Bach’s Complete Vocal Motets | Sydney

Bach Akademie Australia opens its stellar 2026 program with J.S. Bach's Complete Vocal Motets, a colossal, five-city tour in collaboration with Australia's premier vocal ensemble, The Song Company and guest artist, renowned Dutch singer Iris Korfker. Following the runaway success of Bach Akademie Australia's debut, national tour The Countertenor in 2025, Australia's leading Baroque ensemble presents seven of J.S. Bach's divinely beautiful vocal motets alongside two works of contemporary genius by Australian composer Sandra Milliken and Scotsman Sir James MacMillan, with performances at St John's Southgate, Melbourne, Wollongong Art Gallery, Mosman Art Gallery, St James Church, Sydney and Bowral Memorial Hall. Heralded as "some of the most beautiful pieces of choral music produced over the past centuries" (Bach Vereniging), J.S. Bach's motets represent the highest art of vocal writing achieved in the Baroque period. The surviving motets were the only vocal works in Bach's canon to remain in constant performance after the composer's death, until the Bach revival of the early 19th century. Featuring four to eight choral voices in an exceptional display of virtuosity and dexterity, the motets explore themes of comfort, resurrection and joy, and were intended for use in funerals and celebrations.