Marco Borggreve
Masaaki Suzuki
Bach Collegium Japan will perform its namesake’s Mass in B minor this Saturday in a “concert to benefit Yale’s relief efforts for the Japan earthquake,” according to the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which is presenting the event. “All proceeds from ticket sales and donations received at the performance will be forwarded by Yale to the Red Cross-Japan Earthquake,” YISM’s website indicates.
On March 11, Japan was rocked by a 9.0‑magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami that, as of yesterday, caused “8,086 deaths, 10,173 missing and 3,018 injuries,” according to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.
A March 11 statement from Yale University’s offices of Public Affairs and Communications and International Affair read, in part: “A number of Yale students, faculty and staff are currently in Japan; as of 6:00 p.m. (ET) on Friday, March 11, 2011, we have confirmed that all are safe.”
Kianti Roman, associate press secretary at Yale University, said in an e‑mail: “On March 11, there were 60 Yale faculty and students in Japan.”
Roman said about eight students are still in Japan and that “some of those remaining, who have family in Japan, may stay on.”
Proceeds from Saturday’s performance will be directed to the American Red Cross for its Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts.
Bach Collegium Japan was founded in 1990 by Kobe, Japan, native Masaaki Suzuki, an organist, harpsichordist, and conductor and visiting professor at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music.
The ensemble is focused on “introducing Japanese audiences to period instrument performances of great works from the baroque period,” according to its website.
Martin Jean, director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, heard Bach Collegium Japan last night at Carnegie Hall.
“They don’t come to the states that often,” Jean said.
Jean said he sent an e‑mail to Suzuki as soon as he read the headlines on March 11.
“He simply reported on how cataclysmic the entire thing was for the whole country,” Jean said.
The musicians of Bach Collegium Japan are very aware of how important their presence in the United States is at this time, Jean said.
Bach Collegium Japan will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor at Woolsey Hall this Saturday at 8 p.m. The concert will be preceded by a 7 p.m. pre-concert lecture by Markus Rathey.