The Decades

It was highly unlikely. The nation was in the depths of the Great Depression, and Winter Park, Florida was a small community next to Orlando. No one would have thought that what would become the nation’s third-oldest continuously performing Bach Festival would be founded there.

But circumstances have a way of making the unlikely happen. It was 1935, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach. Three years earlier, Rollins College had dedicated the Knowles Memorial Chapel, both the largest and the finest church in Central Florida at that time. The Chapel was the generous gift of Frances Knowles Warren in memory of her father, Francis Bangs Knowles, one of the founders of Winter Park and an original Trustee of Rollins College. The Chapel was designed by world renowned architect Ralph Adams Cram, who designed more than 75 churches and cathedrals in the United States and Europe, including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City. And Winter Park, home to Rollins College, had attracted an extraordinary group of dedicated winter residents of sophistication, imagination, and means. With Rollins College President Hamilton Holt and Christopher Honaas, Chairman of the Division of Expressive Arts, all the ingredients were in place for an auspicious beginning.

On March 22, 1935 at 5:30 p.m., in commemoration of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, Honaas and organist Herman F. Siewert, along with the Chapel Choir, presented a Vesper Service of the works of Bach—an event we continue to honor three-quarters of a century later. Attendance that afternoon was so great that they ran out of programs. As a result of the enthusiasm awakened by that first performance, many encouraged Mr. Honaas and Dr. Siewert to expand the celebration of Bach with an annual “Bach Festival.” In particular, Dr. Charles Atwood Campbell, Dean of Knowles Memorial Chapel, led the cause by urging that the event be patterned on the Bethlehem Bach Festival. To do so, however, would require more personnel, more programming, and more money. The event remained a Rollins project. Three different programs were planned—all on Sunday, March 29, 1936: the Morning Meditation at 9:45 a.m., The Vesper Hour at 5 p.m., and a Choral Concert at 8:15 p.m. To swell the ranks of the 49-member Chapel Choir, 23 singers from area church choirs were recruited. Six instrumentalists were also enlisted.

In December of that year, Rollins President Hamilton Holt convened a meeting of those who would be the Society’s Founders —Dr. Campbell, Mr. Honaas, Dr. Siewert, Mrs. Charles Sprague-Smith and Mrs. Frances Knowles Warren—as “The Bach Festival Committee.” Mrs. Sprague-Smith assumed responsibility for fundraising for an April 4-5, 1937 Festival. Their purpose was “to present to the public for its enlightenment, education, pleasure and enjoyment, musical presentations, both orchestral and choral.” They also wished “to bring to the South the beauty, the timelessness of the great choral music of Bach as a fundamental background to a genuine musical education and spiritual understanding.” There is no doubt that Mrs. SpragueSmith transformed what began as Sunday performances on one day in the spring into a real Bach Festival. The first 96 sponsors paid $10 in exchange for two cards of admission for each of the performances. Remaining seats were open to the public.

Who would have thought that these small beginnings would grow into one of the largest oratorio societies in the country, with choruses for the young and for seniors; a superb Bach Choir; educational programs; a chamber series; an accomplished, full-scale orchestra; and a repertoire that astonishes? As the years passed, more community members joined the Bach Choir and fewer students were included. Gradually, instrumental musicians were added, and growth was steady but slow. A transforming moment came in the 1940 Festival when a complete performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor was given—the first such performance in the southern United States. Such luminaries as poet Carl Sandberg, author Rex Beach, Louise and Sidney Homer, and Countess Alexandra Tolstoi attended. The Festival indeed had arrived. The Choir had grown to 140 members, and on April 23 that year the Bach Festival Society officially was incorporated. The Second World War did not weaken the founders’ determination. Performances continued despite many singers and musicians being called to battle. Following the war, a new sense of mission energized the Society with the return of area musicians and the influx of new ones. By 1949 the NBC Radio Network broadcast excerpts from the Festival, a practice that continued into the early 1950s. Complimentary comments were received from as far away as Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. Two major changes occurred, however, that might have ended the Festival.

In 1949 Christopher Honaas was forced to resign due to ill health, and in 1950 Mrs. Sprague-Smith passed away. The extinguishing of two such guiding lights so close together heralded the need for a new era. Harvey L. Woodruff came to take up the baton, and Rollins President Hugh McKean asked John Meyer Tiedtke to assume the leadership of the Festival. Tiedtke had long been involved with the Festival and Rollins. His acumen both as a businessman and as a philanthropist was combined with an acute sensitivity to educational and community needs. His dedication as the Society’s President was to continue for more than 50 years into the 21st century. In 1952 Robert Hufstader succeeded Woodruff in the musical directorship and expanded the Festival from three to four performances. In 1954 he restored Bach’s instrumental music to the schedule, and in 1957 the distinguished lectures began, initiated by the great Bach scholar Paul Henry Lang. Under the leadership team of Hufstader and Tiedtke, the Festival continued to grow and prosper. In the Society’s 25th Anniversary season in 1960, Hufstader added the first major work by another composer: Haydn’s Coronation Mass. In 1966, however, Hufstader resigned for personal reasons, and Ward Woodbury took the reins. Under his leadership, the Society’s program began to expand even further. Choral concerts outside the Festival period were added with the formation of a Rollins College-Florida Symphony Orchestra ensemble. It was also Woodbury who introduced the works of other composers to the Choir’s repertoire: Handel, Beethoven, Monteverdi, Schutz, and Gabrieli, among many others. If there was a distinguishing feature to his work throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, it was the expansion of the repertoire with the addition of many signature oratorio works of the previous 300 years.

In the Society’s 50th Anniversary Season in 1985, for example, Woodbury celebrated the bicentennials of the births of both Bach and Handel. Dr. Woodbury’s wife, Jean, capably handled the administrative demands of the growing Society. Ill health once again, however, forced a conductor to step aside, and Woodbury was joined by Murray Somerville on the podium in 1985. Eventually, Somerville took over all conducting responsibilities until he left for a position at Harvard University in 1990. His tenure, however, provided an added international dimension to the programs. With the arrival of Dr. John V. Sinclair that year as Artistic Director and Conductor, the Society entered its most productive period. Under Dr. Sinclair’s leadership, the Bach Choir enhanced its outstanding professional reputation and broadened its repertoire. Charles Rex, former Associate Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, recently wrote, “There are very few choruses the size of the Bach Festival Choir that are as consistently excellent as this chorus.” A superb Bach Festival Orchestra now performs at all Festival and Concert Series events to the highest professional standards. Dr. Sinclair also launched a wide series of educational programs in the community, which are described in the pages that follow. The turn of the millennium brought a renewed concern for the future of the organization, and in 2000 it completed an Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation Challenge Grant to establish an Endowment Fund. Matching gifts came from members of the community and the Choir itself, along with a major gift from Mr. Tiedtke. In 2003 additional matching gifts from the Genius Foundation and Mr. Tiedtke deepened the resources of the Endowment. In 2003 John Tiedtke recognized the need to pass on the leadership baton of the Society’s Board of Trustees and stepped up from President to Chairman of the Board. J. Michael Murphy served as President in 2003-04, and Philip Tiedtke succeeded him in 2004-05. John Tiedtke’s passing on December 22, 2004 left a legacy of leadership and contributions to the arts in Central Florida that likely will never be equaled. In 2005 The Reverend Eric Ravndal III became President of the organization and immediately undertook the vital task of transforming a Society that had long benefited from the intense attention and support of a single, influential leader into a modern, professional music organization. Fr. Ravndal significantly expanded the small Board of Trustees to 10 members, bringing to the Society a talented group of dedicated volunteers with diverse backgrounds in law, business, education, and the arts. He also assembled a small but very capable office staff under the direction of Executive Director Elizabeth Gwinn.

What has this extraordinary history brought about? Perhaps one measure of its significant achievement is that in 2009 the Bach Choir not only was invited to perform for a second time with the London Symphony Orchestra—one of the finest in the world—but also received a Just Plain Folks Award for one of its recordings. Another quite different measure of the Society’s achievement, however, lies in the exceptional financial support that it has received from many sources. In an era when revenues from ticket sales typically provide less than one-half of operating expenses, arts organizations like the Bach Festival Society cannot survive without the generous support of government, corporations, foundations, and individuals.

The Bach Festival Society is deeply grateful for the history of support received from the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs; the Orange County Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs; the City of Winter Park; United Arts of Central Florida; the Martin Andersen-Gracia Andersen Foundation; the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation; the Darden Restaurants Foundation; the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation; and others. Equally important has been the support of hundreds of individuals, many of whom make generous contributions to sponsor the outstanding soloists who are retained for the Society’s major productions. This exceptional level of generosity and support must be maintained to assure the Bach Festival Society’s next 75 years.

Excerpt taken from the 75th Anniversary Book. Read more.