Inside Pieris Music’s studio, it sounds like water’s being heated for tea—a constant, escalating coo, which is actually half a ton of technology at whirring work...

...You wouldn’t normally hear a solo violin line with swirling synths and a pulsing beat driving underneath... Add projected visuals that colorfully throb, which explain—and are in fact hooked up to—a piece’s texture, and you have is Bach for the 21st century...

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Inside Pieris Music’s studio, it sounds like water’s being heated for tea—a constant, escalating coo, which is actually half a ton of technology at whirring work. There are computers, speakers, a projector, a keyboard and, somewhat anachronistically, a piano. Founder Eric Haeker and DJ Ben Camp are getting ready for their set at this year’s Bach Festival. The weeklong event, March 16-25, will have few silent moments. There will be soloists, cantatas, flutes and choirs, Philadelphia talent—such as celebrated pianist Simone Dinnerstein—and musicians from abroad, the echo appeal of church locales, and orchestral performances within the well-planned walls of the Kimmel Center. Pieris Music’s performance will last just 25 minutes on the 25th, but it may very well be the loudest, with the help of microphones, amps and a crowd that could decide, after a minute or two, to get up and dance.

“Basically what we’re doing is re-orchestrating it,” explains Camp. “Just how Bach re-orchestrated Vivaldi [for the harpsichord], I’m re-orchestrating Bach. I’m not changing any of the notes in some cases, but I’m adding new textures. You wouldn’t normally hear a solo violin line with swirling synths and a pulsing beat driving underneath it.” Add projected visuals that colorfully throb, which explain—and are in fact hooked up to—a piece’s texture, and what you have is Bach for the 21st century —a Bach that Pieris Music feels is necessary if classical music is to continue drawing crowds. “The people who are trying to evolve the classical music tradition always win,” says Haeker, who believes that if Bach were around today he’d pounce on the new technology.

Of course, this is mere irritant to some. There are purists, and they’ve got a pretty good reason to be—Bach, after all, is Bach. “Bach moves. It’s live. It’s living,” proclaims Jonathan Sternberg, the festival’s artistic director and conductor for the Festive Cantatas, scheduled March 24. “Everything is loud today, requires a microphone. But to hear a real soft sound that is beautifully created, the variation in dynamics is beautiful in itself.”

The festival—one of the largest world music events in the country with origins in Chestnut Hill—is in its 31st year, and will be heightened this round in quantity and quality, promises executive director Guido Houben. “There’s an interesting mix this time,” Houben says. “People are coming from Europe, from across the U.S.”For the relative newcomer to Bach, Houben suggests visitors take in Sternberg’s Festive Cantatas. “The concert that Jonathan is conducting—it features so many aspects of what Bach does. These cantata instrumentations are very changing, there’s a lot of variety going on, a lot of wonderful melodies flowing into each other, a conversation. There’s a number of colors, of different and varying compositions. And then, of course, you have the personality of Jonathan.”

And what of this personality? Sternberg, an animated presence at 87, describes his conducting style as an individual interpretation. “I base mine on the experience and feelings I have,” he explains. “The musical score is like a road map—one point to another, either in a route by the mountains, a route by the lakes, the seaside—each gets you there.” Music, he asserts, is an aural sense, and his preference is that listeners close their eyes while absorbing the sound. “To appreciate Bach requires an effort—listening and adjusting, learning to know it.”

For the “Bach expert,” Houben suggests attending a performance March 18, featuring German pianist Markus Pawlik who will perform Bach’s Chromatic Fantasies. “He’s giving it his own color, but then corresponding that with the Bach variations by Reger and a composition by Liszt. To put it in a nutshell, it’s an afternoon of German composers and they all tackle Bach. What makes it distinct is the color. There’s more tone to it, half steps—it will be very sophisticated in its harmonies.”

Bach indeed is being tampered with. But perhaps a better word would be played. Bach indeed is being played—and played quite often—this March. For information, visit www.bach-fest.org.

Caren Beilin lives in Philadelphia, PA.