Lenox — The Berkshire Bach Society has scheduled four educational presentations in September, November, January, and March that deal with films and books about the life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The first will be held at Lenox Town Hall on September 6, at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield on September 7, and on September 8 at WMHT Educational Telecommunications in Troy, N.Y. Berkshire Bach Artistic Director Eugene Drucker will open the event with a performance of two movements of a Bach Cello Suite on viola.
That’s right: Mr. Drucker, violinist with the retired Emerson String Quartet, will play the cello suite movements on a viola, a feat that most violinists would be advised to try only at home.
When Mr. Drucker assumed the position of the Society’s artistic director in January of this year, it raised expectations around his ability to devote more time in the Berkshires to educational activities. (He still teaches at Stony Brook University.) The Society’s BBS Portals series exemplifies the type of Bach-related content we have been hoping for.
Cook’s films explore realms of human expression found in places where cinema and the performing arts intersect. The L.A. Times called his debut feature documentary, “Strangers on the Earth,” “an inspiring and transporting portrait” of life and music along Spain’s Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. It follows cellist Dane Johansen as he carries his cello along the ancient pilgrimage route from France to Spain, stopping to play Bach’s music in churches along the way.
Mr. Cook has collaborated with such artists and organizations as the Emerson String Quartet, pianist Inon Barnatan, violinist Augustin Hadelich, the New York Philharmonic, “Live from Lincoln Center,” the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, La Jolla Summerfest, and Music@Menlo. Having earned his B.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, he now holds the position of filmmaker-in-residence at the Bravo Vail Music Festival.
A graduate of Columbia University and the Juilliard School, Eugene Drucker served as concertmaster and in solo roles with the Juilliard Orchestra, making his New York debut as a Concert Artists Guild winner in the fall of 1976. A founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, Drucker has appeared as a soloist with orchestras of Jerusalem, Omaha, Richmond, Montreal, Hartford, Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, and the Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as with the the Aspen Chamber Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, and American Symphony Orchestra. A nine-time GRAMMY and three-time Gramophone Magazine Award winner, Drucker has recorded the complete works of Bach for unaccompanied violin (on Parnassus Records); all of Bartók’s sonatas and duos (on Biddulph Recordings); and, with the Emerson Quartet, a large number of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon featuring works ranging from Bach and Haydn to contemporary repertoire. He has taught at Stony Brook University for 21 years and has recently joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.
See Tristan Cook’s film “Strangers on the Earth,” preceded by a performance of two movements of a Bach Cello Suite by Eugene Drucker and followed by a discussion of the film led by Mr. Drucker. The dates and venues are: September 6 at Lenox Town Hall, 6 Walker Street, Lenox; September 7 at Berkshire Community College’s Koussevitsky Arts Center, 1350 West Street, Pittsfield; and September 8 at WMHT Educational Telecommunications, 4 Global View, Troy, NY. For more information, visit the Society’s web page.
