Again this year we planned our visit with my sister and her daughter to correspond with the annual Peoria Bach Festival. In its 12th season, the 2014 Peoria Bach Festival featured concerts at noon each day Monday through Friday as well as evening concerts Thursday through Saturday. The festival closed with Sunday morning worship services which featured the Peoria Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra performing Bach's Cantata 34, "O Eternal Fire."
 |
| Trinity Lutheran Church |
 |
Kyle Dzapo, flute; Stephen Alltop, harpsichord;
EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks, violin; Adriana La Rosa Ransom, cello
performing at the Thursday evening Chamber Concert. |
 |
| Harpsichord. |
 |
Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano soloist &
Stephen Alltop, organist. |
The noontime concerts early in the week provide opportunities for young musicians of Peoria to perform in public. In addition, each year the Peoria Bach Festival features acclaimed guest artists. This year's guest artists were Stephen Alltop, an orchestral and choral conductor as well as a keyboard artist, and Josefien Stoppelenburg, a soprano regularly featured in opera and oratorio performances in the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States.
We are grateful for a wonderful visit with my sister and her daughter and for their kind hospitality as we parked our fifth-wheel trailer in their driveway for the duration of our visit.
