The Bach Choir of Bethlehem really sings for Dr. Christopher Jackson, the new Bach Choir of Bethlehem Artistic Director and Conductor.

Jackson leads the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Bach Festival Orchestra and festival soloists for the 115th Bach Festival, May 12, 13, 19, 20, Packer Church, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, and other venues in Bethlehem.

“My background is as a performer of early music and of Bach, as a singer. I have a long background in professional singing and in teaching people how to sing,” says Jackson, Muhlenberg College Director of Choral Activities for five years prior to his Bach appointment.

Jackson began his Bach Choir of Bethlehem duties in July 2022.

“The interview process actually began in December 2019,” says Jackson during a May 1 phone interview with a reporter for Lehigh Valley Press.

The delay, a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shutdown, postponed the retirement of Greg Funfgeld, Bach Choir of Bethlehem Artistic Director and Conductor Emeritus whose 39-year tenure concluded with the 2022 Bach Festival.

“I really was on pins and needles,” says Jackson, who was notified of his appointment to lead the Bach Choir in April 2022.

“I never felt that there was a job out there that so fit my passion and my interests,” Jackson continues.

“Those interests and passions are, of course, baroque music, and the music of Bach, but also the immense sense of community.”

Jackson received a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from Oklahoma State University, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of North Texas.

Jackson has worked for 15 years as conductor, educator, professional singer and scholar.

During his tenure at Lycoming College, Williamsport, he co-founded the Lycoming Baroque Choir and Orchestra and designed academic courses that allowed students to travel to Germany and explore links between Baroque music, art and architecture.

As only the seventh artistic director-conductor in the 125-year history of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Jackson is well-aware of the new journey he has begun.

“There is a distinct sense that I am stepping into something so much larger than any one conductor.” Jackson says, a sense of wonder in his voice.

“I mean that in a couple of ways. We have choir members who are from the fourth generation of members who have sung in the choir.

“And then I’ve read the personal accounts of people who have attended the festival over the course of its 115 years. And doing that revealed the extent to which the festival has been an important part of their lives and the history of Bethlehem.

“There were people who wrote about it that brought them back to music as a career, or it was where they met their spouse. There are major life-changing events that occurred in and around this festival.”

The 85-member choir at one time had 250 members.

“We’ve grown from having one festival per year to having a concert a month and sometimes multiple concerts per month,” Jackson observes.

“The change in how busy we are means it requires a lot of dedication and skill from the choir to take on so many concerts per year. It’s not just jumping in and singing the B Minor Mass each year, which is no small feat,” he says.

Conducting Bach’s monumental work, regarded by many musicologists as the greatest work of music ever written, is a first for Jackson at the 2023 Bach Festival.

“It’s my first try,” says Jackson. “I’ve performed it as a soloist and in a choir multiple times. I performed it at Westminster Choir College, as a student, and with professional choirs across the United States. And in April, I was one of the soloists and in the choir at the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival.”

Jackson is well-accustomed to concertizing.

Throughout his career he has led collegiate, professional and amateur ensembles across the United States and works frequently as a guest conductor for orchestras, choirs and festivals.

His ensembles have toured China, Canada and the continental United States and have been selected to perform at multiple Pennsylvania ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) conferences.

Jackson is a core member of the Boston-based chamber choir, Skylark, he has appeared on three Grammy-nominated albums (Best Choral Performance), and is the ensemble’s Director of Education.

He has performed with Grammy Award-winning ensemble, Roomful of Teeth; the Santa Fe Desert Chorale; Artefact Ensemble; Les Canards Chantants, and Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran, New York City.

The Covid conundrum, which had Jackson anxiously awaiting word of who would lead the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, was in some ways a blessing in disguise for the concert world and, in particular, choral music.

Says Jackson, “We found out, because of Covid, that people crave community and live performance.

“Choral concerts are not just live music. They’re the living embodiment of the power of community. The sense of fulfillment and relief and this release of tension that people feel when they come to a choral concert after the pandemic has been just profound.

“One goal I share with Greg [Funfgeld], my predecessor, is that I really believe that classical music has a meaningful place in everyone’s life.

“And it’s up to me and others in my field to find ways to share that.

“We don’t want there to be boundaries, whether those boundaries are perceived intellectual barriers or economic or cultural barriers.

“My goal is to create programming that really demonstrates this to our community.”

Bach Festival of Bethlehem ticket information: Bach Choir office, 440 Heckewelder Place, Bethlehem; office@bach.org; 610-866-4382, ext. 110 or 115; https://bach.org/tickets/