Chicago’s Bach in the City will conclude its debut concert season with the Midwest premiere of British musicologist Malcolm Bruno’s recent reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach’s lost St. Mark Passion, BWV 247, at 7:30 p.m. March 20, 2026, at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 1010 W. Webster Ave., Chicago, the organization’s home venue.
Soloists are Hannah De Priest, soprano; Ryan Belongie, countertenor; Oliver Camacho, tenor; and David McFerrin, bass.
Founding Music Director Richard Webster will conduct the 40-member Bach in the City Chorus and an 18-piece period-instrument orchestra.
Webster says the organization’s research suggests the one-night-only event might be the first Chicago performance of Bach’s St. Mark Passion in more than four decades.
Webster, who led the Chicago area’s former Bach Week Festival for a half century, composed music for the Passion’s recitatives (speech-like passages) and turba choruses (crowd reactions) expressly for this performance. Bruno’s reconstruction omits scores for those parts.
“To compose music for the Passion narrative, as it is written in the Gospel of Mark, has been both challenging and humbling,” Webster says. “I have done my absolute best to honor the legacy and style of J. S. Bach.”
Webster credits “the invaluable editorial assistance and expertise” of harpsichordist Jason Moy, Bach in the City’s associate music director, with bringing these scores to fruition.
Bruno’s “beguiling” reconstruction
Bach’s music for the St. Mark Passion, first performed in 1731, has been long lost, but the text survives. Combining detective work and informed speculation, scholars over the decades have devised versions of the Passion using pre-existing Bach works that fit the libretto. Bach, like other Baroque composers, frequently recycled his own compositions, a process called parody. It’s widely believed that this is how Bach assembled his St. Mark Passion.
Bruno’s 2019 reconstruction relies, as its foundation, on Bach’s poignant “Trauer-Ode,” BWV 198, a memorial cantata of courtly dignity and spiritual consolation, with movements borrowed from other Bach cantatas to complete the work.
Like the “Trauer-Ode,” this St. Mark Passion surrounds the listener with a glowing sonic palette of flutes, oboes d’amore, violas da gamba, and strings.
In 2025, Concert Theatre Works, Inc., in collaboration with local early music presenters, gave the U.S. premiere of Bruno’s version in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, followed by premieres in New York, Portland and Eugene, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.
Bach in the City’s Webster attended the New York performance.
“It was beguiling, compelling, and very effective,” Webster says.
New York Classical Review hailed Bruno’s realization as “artfully arranged for dramatic and musical effect” and “highly engaging and theatrically satisfying.”
Bruno had the original German texts of the story-propelling recitatives and dramatic crowd reactions translated to English. Webster says that for English-speaking listeners this lends an immediacy and contemporary relevance to the story of the final events of Jesus’s life.
“Sitting in the audience,” Webster says, “I recognized that performing this exquisite new version of the St. Mark Passion amid the visual splendor of St. Vincent de Paul Church would perfectly align with Bach in the City’s mission of presenting works by Bach and his contemporaries in innovative programs Chicago audiences can’t experience anywhere else.”
An “orchestral” approach
Comparing Bach in the City’s staging to the production that toured the U.S. last year, Webster says, “Ours will be more traditional, but hardly conventional.”
The touring production, described by its presenters as a “pocket Passion,” cast a professional stage and screen actor as the Evangelist, speaking rather than singing the scripture-based recitatives. The four soloists served as the chorus, accompanied by a small instrumental chamber ensemble.
“We’re taking more of an orchestral approach and utilizing a full chorus,” Webster says.
In an unorthodox twist, the narrative role of the Evangelist in Bach in the City’s performance will be shared among the soloists rather than being assigned to one singer as in Bach’s well-known St. Matthew and St. John Passions.
Webster envisions the March 20 concert as “a memorable musical prelude to Holy Week in Chicago.”
Passion performers
Soprano Hannah De Priest is renowned for her “masterful” (Ôlyrix) performances of Baroque repertoire. Consistently described as a “standout” and praised for her “bright, ideally-focused sound, allied to a probing expressive intelligence” (Chicago Classical Review), the young soprano enjoys a fast-rising career in North America and Europe. In Chicago, she sings frequently with Haymarket Opera and Ars Musica Chicago and has also performed as a soloist with Music of the Baroque, Apollo Chorus, Art Song Chicago, Elgin Symphony, Bella Voce, and The Newberry Consort. Her debut solo album “Arcadian Dreams” with Les Délices will be released on the Avie label in March.
Chicago countertenor Ryan Belongie’s operatic engagements include San Francisco Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Opera de Montréal, Atlanta Opera, Boston Baroque, Chicago Opera Theater, Festival Napa Valley, Haymarket Opera Company, Long Beach Opera, Opera Bergen, St. Petersburg Opera, Tulsa Opera, West Edge Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. Concert appearances include the Alabama Symphony, Dallas Opera Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival, Il Complesso Barocco, Kansas City Symphony, Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Music of the Baroque, San Diego Symphony, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Utah Festival Opera, and Utah Symphony.
Tenor Oliver Camacho has been praised as “superbly stylish” by the Chicago Tribune and for offering “sumptuous depth and storyteller’s drama” by Chicago Classical Review. A proud graduate of Chicago’s Lane Tech High School where he was mentored by George Rico, Oliver Camacho went on to study music at Northwestern University and historically informed performance practice at Amherst Early Music Festival and Early Music Vancouver. He has been a soloist with the Newberry Consort, Bella Voce, Chicago Choral Artists, Bach Cantata Vespers, Madison Bach Musicians, North Shore Choral Society, and Distant Worlds Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a producer and co-host of Opera Box Score podcast, and is Music Director of Classical WFMT, where he hosts “Listening to Singers.”
Boston-based baritone David McFerrin’s opera credits include Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, the Rossini Festival in Germany, and numerous appearances with Boston Lyric Opera and other local companies. He has sung as a concert soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, and the Boston Pops. David has completed chamber music and recital residencies at the Caramoor, Ravinia, and Marlboro Festivals. He is also a member of the Renaissance vocal ensemble Blue Heron, winner of the 2018 Gramophone award for Best Early Music Album. Recent performance highlights have included “Noye’s Fludde” with Boston Lyric Opera and concerts with American Bach Soloists.
Tickets and information
Single tickets for the St. Mark Passion are $45 for VIP admission, which includes reserved seating; $30 adult general admission; $25 seniors 65 and older; and $10 students (with valid ID) and children. Tickets and information are available online at bachinthecity.org and by calling 312-273-9834.
St. Vincent de Paul Church1010 W. Webster Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60614
United States
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.