Berkshire Bach Society announces Fundraiser featuring Edward Arron, cello, and Jeewon Park, piano, on December 6 in Great Barrington
Great Barrington, November 12, 2026 – The Berkshire Bach Society presents cellist EDWARD ARRON and pianist JEEWON PARK playing Bach’s Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord on Sunday, December 6, 2026, 3pm, at Saint James Place in Great Barrington. The concert is a benefit for the Berkshire Bach Society. All tickets $100 at berkshirebach.org/events.
“We are delighted to present these exceptional artists in a program of special works by Bach from the late 1730s-40s,” said Terrill McDade, Executive Director of the Berkshire Bach Society. “Though perhaps less familiar than some other works by Bach, the Gamba Sonatas are absolute gems, and Edward Arron and Jeewon Park bring them to life with all the burnished richness and beauty they deserve. Their elegant and sensitive performance is a gift.”
Bach wrote the three Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, BWV 1027-1029, at a time when the instrument was considered old fashioned and younger composers increasingly favored the cello. Bach himself wrote for both instruments, composing six solo cello suites between 1717 and 1723 when he worked for the music-loving (and gamba-playing) Prince Leopold in Anhalt-Köthen, and three sonatas for viola da gamba some 15 or 20 years later in Leipzig. The order of composition is perhaps surprising, with the cello suites predating the gamba sonatas and showing Bach embracing the newer instrument early. Conscious of the association of the viola da gamba with formal courtly entertainment, he may have written the gamba sonatas to re-create--and then say farewell to--the sonorities of a bygone era. Very few composers wrote for the instrument after Bach as musical tastes changed, and the cello dominated because of its greater flexibility and brilliance. Today the Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord are standard repertoire for the cello and present another opportunity to experience the astonishing musical legacy that is J.S. Bach, especially as interpreted by Arron and Park.
Edward Arron and Jeewon Park are co-artistic directors for the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and have distinguished careers in performance, arts administration, and education.
Join us on Sunday, December 6, 2026, at 3pm, for a fundraiser to benefit Berkshire Bach Society at Saint James Place in Great Barrington. Visit www.berkshirebach.org/events for more information and tickets.
The Berkshire Bach Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization under the U.S. tax code and the oldest, continuously operating, membership-based music organization in the Berkshires. Donations to The Society are deductible to the full extent of the law.