Musicians

Director: Corey Jamason

Artistic Director Corey Jamason, harpsichordist and conductor, is an active soloist and chamber music collaborator throughout the United States and Europe. About a recent performance the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Jamason's clear-headed performance of the Italian Concerto rang in our ears...(he) navigated easily through the work's contrapuntal maze and gave it the careful, due balance of objective detachment and lofty passion." Jamason has appeared numerous times on NPR's Performance Today and has performed the Goldberg Variations and the Well-Tempered Clavier throughout the United States. Chamber music collaborations have included performances with Jean-Pierre Rampal, Wieland Kuijken, Eva Legêne, Eliot Fisk, and Marion Verbruggen. With the ensemble Camerata Pacifica, Jamason has directed for many seasons concerts of early music throughout Southern California. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica, Camerata Pacifica, and in collaboration with Joseph Silverstein at the Music in the Vineyards Festival. He has performed with a variety of other ensembles including LA Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, El Mundo, and with members of the Bach Aria Group. Summer festival appearances include the Berkeley and Bloomington Early Music Festivals, Bach Aria Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Whidbey Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Jamason also co-directs the ensemble Theatre Comique, which specializes in recreating late nineteenth and early twentieth century American musical theatre. In May 2007 he conducted performances of Monteverdi's Orfeo at the Bloomington Early Music Festival in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the work's premiere.

Born in New York City, he received degrees in music from SUNY College at Purchase, Yale University, where he was a student of Richard Rephann, and from Indiana University's Early Music Institute, where he received a Doctor of Music degree and was a student of Elisabeth Wright. Recent recordings include performances with the violinist Gilles Apap, El Mundo, and with American Bach Soloists. Since 2001 he has been a member of the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He was appointed Artistic Director of the San Francisco Bach Choir in July of 2007, taking his place as only the third musical leader in the choir's 72-year history.

Past Director: David Babbitt

1947 - 2006

Picture of David Babbitt David Babbitt began his musical career as a child in a large and traditional German-Lutheran community in Southern California. When he was eleven, he was appointed organist at one of the major Lutheran churches in the area. He continued his music studies at Pomona College which, combined with his early training, uniquely prepared him for his work as a modern representative of the rich musical culture that sprang from the Reformation. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971, he assumed the position of organist and music director of the old German-American St. Paulus Church in San Francisco-Northern California's Lutheran mother church where he developed his craft as a liturgical scholar, choral director, and composer. Over the years, he played the grand organ works in concert at St. Paulus and throughout the Bay Area, and began composing choral music in the manner of Bach and other great liturgical masters. He always wrote with specific performing groups, occasions and programs in mind, and his church choirs and the San Francisco Bach Choir provided frequent inspiration for his creative energies.

In 1982, when he took over leadership of the Bach Choir, the choir had focused primarily on the music of J.S. Bach and the great choral masterpieces of the 18th and 19th centuries. In his 24-year tenure as Musical and Artistic Director, David Babbitt brought new repertoire and possibilities to the choir that were grounded in his special knowledge of early music, his background and training as a Lutheran liturgist, and in his deep love of the choral music from Bach's early North German predecessors. He researched and prepared many performing editions of a large body of unpublished works for antiphonal choirs, drawing especially from Germany's rich post-Reformation musical culture that had long lain dormant in library archives. Through his efforts, the San Francisco Bach Choir has presented many modern premieres of this rare literature and explored the dramatic performance format of antiphonal singing.

In honor of the work he did in bringing the rare music of early German composers to light, Mr. Babbitt received the German Friendship award from the San Francisco German Consulate in 2002. He was the Director of Music and organist at Zion Lutheran Church in Piedmont for 14 years and was also the founding director of the Bay Area Lutheran Chorale (now known as Soli Deo Gloria) and a past director of the Valley Choral Society.

The San Francisco Bach Choir is deeply saddened by the loss of our director, David Babbitt. We salute him and honor his significant gift to the choral art and to the dynamic early music scene in the Bay Area. He helped make the SFBC the strong community that it is today, providing the choir with soulful artistry and vision. We are profoundly grateful for the time he shared with us, and we will always cherish the memory of his sweet spirit and devotion to his musical calling.

An Interview with Artistic Director David Babbitt

San Francisco Bach Choir performances of rare early music works require extensive research and preparation by David Babbitt and the choir. This interview tells the amazing story of how one such concert featuring Jacob Handl's works was produced.



		Musicians Director: Corey Jamason Artistic Director Corey Jamason, harpsichordist and conductor, is an active soloist and chamber music collaborator throughout the United States and Europe. About a recent performance the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Jamason's clear-headed performance of the Italian Concerto rang in our ears...(he) navigated easily through the work's contrapuntal maze and gave it the careful, due balance of objective detachment and lofty passion." Jamason has appeared numerous times on NPR's Performance Today and has performed the Goldberg Variations and the Well-Tempered Clavier throughout the United States. Chamber music collaborations have included performances with Jean-Pierre Rampal, Wieland Kuijken, Eva Legêne, Eliot Fisk, and Marion Verbruggen. With the ensemble Camerata Pacifica, Jamason has directed for many seasons concerts of early music throughout Southern California. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica, Camerata Pacifica, and in collaboration with Joseph Silverstein at the Music in the Vineyards Festival. He has performed with a variety of other ensembles including LA Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, El Mundo, and with members of the Bach Aria Group. Summer festival appearances include the Berkeley and Bloomington Early Music Festivals, Bach Aria Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Whidbey Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Jamason also co-directs the ensemble Theatre Comique, which specializes in recreating late nineteenth and early twentieth century American musical theatre. In May 2007 he conducted performances of Monteverdi's Orfeo at the Bloomington Early Music Festival in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the work's premiere. Born in New York City, he received degrees in music from SUNY College at Purchase, Yale University, where he was a student of Richard Rephann, and from Indiana University's Early Music Institute, where he received a Doctor of Music degree and was a student of Elisabeth Wright. Recent recordings include performances with the violinist Gilles Apap, El Mundo, and with American Bach Soloists. Since 2001 he has been a member of the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He was appointed Artistic Director of the San Francisco Bach Choir in July of 2007, taking his place as only the third musical leader in the choir's 72-year history. Past Director: David Babbitt 1947 - 2006 David Babbitt began his musical career as a child in a large and traditional German-Lutheran community in Southern California. When he was eleven, he was appointed organist at one of the major Lutheran churches in the area. He continued his music studies at Pomona College which, combined with his early training, uniquely prepared him for his work as a modern representative of the rich musical culture that sprang from the Reformation. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971, he assumed the position of organist and music director of the old German-American St. Paulus Church in San Francisco-Northern California's Lutheran mother church where he developed his craft as a liturgical scholar, choral director, and composer. Over the years, he played the grand organ works in concert at St. Paulus and throughout the Bay Area, and began composing choral music in the manner of Bach and other great liturgical masters. He always wrote with specific performing groups, occasions and programs in mind, and his church choirs and the San Francisco Bach Choir provided frequent inspiration for his creative energies. In 1982, when he took over leadership of the Bach Choir, the choir had focused primarily on the music of J.S. Bach and the great choral masterpieces of the 18th and 19th centuries. In his 24-year tenure as Musical and Artistic Director, David Babbitt brought new repertoire and possibilities to the choir that were grounded in his special knowledge of early music, his background and training as a Lutheran liturgist, and in his deep love of the choral music from Bach's early North German predecessors. He researched and prepared many performing editions of a large body of unpublished works for antiphonal choirs, drawing especially from Germany's rich post-Reformation musical culture that had long lain dormant in library archives. Through his efforts, the San Francisco Bach Choir has presented many modern premieres of this rare literature and explored the dramatic performance format of antiphonal singing. In honor of the work he did in bringing the rare music of early German composers to light, Mr. Babbitt received the German Friendship award from the San Francisco German Consulate in 2002. He was the Director of Music and organist at Zion Lutheran Church in Piedmont for 14 years and was also the founding director of the Bay Area Lutheran Chorale (now known as Soli Deo Gloria) and a past director of the Valley Choral Society. The San Francisco Bach Choir is deeply saddened by the loss of our director, David Babbitt. We salute him and honor his significant gift to the choral art and to the dynamic early music scene in the Bay Area. He helped make the SFBC the strong community that it is today, providing the choir with soulful artistry and vision. We are profoundly grateful for the time he shared with us, and we will always cherish the memory of his sweet spirit and devotion to his musical calling. An Interview with Artistic Director David Babbitt San Francisco Bach Choir performances of rare early music works require extensive research and preparation by David Babbitt and the choir. This interview tells the amazing story of how one such concert featuring Jacob Handl's works was produced.