As musical families go, none can touch the name Bach.
With Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) as the North Star, the Bach family’s influence extends over two centuries and includes several composers, some 50 musicians and a priceless musical heritage.
That heritage will be celebrated by Our Lady of Fatima Parish’s Bach Festival from July 11 to July 26, featuring soloists with international reputations and Our Lady of Fatima choir soloists and musicians performing on period instruments.
All performances will take place at Our Lady of Fatima Church, 3307 W. Dravus St.
Noted British musician Nigel North kicks off the festival on July 11, performing unaccompanied lute works of J.S. Bach.
Our Lady of Fatima music director Matthew Loucks is passionate about J.S. Bach, considered the West’s greatest composer of sacred music, who created a universe of mathematical precision and transcendent beauty.
“It elevates the listener,” Loucks said of Bach’s music.
While other Bach family members are represented in the musical lineup, J.S. Bach is the go-to guy. Loucks said many listeners are accustomed to hearing Bach as a massive auditory experience, a legacy of large, 19th-century choirs and music halls. In reality, Bach wrote for far fewer instruments and voices, he noted.
“People will have the opportunity to hear [J.S.] Bach’s music as close to his intentions as possible,” Loucks said.
“This festival is more intimate,” he continued. “It goes back to Bach’s language.”
The other guest soloists are Monica Hugget on Baroque violin and organist Jonathan Ryan. The resident pipe organ, Loucks added, is similar to the one J.S. Bach would have played on.
Loucks, 46, grew up in Magnolia, attended Our Lady of Fatima School and Bishop Blanchet High School and graduated with a degree in music from Seattle Pacific University in 1991.
He plays the harpsichord, kettle drum and recorder and has recently taken up the viola da gamba. “Before I die I’m going to learn a stringed instrument,” he joked.
He and his wife, Carla, are the parents of four children.
Loucks served as musical director for a large Catholic Church in Littleton, Colo., where he started that state’s first period-music orchestra.
When he returned home to Magnolia as Fatima director of music in 2008, he launched a modest version of a Bach festival, but the 2013 version is on another level.
“I love it here. This is my parish,” Loucks said.
The July 26 finale features Our Lady of Fatima Chamber Choir, soloists and Baroque orchestra performing on 18th-century instruments and will include “Brandenburg Concerto III,” by J.S. Bach; “Cantata BWV 147,” by J.S. Bach; and “Missa Brevis in D,” by J.C. Altinickol, son-in-law of J.S. Bach.
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