San Diego Early Music Society

Lecture: The Elements of a Bach Passion
2026-02-24 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Conrad Prebys Music Center, 9410 Russell Lane, La Jolla, California, 92093, United States
This FREE event is part of an exciting collaboration between SDEMS and the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, featuring two SDEMS-sponsored public lectures that complement LJS&C’s upcoming performances of J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion.

Dr. Daniel R. Melamed | The Elements of a Bach Passion

Introduction by Dr. Ruben Valenzuela, founder and artistic director, Bach Collegium San Diego.

What was a passion setting in J. S. Bach’s time? What was its purpose? When and where was it heard? What textual and musical materials was it made from? How were its words and music meant to be understood in Bach’s day? If we are going to understand what Bach’s St. John Passion might mean today, we need to start with these questions about the piece as its librettist and composer regarded it in 1724.

Daniel R. Melamed is professor emeritus of musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is director of the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project and co-author, with Michael Marissen, of BachCantataTexts.org, a freely available source for historically informed translations of the texts of J. S. Bach’s vocal music. His book Hearing Bach’s Passions, for general readers, is available from Oxford University Press. He also serves as president of the Mozart Society of America.

WHEN: Tuesday, February 24, 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Conrad Prebys Music Center, UCSD, Room 127. Paid parking in the Gilman parking structure on 3100 Gilman Dr.
