A list of all those who passed through Junior Bach Festival on their way to becoming professional musicians during our 50+ year history would be long indeed. A 1993 gala alumni concert, including such prominent performers as Miriam Abramowitsch, Roy Bogas, Bonny Hampton, Mack McCray, Sarah Cahill, and many others, indicated how wide a range of music these performers have turned to since their early Junior Bach experience. To mention just a few in various genre of music, from early European music onward:
Medievalist Shira Kammen (alumna ’73) and Renaissance music performer Robert Mealy (’81) are well known nationwide in the field of early music. Primarily into baroque music are current or former members of the Bay Area’s Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra, such as oboist Bruce Haynes, flutist Kathleen Kraft, cellist Elizabeth LeGuin, violinists Katy Kyme and Lisa Grodin.
Jon Nakamatsu (alumnus 1978-80) Gold Medalist in the 1997 Van Cliburn Competition, has been playing the concert circuit since then. His version of Chopin’s Polonaise Militaire is the most frequent one heard on KDFC, 102.1.
Violinist Ben Simon ( ‘73) is the current director of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, which performs a wide range of music spanning the centuries.
Pianist Sarah Cahill ( ‘74-‘78) has devoted much of her solo piano performances to contemporary music.
Church organist Ron McKean (’71, ’79) has made improvisation in the style of baroque composers his specialty.
Cellist Matty Haimovitz ( ‘82) has in recent years been playing Jimmy Hendricks as well as solo Bach in nightclubs, according to the New York Times.
More into the field of jazz since his JB performance in 1975, violinist Jeremy Cohen has played in such ensembles as the Turtle Island String Quartet and in productions such as ForeverTango.
Already into folk-fiddling by the time of their last JB appearances in Festival 2000, 19-year-old Tristan Clarridge now plays in Darrol Anger’s Republic of Strings, while elder sister Tashina has concertised in ensemble with Edger Meyer. Playing the Prelude from Bach’s E Major Partita usually wows the fiddle crowd, so she says.
Did you play in a Junior Bach Festival? We invite you to email us word of your subsequent career in music, or just a note of interest to the Junior Bach community. We’ll be happy to put links to your Web site and email address, too. Contact us.