Despite the hype surrounding this week's announcement of hip-hop fling performers Ludacris and Gym Class Heroes, some Philadelphia community members are still loyal to the classical greats.
This weekend marks the middle of Bach Festival Week 2008, which was organized by a University of Pennsylvania alumnus to honor classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
Right in time for Bach's birthday today, the festival honors the musician and much more.
"We want to show attendees how different composers pick up things from Bach," said Guido Gaeffke, executive director of Bach Festival Week and member of Penn's class of 1982.
The festival opened on March 14 with a Concerto for Four Pianos and has already showcased some of the city's most prestigious musical groups. Other events include a screening of the film Mein Name ist Bach, presented by the German Society of Philadelphia and a concert featuring the works of Mozart. Tomorrow's event will take place at the Haverford School and will feature the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.
But the festival has more than just an artistic aim.
"We want to show the development of music. My father, for instance, taught comparative literature at Penn. He taught how literature developed throughout time. That's what we want to do with music. We think it would be interesting for students to see the links," Gaeffke said.
The festival extends this theme of education by donating 10 percent off its proceeds to Musicopia, formerly Strings for Schools. However, the benefits of the festival go beyond its financial donations. One of the events involves Andrew Rangell, the artist-in-residence for the festival, going to local K-12 schools to interact with children through music, narration and drawings.
"The schoolteachers were so impressed with the children's reactions," Gaeffke said. "Bringing music to the schools is such an important thing."
"There are a host of statistics showing that students perform better academically when exposed to music," said Dierdre Woody, managing director of Musicopia. "We want to help schools rebuild and get excited about their music programs."
Many of the festival's events are free, but tickets for certain events can be purchased on the festival's Web site, which offers a student rate of $20.
