Our 2025-2026 Season

As we welcome our new artistic director Nate Widelitz and begin an exciting new chapter in our history, California Bach Society’s 55th season will immerse our audiences in four magical sound worlds. Experience the architectural grandeur of Renaissance polychoral traditions along with masterworks and hidden treasures of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras, as we celebrate the power of music to uplift the spirit, comfort the soul, and connect us across time and space.

Please note our concert start times of 7:30pm for Friday and Saturday evenings.

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First Concert

Oct 3–5

Cori Spezzati

The Spatial Art of Split-Choir Sound

Friday, October 3, 2025, 7:30pm
— St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 1111 O’Farrell, San Francisco
Saturday, October 4, 2025, 7:30pm
— First Congregational Church, 1985 Louis Rd, Palo Alto
Sunday, October 5, 2025, 4pm
— St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft, Berkeley

A tribute to the grand choral traditions of Renaissance Venice, this program celebrates the striking antiphonal style known as cori spezzati—music written for split-choir ensembles in conversation. Voices and instruments echo across space in works by Bach, Schütz, Willaert, Phinot, and others, with shifting textures that highlight the drama of large and small forces. Bach’s dazzling double-choir motet Singet dem Herrn crowns the program with jubilant brilliance.

Second Concert

Dec 5–7

Laudate Coeli

Songs of Light in Winter’s Deep

Friday, December 5, 2025, 7:30pm
— Trinity+St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1620 Gough St, San Francisco
Saturday, December 6, 2025, 7:30pm
— First Congregational Church, 1985 Louis Rd, Palo Alto
Sunday, December 7, 2025, 4pm
— St. John’s Presbyterian, 2727 College Ave, Berkeley

Join us for a radiant program of Christmas music spanning three centuries—performed with strings, organ, harp, and stellar soloists. Buxtehude’s Das neugeborne Kindelein bursts with Baroque joy; Charpentier’s In nativitatem Domini brings vivid storytelling and charm; and Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël glows with Romantic warmth and elegance. Complementing these works are three gems that illuminate the season’s spirit: Charpentier’s Magnificat, Brahms’s O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf, and Distler’s Es ist ein Ros entsprungen. Come celebrate the beauty, harmony, and hope of the holiday season with us!

Soloists: Rita Lilly, soprano; Mindy Ella Chu, mezzo soprano; Corey Head, tenor; Chung-Wai Soong, bass. With members of Jubilate Baroque Orchestra, a program of the San Francisco Early Music Society

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Third Concert

Feb 27-
Mar 1

On Leaving

Music for Parting and Passage

Friday, February 27, 2026, 7:30pm
— St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 1111 O’Farrell, San Francisco
Saturday, February 28, 2026, 7:30pm
— All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 555 Waverley, Palo Alto
Sunday, March 1, 2026, 4pm
— St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft, Berkeley

A contemplative program centered on loss, longing, and transcendence, including Bach’s beloved Jesu, meine Freude. The concert also features Estonian composer Galina Grigorjeva’s Na Ishod and multiple settings of a plaintive Tenebrae text—together offering a rich meditation on parting and remembrance across time and tradition.

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Fourth Concert

May 1-3

Psalmen Davids

Three Centuries of Sacred Song

Friday, May 1, 2026, 7:30pm
— St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 1111 O’Farrell, San Francisco
Saturday, May 2, 2026, 7:30pm
— All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 555 Waverley, Palo Alto
Sunday, May 3, 2026, 4pm
— St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft, Berkeley

A radiant journey through psalm settings from the late Renaissance to the Romantic era, this program centers on Heinrich Schütz’s Psalmen Davids (Psalms of David)— a collection of dynamic sacred works for multiple choirs that helped shape the early German Baroque. Along with Schütz, you’ll hear psalms brilliantly reimagined by Mendelssohn, Schubert, Gallus, and Rossi, tracing centuries of musical devotion in a vibrant tapestry of languages, sonorities, and expressive styles.