BACH & more friends
Production on hold while seeking funding
Many people have been touched by BACH & friends and often in very personal and spiritual ways. Yet the film only explored a part of Bach's enormous body of work. I am making a companion film to expand for my audience a larger vision of Bach's greatest masterpieces - especially the vocal and ensemble music.
As in BACH & friends, only the highest level of Bach playing will be featured; and the goal is to make BACH & more friends as entertaining and accessible to a wide audience as the initial production. The new film will be a mixture of world class soloists, vocal works and ensemble music as well as Bach performed on unexpected instruments. In addition, I envision performances on period instruments as well as jazz interpretations. There are many cinematic challenges to find new and exciting ways to film this expanded number of on-camera musicians and singers.
The final shape of the film will mostly be determined by my success in attracting donations that will support a greatly expanded plan for location filming. So many of the top Bach performers that I have approached are spread out across the nation and in Europe.
Though there are no commitments yet, I have made initial contact with John Eliot Gardiner, Joshua Rifkin, Ton Koopman, Jordi Savall, Leon Fleisher, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, James Galway as well as Wynton Marsalis. Jacques Loussier, and Dave Brubeck.
I have many new wonderful Bach players - famous and not so well known lining up for the sequel. The film will include Bach played on a wide variety of instruments: saxophone, mandolin cello, marimba, double necked tap guitar, pan-flute, guitar quartet and toy instruments as well as traditional classical instruments. Renowned composer and silent film accompanist Donald Sosin will improvise Bach to a silent film classic.
Recently, I was a guest at a Johns Hopkins Brain Mind Institute conference on the arts and I was convinced there is a place in the new film for more insights into Bach and the brain. Marvin Minsky, who is also a Bach player, will help us understand these new discoveries.
Returning from BACH & friends will be host Michael Hawley with many new stories and insights into Bach as well as his wonderful Bach playing. Simone Dinnerstein and Richard Stoltzman will play a Da Gamba Sonata and Joao Carlos Martins will conduct Bachiana Filarmonica in Bach's Orchestra Suite No. 3.
The biggest missing element in BACH & friends was the B Minor Mass. The first film ended with Art of Fugue and the new film will conclude with Bach's other great final masterpiece. I am very fortunate to have Garrett Brown shoot the ending section of the film with excerpts from the Mass. His recent invention - the Tango Steadycam will be utilized for filming the B Minor Mass and throughout BACH & more friends. We will shoot the singers and players in a church and then transition into a Chroma Keyed cosmic environment with Michael Benson's Visions of the Interplanetary Probes in the background. Drew Berry, a biomedical animator has allowed me to use his cell animation in this concluding section which will revisit the idea of the micro and macro in Bach's music. Also Carl Schoonover will provide his wonderful images of the brain to this climax of BACH & more friends.
I have lots of new ideas and am very excited about the many wonderful possibilities to further explore Bach's music. I will film throughout 2011 and finish the film in 2012.
The realization of BACH & more friends is totally dependent on the generous support of Bach lovers around the world. Please spread the word. The prestigious San Francisco Classical Voice will serve as the non-profit 501 (c)(3) fiscal sponsor.
I look forward to making BACH & more friends and hopefully with the addition of this companion film I will have made my statement on Bach.
The adventure begins again!
On Board for BACH & more friends
Pianist and Bach Storyteller Extraordinaire
Pianist, Composer, Improviser for Silent Film
Guitarist, Rosalyn Tureck Student
Jazz Marimbist
Bach in The Beth Israel Medical Center's
Intensive Care Unit
Afro-Cuban Jazz - Bach in Havana
The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet 
Simone Dinnerstein and Richard Stoltzman
Clarinet and Piano Duet
Bach and the Brain
Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenber
Mandolin and Mandolincello Duets
Saxophone Quartet - Bach-Centric
Joao Carlos Martins conducts Bachiana Filarmonica
Bach's Orchestra Suite No. 3
Mads Vinding and Poul Rosenbaum 
Danish jazz musicians - Bach to Bach
Double Necked Tap-Guitarist
Donald Sosin - Sxip Shirey - Adam Matta
Bach played for young children on Toy Instruments
Collaborators
Cinematographer and inventor of the Steadicam
Garrett's Steadicam Tango will be used extensively
for BACH & more friends
Astrophotographer
Biomedical Animator
Creator of Mathematical images and animation
NOW ON HOLD
NOT ACCEPTING DONATIONS
