Canberra Bach Ensemble
Bach in Canberra since 1999
The Canberra Bach Ensemble brings together choir, soloists and instrumentalists to perform the music of J. S. Bach and his contemporaries. Its work is shaped by close study of scores, texts and historical performance practice, with particular attention to musical rhetoric and instrumental colour.
Our history
Founded by Andrew Koll in 1999, the Canberra Bach Ensemble gave its inaugural concert at St Christopher’s Cathedral, Manuka, on 26 June 1999. Its first series of performances continued through Bach’s 250th-anniversary year in 2000. The ensemble returned to public performance in 2016 and has since presented Bach’s cantatas, Passions and other sacred works in Canberra.
Our approach
CBE’s projects bring together a Canberra-based choir with specialist soloists and instrumentalists from Canberra and interstate. The ensemble’s programs range from individual cantatas and thematic concerts to Bach’s Passions. Musical decisions are informed by historical sources and close consideration of language, liturgy, rhetoric and instrumental practice.
Canberra Bach Ensemble at the Leipzig Bach Festival, June 2024.
Canberra and Leipzig
In June 2024, the Canberra Bach Ensemble performed at the Leipzig Bach Festival with a cantata program first presented in Canberra.
CBE returns to Leipzig in June 2027 to perform Bach’s cantatas BWV 61 and BWV 7 in the Nikolaikirche.
Artistic Director and Conductor
Andrew Koll founded the Canberra Bach Ensemble in 1999 and remains its Artistic Director and Conductor. His work centres on Bach’s music, aural training, harmony and counterpoint, just intonation, and the relationships between musical structure, text and theology.