About Tuba Bach
MISSION: To provide the Big Rapids area community the opportunity to attend and experience world-class performances of chamber music in their own town, free of charge.
Attending a performance of world renowned chamber musicians is something that you would presume to do in any major city. To expect to do that in a small town — for free, mind you — is quite another. This concept is exactly what Tuba Bach is about. The chamber music concert series is the idea of internationally renowned tuba-euphonium artist and composer and Big Rapids native Dr. Edward K. Mallett.
TUBA BACH was started in 2006, and in that inaugural season the series reached more than 2,400 audience members. In addition to bringing world class performances of chamber music to Big Rapids, Tuba Bach's mission is also to provide area schools with the opportunity to bring world class performers directly to their students. Those in the community who are interested and able have the opportunity to financially support world class performances in Big Rapids.
The Tuba Bach series inspires audiences of all ages and from all walks of life, representing a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnic diversity, education and cultural experiences.
EDWARD K. MALLETT is a Big Rapids native, recently returning to the area with his family as a home base for his musical activities. Dr. Mallett is recognized internationally as a performer on the tuba and euphonium, performing as soloist and chamber musician throughout North America in venues ranging from major concert halls to pre-school classrooms. Along with his solo career, he frequently performs throughout Michigan with his wife, Adriana, as TubaTales, a literacy and music program developed by the Malletts for elementary age students. Dr. Mallett is also recognized as the world's foremost authority on the double bell euphonium, presenting clinics and seminars on the instrument at a variety of international events. As a composer, Mallett has had his works performed throughout the world, with pieces ranging from intimate chamber works to full orchestral symphonic pieces. In 1998, Dr. Mallett was nominated for the Pulitzer prize in music for his work Tanka and Haiku: August 1945, a multi-media work for soprano, flute and piano, featuring poetry, photography and artwork of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mallett earned his undergraduate degree in music from Central Michigan University in 1992 and graduate degrees in music from Michigan State University in 1993 and 1996. Mallett taught for over ten years at college and universities in Michigan and North Carolina before returning to Michigan to pursue his performing and composing full time. He happily lives back in the Big Rapids are with Adriana, their sons Gordon and Noah, and dogs Bartok, Elliott, Charlie and Dizzy. He has signficantly less hair than the above photograph might lead one to believe.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, a control of harmonic and motivic organisation from the smallest to the largest scales, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France.
Revered for their intellectual depth and technical and artistic beauty, JS Bach's works include the Brandenburg concertos; the Goldberg Variations; the English Suites, French Suites, Partitas, and Well-Tempered Clavier; the Mass in B Minor; the St Matthew Passion; The Musical Offering; The Art of Fugue; the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo; the Cello Suites; more than 200 surviving cantatas; and a similar number of organ works, including the famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Although not always appreciated during his own lifetime, and considered to be "old-fashioned" by his contemporaries, especially late in his career, today Bach is considered one of the most famous and influential composers of all time. (From Wikipedia)
Biography of J.S. Bach
Tuba Bach Committee
Jack Batdorff |
Co-President, Artworks |
Dr. Richard Scott Cohen |
Associate Professor of Music, Ferris State University Member, Artworks Board of Directors |
Jeff Gabalis |
Digital Media Specialist, Ferris State University |
Dr. Michael Mekaru |
Big Rapids Pediatrics Physician |
Janet Mallett |
Big Rapids Musician |
Advisors
Glen Pepper |
Financial Advisor |
Dave Borth |
Grant Advisor |
Web site design and management: Jeff Gabalis