Bluffton University's annual Bach Festival will include Bach's Lunch on Friday, March 16, and the Bach Festival Concert on Sunday, March 18. Both events are free and open to the public; a free-will offering will be taken during the concert's intermission to help defray expenses.
The concert will open at 2:30 p.m. in Yoder Recital Hall with the third annual Mosiman Young Artist Competition.
All seniors, the three finalists chosen to perform are soprano Kristin Beckman from Ottawa, Ohio; Beth McCullough from Sherwood, Ohio, on flute; and Kitanya Murray from Findlay, Ohio, on alto saxophone. The winner, to be announced following intermission, will receive a $100 cash prize.
Conducted by Dr. Jon Peterson, an assistant professor of music at Bluffton, the concert will feature a performance of Haydn's "Mass in time of war" by the Bluffton Choral Society, a choir comprising community members and Bluffton students, faculty and staff; university choral groups Accent! and Bel Canto; a chamber orchestra; and soloists Dr. Crystal Sellers, soprano; Julia Szabo, alto; Ryan Connelly, tenor; and Timothy Bruno, bass.
Sellers, who holds a doctorate in vocal performance from The Ohio State University, is an assistant professor of music at Bluffton. Szabo, formerly a professional singer in New York City for 25 years, is the university's director of alumni relations and annual giving. Both Connelly and Bruno are performers who earned master's degrees from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music.
The traditional Bach's Lunch will begin at noon Friday in the Gilliom Room of Mosiman Hall, where Bluffton students will perform in an informal setting. Individuals may bring their own lunch.
