BACH FESTIVAL

SCJBF Overview

The PV-VC MTAC partners annually with the Southern California Junior Bach Festival to hold a series of competitive recitals featuring exclusively the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Festival participants first perform their Bach selection in an adjudicated Branch Recital.  Judges will select fifty percent of performers to advance to the Bach Regional Festival (subject to repertoire guidelines).

At the second round of competition, the Regional Festival, students will compete against students from Pleasant Valley- Ventura County, Conejo Valley, Kern, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clarita Branches of the MTAC.  At this event, forty-five percent of participants will be chosen to receive a special award and potentially advance to the SCJBF Complete Works Audition.    

At the Complete Works Audition a gold, silver, and bronze medalist will be chosen from each of the twenty-seven categories of Bach’s repertoire found on the SCJBF’s Complete Works Audition list.   All medalists will receive their awards at a special “Memorial Award Program” where the gold medalists will be presented in recital by the SCJBF.  As an additional honor, the gold medalist will also appear on the “SCJBF Honors Program” held in the fall during the Los Angeles Bach Festival.

Non-piano students: Organists, strings, winds, and voice students are eligible to participate in the SCJBF “All-Branch Regional Festivals” run directly by the SCJBF and are not scheduled at the local branch level.  

For more information about the “All-Branch Regional Festivals” and about the SCJBF visit http://www.scjbf.org.

 

Branch Bach Festival

The Branch Bach Festival is held on the same day as the Baroque Festival. 

The festival will be held Saturday, April 5, 2025.

At the branch level, piano students only may play any original music of J. S. Bach, transcriptions of Bach's music, or music of other Baroque composers. However, to be eligible to be considered among the 50% chosen at the Branch level to play in the Regional Festival, the following exceptions must be kept in mind:

  1. No music from the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook, ANH 113-132

  2. No transcriptions other than those made by J. S. Bach himself from his own works

  3. No works by other Baroque composers

Music need not be limited to the Complete Works Audition Official List of Bach's works in order to be eligible for Regional Festival. The only exceptions for Regional are listed above. Music from the current Official List is required only at Complete Works Audition. Multiple pieces must be from the same work or as categorized on the CWA list.

Please note: only piano students are eligible to participate at the Branch Bach Festival.  Organists, strings, winds, and voice students are eligible to participate in the SCJBF “All-Branch Regional Festivals” run directly by the SCJBF and are not scheduled at the local branch level.    

For more information about the “All-Branch Regional Festivals”, please visit https://www.scjbf.org/stringswindsandvoice.htm 

Full Rules and Repertoire Guidelines can be found here: https://www.scjbf.org/guidelines.htm

Registration

To register, you must apply directly at the SCJBF website:  https://www.scjbf.org/tchr_instr.htm

Registration deadline: February 1, 2025

Please note, there is a $25 teacher fee annually payable directly to SCJBF during the application process.   If you need help with the website registration process, please direct your questions to Sharon Kim.

Please ensure each students’ parent has completed a Recital Guidelines Form prior to the event.

 

Regional Bach Festival

The REGIONAL branch Bach Festival for pianists will be held in MAY 2025—date TBD. The location will be the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks.  These will be closed auditions.  Entry forms are available online at www.scjbf.org and fees are due to Sharon Kim ($40.00 per student, payable online at the Festival Payment Portal).  Applications for the String recitals and the Wind & Voice recitals are also available at the SCJBF website.  

COMPLETE WORKS AUDITIONS

To be eligible for Complete Works Audition, a student must have been chosen by the judges at the Branch and Regional Festivals. Students must perform the same music as played in Branch and Regional for Complete Works Audition, but complete as shown on the Official List. Those selected for first place in each category will be presented in performance at a special Memorial Awards Program, and students selected for first, second and third must be present to receive their medals.

Please note: No special scheduling requests will be accepted for the day of the Complete Works Auditions. Students who cannot appear at the scheduled time will have to withdraw from Complete Works Audition.

SCJBF Honors Program: This special program will take place in October. It will feature first-place winners of the Complete Works Audition.

For more information, please visit: https://www.scjbf.org/cwa.htm