Blanche Moyse, peerless conductor of Bach choral works, dies at 101

By Matt Schudel

Blanche Moyse, a renowned violinist during her youth in Europe,
who became one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the choral
music of Johann Sebastian Bach during a second career as a
conductor and teacher in Vermont, died Feb. 10 at her home in West
Brattleboro, Vt. She was 101. The cause of death was not
disclosed.

Mrs. Moyse (pronounced moy-EESE) began her career as a violinist
in the 1920s and performed across the European continent as a
soloist and chamber musician. After World War II, she settled in
Vermont and, with several other musicians, founded the Marlboro
Music School and Festival, which has become a celebrated center of
chamber music.

Later, after an arm injury ended her career as a violinist in
1966, Mrs. Moyse turned to conducting, with a concentration on the
hundreds of choral works composed by Bach in the 18th century. She
worked with a chorus of amateur singers in a Vermont town of 8,000,
building a reputation for performances of unrivaled subtlety,
emotion and integrity.

“Blanche Moyse may be classical music’s best-kept secret,”
critic Benjamin Ivry wrote in the Christian Science Monitor in
2002.

When she brought her 38-voice choral group to New York in 1984
to perform Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, critics were
astonished.