It's Bach, and right on time

July 1, 2006

From The Register-Guard
By Matt Cooper

While crowds of well-dressed people buzzed around him, Royce Saltzman checked his watch and looked up at the second level of the Hult Center lobby in downtown Eugene. It was 7:50 p.m., minutes before the main concert – where was the brass fanfare?

Just then the horns sounded, right on time, and Saltzman relaxed … a little.

“The main thing is to make sure everything goes well,” he said, chuckling. “I may be a little overprotective.”

With nearly four decades of musical history in his hands, who can blame him?

Saltzman is co-founder of the Oregon Bach Festival, which opened Friday in Eugene for the 37th time, offering a variety of performances for all lovers of classical music, and continues through July 16.

The festival brings a host of world-class singers and orchestra players to town for nearly three weeks of concerts, lectures, recitals and other programs. There will be formal and informal concerts and performances of the music of Bach and other great composers.

The Pacific International Children’s Choir Festival provided Friday’s opener, their ranks split into groups on either end of the lobby. The super chorus includes members from as far away as Pennsylvania.

Barbara Boucot, 79, of Corvallis, a former collegiate choir singer herself, found the group very well-trained.

“They have a crispness and a diction that was superb,” she said. “You can tell a trained choir – they’re all crisp.”

While the young singers are in town, they’re shown around by local choir members such as Sarah Sprague, 14, of Eugene, a freshman at Sheldon High School and a member of the Oregon Festival Choir.

Sprague said one of the Oregon Bach Festival’s charms is conductor Helmuth Rilling, the festival’s other co-founder and a man renowned for trying to unite people through classical music.

“He’s so discreet about the way he conducts,” Sprague said, then explained that Rilling “brings” a singer into his or her part in a piece, seamlessly. “Sometimes he’ll just look at you with his eyes to bring you in.”

But Rilling’s importance for the festival extends far beyond his work as a conductor, Saltzman said.

Rilling draws musicians from all over the world, Saltzman said, including Australia, Taiwan, Germany, Romania and Israel.

Saltzman plans to retire after next year’s festival.

As the crowds took their seats for the main concert, Saltzman credited Rilling for all that the festival has become.

“For him to stay in Eugene for 37 seasons is really remarkable,” he said. “We’ve been very, very fortunate to have him continue all these years.”