Maya Lubetsky ’26

This summer, I worked with Professor Christine Howlett to help run the Hudson Valley Bachfest that is held at Vassar. The first part of this project involved studying community engagement. I was able to become acquainted with the members of Bachfest and understand how choral music had led them to meet and care for people from many different walks of life. I was able to interact with the Bachfest members not only as an administrator but also as a fellow choral singer as I had the pleasure of joining the choir. For the second part of the project, I wrote the program notes for the four pieces that the choir sang. While writing these detailed notes I learned how complicated it can be to research pieces dating back to the 17th century as a lot of information has been lost to history. However, it can be exciting to parse through lots of sources to come up with a clearer understanding of these compositions and their place in history. I created a bibliography to help track all the research and sources I used to create the program notes.

For Bachfest we of course sang some Bach. But we also sang pieces from Dieterich Buxtehude and Heinrich Schutz. By singing pieces written before Bach’s time, choral singers and listeners can better understand his contributions to music (in this case choral music) and how it continually evolves.

Thank you Professor Howlett for the opportunity to work on such an engaging project and further discover my passion for music history.