Andrew Koehler

James Turner, who retires as artistic director of the Kalamazoo Bach Festival at the end of the season, will lead his 20th 'BachFest Christmas!' on Sunday. He spoke with Cara Lieurance about the music he has planned, and looks back on his time with the organization. Included in the conversation are chorister Gail Griffin, who joined the choir at the same time as Turner, and Arcato Chamber Ensemble conductor Andrew Koehler.

Conductor Andrew Koehler and Cara Lieurance preview the Kalamazoo Philharmonia's next concert, which shows how composers like Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Brahms paid homage to composers and styles of the past.

  Kalamazoo Symphonic Musicians are enthusiastic about presenting a summer park concert on Friday night to benefit Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes and the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission. Organized independently by the musicians, who recently came to an agreement after an extended dispute with KSO management, it's the first outdoor symphonic concert since 2010. Conductor Andrew Koehler says it's a "trip around the world" program featuring audience favorites by Strauss, Bizet, Copland, Puccini, and Brahms. 

Andrew Koehler will conduct the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra and the combined choirs of Portage Central, Portage Northern, Vicksburg, and Kalamazoo Central High Schools in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection," in its season-ending concert on Sunday in Chenery Auditorium.  Soprano Lisa Borik and mezzo-soprano Lauren Auge are the featured soloists. 

The 69th Annual Bach Festival Week begins with a performance of Mozart's Requiem, his final, unfinished masterpiece, Saturday night. It brings together the Kalamazoo Bach Festival Chorus, led by James Turner, and the Arcato Ensemble, a group founded by conductor Andrew Koehler.

Musicologist Zaide Pixley will present a pre-concert talk about the Requiem and the circumstances under which it was written. In an interview with Cara Lieurance, she attempts to dispel some of the fabrications and exaggerations which were attached to the final days of Mozart's life. Even so, Andrew Koehler says there is a quality of urgency and dread in the work that does suggest he was grappling with his own mortality. James Turner describes the process of preparing the chorus for the performance, and introduces the soloists for the concert. 

The concert is set for 8 pm on Saturday, April 9 in Chenery Auditorium, with a pre-concert talk at 7 pm.