a youth symphony.
This year’s BachFest opens at St. John’s Cathedral on Sunday with Gorenman’s Bach Extravaganza, a complete performance of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I.
After leaving Peabody, Bailey kept up with Gorenman’s work, and about seven years ago, the pair reconnected while performing together in a Beethoven concert at the Washington Performing Arts Society in Washington D.C.
“This made realize how much I missed our friendship and hearing her play all of those years, so I began incorporating her with all of her many amazing projects in as many things that I could,” Bailey said.
Since then, Bailey and Gorenman, who Bailey said is a larger-than-life personality and performer, have performed as a duo, and he’s presented her in her solo piano recitals.
After inviting Gorenman to come to BachFest, Bailey gave her free range to perform whatever she liked.
Gorenman picked J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, a collection of pieces Bailey said were mostly created as studies for pianists, not necessarily for public consumption.
“I’ve also witnessed Yuliya do this several times already in concert and it’s an extraordinary journey to witness,” he said. “I would use the word ‘hypnotic’ to describe this. You go into this strange, interesting, mystical place in your own being listening to this that no other composer can do to you other than Bach, that I’ve witnessed.”
Prior to Gorenman’s performance, violinist Yvette Kraft, 16, will perform from the Bach Partita No. 1, Allemande and Double, and Sarabande and Double, at 2:40 p.m. as part of Overture, BachFest’s student initiative.
The festival continues Tuesday at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Hotel with a performance of Gorenman’s arrangement for piano of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.”
Gorenman will perform “Scheherazade” again on Wednesday at Barrister Winery.
“Being Russian, this is her 29th anniversary this year of her coming to the USA, and she’s so thrilled to celebrate each year and her life in America but also, of course, always remembering and reflecting on her heritage,” Bailey said. “No one plays ‘Scheherazade’ for solo piano because she made the transcription. It’s going to be extraordinary for everyone.”
On Thursday, BachFest moves to the Hagadone Event Center for the B-A-C-H Prism with the Richter String Ensemble.
The ensemble – violinists Rodolfo Richter and Rebecca Huber, violist Julia Kuhn and cellist Morsches – will perform Bach’s final piece, Art of the Fugue, interlaced with brief Bach-inspired “musical wavelengths” from composers Luciano Berio, Henri Dutilleux and Krzysztof Penderecki.
The Richter String Ensemble will perform the B-A-C-H Prism again on March 8 at Barrister Winery.
Bailey invited the ensemble to BachFest after reconnecting with Morsches last year. He asked her what she had been up to and learned that her work with the Richter String Ensemble involved mixing Bach, baroque music and contemporary music.
“I find that fascinating,” Bailey said. “It’s a study in contrasts and to showcase where we started and where we’ve come … We have to remember that everyone since Bach has been inspired by Bach. He created the mold.”
At noon on Thursday, listeners can bring their lunch to the River Park Square Kress Gallery or purchase something from the food court for Bach’s Lunch, a free event.
During Bach’s Lunch, Gorenman will present highlights from BachFest concerts and more. The hour-long program will be announced at the concert.
At noon on March 8, Bailey and guest artists will perform during another free event, “Flash-Bach!,” at a downtown Spokane venue that will be announced at 8 a.m. March 8 in the Northwest BachFest newsletter, on the Northwest BachFest Facebook page and by Spokane Radio and online print media.
“I basically walk in and decide with whoever I’m playing or by myself what it feels like at that particular moment,” Bailey said about selecting a program. “Luckily, I have enough repertoire in my being that I’m able to be spontaneous.”
On March 10 at Barrister Winery, Northwest BachFest will close with a fundraising dinner and auction.
Perhaps most exciting though is the performance from Bailey and pianist Greg Presley that will kick off the evening.
Bailey will premiere a William Walton cello concerto that he will record with the North Carolina Symphony about two weeks after BachFest.
“They’ll get to hear it first,” Bailey said. “Then when the recording comes out, everyone in Spokane will say ‘We heard it first.’
“It’s also a fun evening of celebrating how the festival went but it’s also looking forward. I like to always call those situations wonderful sound investments.”