Celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, May 16

Published 1:30 am Saturday, May 9, 2026

Submitted by the Salish Sea Early Music Festival

Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel are to be celebrated in this sixth program of the 2026 Salish Sea Early Music Festival, featuring soprano Maike Albrecht and harpsichordist Hans-Jürgen Schnoor, both from Lübeck, Germany, viola da gambist Susie Napper from Montreal, Canada and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan.

This concert, presented in collaboration with St. David’s Episcopal Church, takes place on Saturday noon-thirty, May 16 at 12:30 p.m. at St. David’s Episcopal Church at 780 Park Street in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Admission is by a suggested donation (a free will offering) of $20 to $30. Those 18 and under are free. All are welcome regardless of donation. For additional information, please see www.salishseafestival.org/sanjuan.

Please see our complete schedule below of all 2026 performances at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Friday Harbor this season through late June, and also the complete schedule of this performance on Orcas (May 5), San Juan (May 16) and Lopez (May 16) Islands.

About our Bach and Handel program

While they were born in the same year, not more than 80 miles apart, and are recognized as two of history’s great composers, Bach and Handel never met, although Bach attempted to meet Handel twice when the pair were 34 and then 44 years of age. Handel was then a well-traveled, internationally famous composer of Opera and Oratorio and spectacle, while Bach was a regionally respected organist and church musician who never traveled more than 250 miles from his birthplace.

The cantata “Ich habe genug” (“I am content”), was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig in 1727 for the feast Purification of Mary and is one of the most often performed and recorded of Bach’s sacred cantatas. In this cantata, based on the Song of Simeon, Bach projects a feeling of serene contentedness with life and an expression of the experience of body and soul coming to rest and in complete harmony beyond anything that mere words can convey.

The intimate and spiritually introspective “Nine German Arias” from 1725 contrast sharply with Handel’s grand operatic works composed around the same time. These are his final works to be written in his native tongue, 15 years following his move to England at the age of 25.

The program will also include Bach’s “Italian Concerto” and a Prelude by Handel for solo harpsichord, along with a flute sonata by Handel.

About the artists

Maike Albrecht

Albrecht studied piano at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen, singing at the Musikhochschule Luebeck and Lied-Interpretation at the Mozarteum Salzburg. In her many concerts as a soloist in oratorio and as a member of various ensembles for early music, her concert repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to the contemporary with special emphasis on the sacred works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart operas and German Lied of the 19th and 20th century, including Schubert, Wolf, Mahler and Schoenberg.

Susie Napper (viola da gamba)

Viola da gambist and cellist Susie Napper is co-founder and director emeritus of the Montreal Baroque Festival and teaches at McGill University, the University of Montreal and the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen. She was awarded the «Prix Opus» 2002 for Personality of the year by the Conseil québécois de la musique, was named Woman of Merit for the Arts in Montreal in 2011 and is in demand for performances throughout the world.

Hans-Jürgen Schnoor (harpsichord)

Schnoor is one of Germany’s leading performers on organ, harpsichord and fortepiano, and conductors of period instrument performances of the instrumental and choral works of Bach, Monteverdi, Mozart and others. Formerly cantor and organist at the St. Jakobi Church in Lübeck and Music Director at the Vicelinkirche in Neumünster for three decades, he is currently professor for harpsichord and early performance practice at the Lübeck Conservatory of Music. Mr. Schnoor has won numerous awards and has made many solo recordings.

Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute)

Flutist Cohan has performed as soloist in 25 countries as one of the foremost specialists on all transverse flutes from the Renaissance through the present. He is the only person to win both the Erwin Bodky Award in Boston and the highest prize awarded in the Flanders Festival International Concours Musica Antiqua in Brugge, Belgium. He has performed throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and worldwide for the USIA Arts America Program. He is artistic director of the Capitol Hill Chamber Music Festival in Washington, DC, the Black Hawk Chamber Music Festival in Illinois and Iowa, and the Salish Sea Early Music Festival.