Here Comes the Charlotte Bach Festival…Now with More Mozart!

May 5, 2025

of Note

Bach Akademie Charlotte’s annual Charlotte Bach Festival is set for May 30th to June 7^th at Queens University’s Sandra Levine Theater and other venues around the city. Performances at this year’s event will include Johann Sebastian Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos, and his 1725 cantata Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt (God so loved the world), BWV 68.

Something else that stands out on the 2025 Charlotte Bach Festival schedule is the presence of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. And why not? Although their lives only overlapped by less than six years, it’s not hard to hear the influence of J.S. Bach on W.A. Mozart. In fact, Mozart even studied with Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian Bach, in London.

The 9-day event opens on Friday, May 30^th with a screening of Miloš Forman’s 1984 Academy Award-winning masterpiece, Amadeus, at Charlotte’s Independent Picture House. The festival will conclude with a performance of Mozart’s stunning Requiem on Saturday, June 7th at the Sandra Levine Theatre.

General admission festival passes are $295, and premium passes are $395. For more information and to purchase passes, visit Bach Akademie Charlotte’s website. Note: Tickets for the Amadeus screening must be purchased directly from the Independent Picture House. Here’s a rundown of the schedule: 

• May 30: Screening of Miloš Forman’s Oscar-winning 1984 biopic, Amadeus, starring Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham. It will be followed by remarks from keyboardist Ian Watson, who performed on the film’s soundtrack, 7:00 p.m.at the Independent Picture House (4237 Raleigh Street).
  
• May 31: The Bach Akademie Charlotte Orchestra performs the complete Brandenburg Concertos, 7:30 p.m. at Queens University’s Sandra Levine Theatre (2319 Wellesley Avenue).
  
• June 1: Winner of the 2024 National Competition in Organ Improvisation, Jerrick Cavagnaro performs an organ recital, 4 p.m. at St. John’s Baptist Church (300 Hawthorne Lane).
  
• June 2: Organist Jerrick Cavagnaro will lead a masterclass, 2 p.m. at Providence Methodist Church (2810 Providence Road).
  
• June 2: The Threads Series presents Bach’s Goldberg Variations, featuring marimba soloist Pius Cheung, 7:30 p.m. at Tate Hall (Central Piedmont Community College).
  
• June 3: Cellist Guy Fishman leads “All in the Familie,” featuring chamber music by Bach and his sons, including J.S. Bach’s Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt (God so loved the world), BWV 68, 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church (1001 Queens Road).
  
• June 4: The Artist Spotlight Series presents tenor Gene Stenger, Tenor with celebrated concert pianist Esther Jeehae Ahn, 7:30 p.m. at Queens University’s Kathryn Greenhoot Recital Hall (2319 Wellesley Avenue).
  
• June 5: Tuning In (formerly The Bach Experience) performs J.S. Bach’s Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, Savior of the heathens), BWV 61, 12:00 p.m. at Myers Park Presbyterian Church (2501 Oxford Place).
  
• June 5: Violinist Aisslin Nosky leads “Follia & Fantasy: The Art of the Trio Sonata,” featuring string sonatas by J.S. Bach and Antonio Vivaldi, 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church (1001 Queens Road).
   
• June 6: Tuning In (formerly The Bach Experience) performsJ.S. Bach’s Meine Seel erhebt den Herren (My soul magnifies the Lord), BWV 10, 12:00 p.m. at Myers Park Presbyterian Church (2501 Oxford Place).
  
• June 6: National YoungArts winner, Cristian Makhuli, and renowned concert pianist Esther Jeehae Ahn present “Mozart at the Keyboard: The Virtuoso Genius”, 7:30 p.m. at Myers Park Presbyterian Church (2501 Oxford Place).
  
• June 7: The Bach Akademie Charlotte Orchestra and Chorus close out the festival with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s masterpiece, The Requiem, 7:30 p.m. at Queens University’s Sandra Levine Theatre (2319 Wellesley Avenue).
  
  

Disclosure: Bach Akademie Charlotte is a WDAV underwriter.