Great artists have changed the course of history. If one believes in the arts as an important, integral part of our culture, then a relatively small list of people has changed the way we are, the way we think. J.S. Bach certainly counts as one of these seminal artists, and it was for the performance of his sacred cantatas that Emmanuel Music was formed in 1970. Through our musicians' weekly cantata performances, we discovered that the works of Bach are the best training for a musician's technique and soul. Our text-driven interest in the overtly expressive nature of the music and our interest in projecting the meaning of the music, as well as the performance, became the dominant force shaping all musical activities at Emmanuel. The sheer number of performances of Bach, Mozart, Handel, Schütz, and others by our small core group of performers has made for our unusual unanimity of viewpoint and synergetic rapport, and created an "Emmanuel style" that is recognizable and unique among classical musicians.

More...